Just My Luck

I didn't think to write it down as it happened, but it wouldn't take long to come up with a list of all the things I've won in my life.  It would be a short list indeed!  Let's see now...

The sewing basket I won at my high school graduation all-night party.  As I'm not a serious seamstress, it's still in pretty good shape, too!

The Auntie Anne's Pretzel gift basket I won at a drawing at a fair.  We baked up a batch of delicious pretzels for the family and used the gift certificate for pretzels at the mall.  Very satisfying!

Surely I'm forgetting something.  No Alaska cruises, no set of dishes, no laundry-service-for-a-year (rats!).  No, nothing else comes to mind.

But there are indications that my luck is about to change!

I'm playing Haggen's Monopoly game, and in the last six weeks I've dutifully collected dozens and dozens of game tickets, affixed my product stickers to the three game boards I'm playing, had Tom, my trusty sidekick, type my codes into the computer, turned in coupons for more game pieces, and mailed off 3X5 cards for a drawing.

There are 21 prize categories, ranging from $2 to a $250,000 mortgage, with nearly 12,000 chances to win something, not to mention the coupons for free products and additional game tickets that you occasionally come across. As many as 16,500,000 game pieces are being distributed to the 27 participating stores in Washington State.  You automatically get one game piece just by shopping at the store, but you can get extras by buying their featured products.  A couple of times other people have given me their game pieces, and I found one on the ground in the parking lot.  If I go to the store ten times a week (a little high, but certainly worth it, don't you think?) I can get a whole bunch of game pieces.  And the more pieces, the better chance of winning something!

So what do I have to show for all my effort?  Well, so far I've won about 30 additional game pieces, a greeting card, and two packages of Jimmy Dean sausage.  But there's still seven weeks to go.  That should be enough time to make my rounds of all 27 participating stores.  Maybe I'll find the pieces I'm missing and will be able to win the iPad I'm wishing for!

As soon as I post this blog, I'm headed over to Haggen.  I can get a few more game tickets and redeem the coupon that's burning a hole in my pocket.  It's for a free can of corn.

Just my luck!