Exciting News... and a Moral.

My phone has been dead since last Saturday.

This weekend, we were away for two birthday parties- brother and nephew- and I forgot to bring my charger. Then, when I got home, I just kept forgetting to charge it. Finally, last night, I remembered to plug it in. Got up this morning, and I had three messages. The first two were just from my Mom and brother on Saturday, wondering when I would be arriving. The last one was from...

A guy at Price Chopper. I almost don't want to write this out, because I'm worried in some weird superstitious way I'll jinx it... BUT... he was calling to tell me I was chosen as a semi-finalist in their Fuel Advantedge Win A Car sweepstakes! The message was left on Monday at around 12:30 PM.


The only problem was that he said I had to call him back within 24 hours (he said by around 1 PM on Tuesday) to participate, and I didn't get the message until this morning! ACKKK!

I immediately called his number back and explained on a message that my phone had been dead, I just got his message, and that while I knew I had probably already been disqualified, if there was ANY chance of me still participating, I would love to! All the way to work I was kicking myself silly... Nobody ever calls me except my hubby and Mom, and here I was, one of the first times in months I hadn't had my phone for a few days, and THIS happens! What are the odds??! I asked my hubby that very question and he said "Low. So low, in fact, that nothing like this will probably ever happen to you again." Yeah, thanks buddy, I realized that! *smacks forehead*

Anyway, I got to work this morning, and the guy called me back. He said "You'll be happy to know I hadn't called anyone else in your place yet, so you're in!" And then he went through the whole shebang of info, asked me the necessary questions (yes, I'm over 18; no, none of my friends or family work for Price Chopper) and sent me a packet to fill out and sign.

I nearly peed my pants when I found out that there are only 10 semi-finalists and they will pick one more out of the crowd- so 11 total. Seems like pretty good odds!

The way it works is we are all invited to a Tri-City ValleyCats minor league baseball game on August 1. Every semi-finalist is going to get a gas card and a gift basket with a bunch of Central Market products in it- which is Price Chopper's awesome store brand. So essentially, my drive down will be paid for with the gas card I'll get there... And then they give you 4 tickets to the game (I can bring three guests) and also provide food and (non-alcoholic) beverages for while you're there. After the ninth inning, they'll randomly hand out keys to the 11 of us... And whoever has the key that starts the car, wins!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too high for this, and instead to just think of it as an all-expense paid day of fun. In the end, even if I don't win, I still got to see a new place in New York, my gas was paid for, I got a gift basket, got to watch a baseball game and was fed. So all in all, no matter what, it's a win-win for me. But man, could we ever use that car right now! Winning that would just be an amazing, over-the-top blessing. Our Jeep has been broken down since last year, so we always commute together and right now are relying on our one vehicle to be everything as far as transportation goes. It would be nice to have the peace of mind that if something happens with our car, we have another option! Plus it would also be really nice to know that if we need to be in two places at once, or if we both have something to do at the same time, we can! Fingers crossed.... squeee! :)

The moral of the story???


ALWAYS, ALWAYS, always keep your phone charged. All it takes is one missed call for you to regret something for life. lol.