Every now and again, you roll a two or a twelve...
I'm one of those people who never wins ANYTHING.
Really. Perhaps we all feel this way... I don't know quite why it is, but I simply am never the winner of raffles, drawings, giveaways. I wait, holding my breath (and of course sucking in my stomach) while the drawing happens, practicing my cool and sophisticated yet surprised smile, but ... it's never my name they call.
"Hazel Edwards from Bay City, come on down!" Sigh.
Oh, I'm not a TOTAL loser of things; I've won the occasional 'merit' award (the seventh grade spelling bee, the town fair cherry pie baking contest when I was 10, craziest hat at the Gold Cup race, for example), but never random drawings.
Apparently that rule applies only in America.
I arrived back home tonight to find that my name had been selected at random (I honestly didn't even realize there was an incentive/drawing) in the "Aquisita e Vinci" (buy and win) game that the official Italian olympics website was holding.
Just before I left to go back to the US, I ordered a ballcap as a souvenir/belated Christmas present for the major sportsfan guy in my office whose name I had drawn in the 'secret santa' ceremony. I had sent him a note telling him I would bring him back some Olympic trinket from Italy, thinking for sure I would find all sorts of stores sprinkled with tchotchke in the major Italian cities I was in during Dec/Jan. But, No.
Nothing. Nothing with the rings. No Torino-emblazoned anything. Nothing with Team Italia. Nada, zip, zero, zilch. So finally, I broke down, went online to the official website, and spent the extortion-worthy amount of twelve *extra* euros for shipping of a twelve euro cap.
And in a box waiting for me when I arrived back to Italia was a note from the olympic website telling me I had won the enclosed Samsung D600 quadband cellphone, brand-spankin' new. Huh!!! That last-minute desperation order was magically enough to win me a free cellphone, in a drawing that I didn't even know EXISTED?!?! (I don't know beans about technology, but it seems to be a pretty swank phone.)
OKAY, all you out there who have been bamboozled and then solicited by those crazy timeshare people, I know what you're all thinking. The communications are all in Italian, but they're clear enough that it doesn't seem to be a scam. They mailed the phone to me, no questions asked, no apparent strings attached. It seems that Samsung must have been an Olympic sponsor of some sort. Then again, maybe noone really ordered, so it was between me (with an Italian address) and some enterprising guy in Bangalore with a giant Ebay account, a 50-50 shot.
Up next on my Italian lesson plan: finding the expression for 'don't look the gift horse in the mouth.' and 'I'd like to buy a lottery ticket, please.'
Really. Perhaps we all feel this way... I don't know quite why it is, but I simply am never the winner of raffles, drawings, giveaways. I wait, holding my breath (and of course sucking in my stomach) while the drawing happens, practicing my cool and sophisticated yet surprised smile, but ... it's never my name they call.
"Hazel Edwards from Bay City, come on down!" Sigh.
Oh, I'm not a TOTAL loser of things; I've won the occasional 'merit' award (the seventh grade spelling bee, the town fair cherry pie baking contest when I was 10, craziest hat at the Gold Cup race, for example), but never random drawings.
Apparently that rule applies only in America.
I arrived back home tonight to find that my name had been selected at random (I honestly didn't even realize there was an incentive/drawing) in the "Aquisita e Vinci" (buy and win) game that the official Italian olympics website was holding.
Just before I left to go back to the US, I ordered a ballcap as a souvenir/belated Christmas present for the major sportsfan guy in my office whose name I had drawn in the 'secret santa' ceremony. I had sent him a note telling him I would bring him back some Olympic trinket from Italy, thinking for sure I would find all sorts of stores sprinkled with tchotchke in the major Italian cities I was in during Dec/Jan. But, No.
Nothing. Nothing with the rings. No Torino-emblazoned anything. Nothing with Team Italia. Nada, zip, zero, zilch. So finally, I broke down, went online to the official website, and spent the extortion-worthy amount of twelve *extra* euros for shipping of a twelve euro cap.
And in a box waiting for me when I arrived back to Italia was a note from the olympic website telling me I had won the enclosed Samsung D600 quadband cellphone, brand-spankin' new. Huh!!! That last-minute desperation order was magically enough to win me a free cellphone, in a drawing that I didn't even know EXISTED?!?! (I don't know beans about technology, but it seems to be a pretty swank phone.)
OKAY, all you out there who have been bamboozled and then solicited by those crazy timeshare people, I know what you're all thinking. The communications are all in Italian, but they're clear enough that it doesn't seem to be a scam. They mailed the phone to me, no questions asked, no apparent strings attached. It seems that Samsung must have been an Olympic sponsor of some sort. Then again, maybe noone really ordered, so it was between me (with an Italian address) and some enterprising guy in Bangalore with a giant Ebay account, a 50-50 shot.
Up next on my Italian lesson plan: finding the expression for 'don't look the gift horse in the mouth.' and 'I'd like to buy a lottery ticket, please.'
posted by Viaggiatore | 4/01/2006
2 Comments:
You won a cherry bie baking contest when you were 10??? Was this a Rec Park carnival affair I was oblivious to because I was off vomiting from too many rides on the Tilt-a-Whirl??????
N.Winkust
Duh! Of course it was. *You* were the older, cooler kid in the acid washed jeans, remember?!?! *I* was the sweet, homebody, baking type (HAH!! actually, that was your brother...!!!)
You know my family - we participated in EVERYTHING...
As I recall, my secret ingredient was Kirsch, a cherry liqueur. (A budding lush at 10, who knew EXACTLY how to win over the suburban housewife judges!!)
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