On winning

I won something this morning! I was not feeling particularly lucky so this blind-sided me. I won the September issue of a magazine that isn’t even out on newsstands yet and some candy. What a great way to start the day! I never win anything except the time I went to a fashion show at the local shopping center and won a $200 shopping spree in a very nice department store. I told them I’m not very good at putting outfits together so could someone help me shop? The sweetest, most efficient young woman helped me and she had great taste, too. She found me an off-white linen pantsuit with a silk woven shell to match and another pantsuit in a blue-green linen with a hooded jacket. We went a little over the $200 but she let me have them anyway. I will never forget her, she was so nice. I still have the pantsuits. I only wear them on special occasions.
Once I saw a black SUV with cocoa interior in the newspaper so I asked J to go to the dealer with me because as a woman alone I didn’t think I could get the good deal that was advertised in the paper. I was ready to walk at any moment. More than anything I was curious to see if this was a bait-and-switch gimmick. We took a test drive on our own, the salesman trusted us, that was weird, then we went into a little room surrounded by glass. At one point, the salesman said he was going to pull up my credit score. He came back in the room and declared, "You’re a winner!" I thought I actually had won something until he said your credit score is really high so you qualify for our financing. "Oh no, I said, I’m planning to go through my bank." He had to go consult with his manager as to whether the sale price was still good without the financing deal. While he was gone, J asked me, "Do you know what ‘you’re a winner’ translates into? It means, ‘you’re a loser.’" Oh, I just lost it! I started laughing and laughing and I couldn’t stop. It struck me as so funny. "Yes, I see what you mean," I told J. When the salesman came back he said that we could work out something else. I told him I had to leave but that I would think about the deal. We shook hands and I walked. I bet he got rid of us in record time. Oh, and on the way home, I couldn’t stop laughing. So, J said, "What?" "Oh, you’re just so quick, so funny."