Gift Horses Looking You in the Mouth

I won several things today, but only got to keep one of them. I burned through a lot of chances on the way. I got cranky, but am not sure if I deserved to be.

Today, before my evening class, I stopped by a convenience store to pick up a few things. Because I hit some magic expense number, I was given the chance to draw for something free.

My ticket revealed that I’d won a canned coffee. As I’d be buying one anyway later, I agreed to take the coffee right then. The clerk disappeared for a few minutes. She returned with only empty hands and an apology as that particular flavor of coffee was apparently out of stock.

She told me I could draw until I won something else. The second ticket revealed that I’d one a package of Haribo Gummi Bears. The clerk once again disappeared for a few minutes and then reappeared with empty hands and yet another apology.

My reaction was a polite “Gimme Gummi Bears! Me Want Gummi Bears!”. I was then allowed to draw more tickets. The next five or so were losers until I finally won some sort of hand wipes. I then had that odd moment where I was disappointed I was going to win those, even though they were free. I felt oddly guilty that I was happy to discover that those were also out of stock.

At this point the absurdity of it all began to hit me and I was like, just give a me a damned can of coffee, but was instead allowed to burn though a few more tickets until I won a set of dust masks. Those, of course, were in stock.

The masks are useful for emergency kits, but they bring the same joy as getting socks for Christmas. They ain’t Gummi Bears.

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