Sunshine Meets Rain Half Way to Hearing Aids

In December of 2004, Josh and I were in New York visiting my sister and brother in-law. Since it was my first time in NYC, I wanted to hit all the major tourist spots – the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Empire State Building… Close to the top of the list was “See a Broadway show.” We had heard from a pretty credible source that Wicked was the play to see.

Being the poor college kids we were are, our hope was to win the Wicked lottery and only pay $25 per ticket for front row seats (instead of the $75 for the last row in the theater seats). If you’ve never heard of the lottery, it’s exactly what it sounds like, a lottery. You can enter your name in the pot once to win two tickets. We knew it was kind of a long shot so we made back up plans to see the less-expensive-but-still-fantastic-and-worth-seeing Lion King.

So Wednesday morning at 9am we arrive to the theater and put our names in the lotto. Two hours later we were back for the drawing. They only have enough tickets for 12 people to win, so about 150 people would go home unhappy; the odds weren’t good. Names 1-11 were neither Josh Blanco nor Nicole Knox. We were putting on our coats to leave when out when from the lips of the lotto master came that last lotto winner’s name. It was Josh’s. Out of 175 people, his name was picked. He won the lotto for us.

Then there is the tale of my Aunt Cheryl who won a trip to Hawaii for her whole family through a school fundraising raffle. A FREE trip to Hawaii, now that’s luck.?

I’ve never really won anything like that in my life unless you count the time I won six cakes during the 3rd grade cake walk. I know that sounds great, but I’m not really a cake eater – after one slice I’m done. So aside from some cake, my?habit of raffle entering hasn’t really paid off. I’ve never won?that free t-shirt, iPod, or trip to Hawaii.

But today luck came to me and my habit paid off. Today I entered into the world of winnerdom.

Last week was SPU’s Day of Common Learning where students and faculty could go to seminars on the topic of beauty. During the sessions you were able to enter your name into a raffle for something. I didn’t pay attention because I knew I wouldn’t win, but I never miss a chance to win free things, so I filled out the form and stuck it in the envelope. Today, the glorious day that it is, I received an e-mail informing me that I was the winner of a $300 gift card to the SPU bookstore. It’s no trip to Hawaii, but it is books for a quarter or two. It could have been an SPU keychain and I wouldn’t have cared. All that matters is that I won!

I won, I won, I won!