How I Won A Condo

See, I am secretly a contest junkie. I loooove to enter a good contest and to be quite frank I blame my father. It seemed like every year he would win a turkey from the church raffle or a quilt from the church festival. His words of wisdom: ’You have to play to win.’

Ok – now before you read any further you have to promise me you won’t read this and think I’m trying to brag or boast. In fact, some conversation on Facebook is what truly sparked this post. I really just thought it would be fun to share the story because not everyone has heard it in such detail. Deal?

July 2006, WNCI 97.9 (a local Columbus, OH radio station) was having their “Dream Life Giveaway” contest. You entered by mailing in your information (information being every single number ever given to you) and then listening for the last four digits of your phone number to be given over the air. So one day I sat down with a pack of 100 notecards and filled them all out with my info. Now husband was too busy watching the Reds to help, I might add.

So for what seemed like forever, I listened at the appropriate times to catch my digits. One particular day they were saying the numbers every hour on the hour. So that evening I went to workout and told my now husband to listen to the radio for me. Upon my return:

Me: “Did you listen?”

Now Spouse: “Uhhh no, I forgot”

Me: (sounds of me rushing around the apartment trying to turn on a radio)

Radio:….. (my four numbers) where are you? Hurry! You’ve got two minutes to call in!

So I find the number, call in and I’m good to go. But the actual contest, it turns out, was on a Sunday at 5pm… the same weekend we were supposed to go to Myrtle Beach for vacation. Crap. Now what? Should I really miss some of my vacation to go to this contest? What are my chances anyways ? Should I fly out afterwards? (as a sidenote, the odds were 1 in 97)

So my now husband and parents decide to go to the contest with me and then we’ll drive to Myrtle as soon as it ends. So I check in and get a band with #47 on it (in fact I still have it!).  The contest works as such: people go in number order and get to pull a key out of a fishbowl and see if their key unlocks the condo door. If it does, you win!

As well as a contest junkie, I am also one of those annoying believers in the power of positive thought. So while I didn’t know what the contest would entail, I dreamed about going ‘left back.’

So we’re at the contest waiting as numbers 1 through 40 go up with no success. You could continuously hear the “click, click, click” of people’s keys not working in the door lock. So they call numbers 40 through 50 and I head on up and get in line.  I place my hand in the bowl, go left back, and pull out two keys that are stuck together. Weird. I pull them apart and head up the steps….

Dave and Jimmy from the Morning Zoo are on each side of the front stoop commentating live on the air. I put my key in the door and it turned, turned…….and turned some more. No shit?! I PUSHED OPEN THE DOOR AND STARTED JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND HUGGING JIMMY JAM LIKE A MAD WOMAN.

Insert Incredibly Embarrassing Photo

I turn to face the crowd and all I see is this guy running and jumping through the huge crowd. Here comes the husband. We step inside the condo and I’m literally walking around supporting myself by holding on to the walls and banister. My knees had literally given out on me. It was surreal. Eventually my parents make their way up and all I remember is seeing my dad with my purse in tow, screaming “I’m her Dad!! I’m her Dad!!” Priceless.

What I failed to realize at this moment was that I would have to file taxes on my winnings. Even though it will hurt to have to pay taxes on the prizes, it was still a great day. While it is an extra cost that I wasn’t expecting, I also didn’t plan to walk away with a new condo and added accessories. That’s right – it wasn’t just a condo.

But remember the title of the contest was Dream Life Giveaway. So along with the condo came two furnished bedrooms, a car, a 52′ tv, money to Kroger, Jeffersonville Outlet mall gift cards, a year of tanning, and tickets to Lifestyle Pavilion for a year. After the contest ended we ended down to Myrtle and collected our $200 phone bill for being on the phone while roaming so much :)

To no one’s surprise, this was one of the craziest, most unreal days of my entire life and I thank God for all of it.

Dave & Jimmy

And the moral of the story……………….. you have to play to win.

- Bloggette