I think I could count on one hand the number of things I’ve ever won in my lifetime, and not for a lack of trying.
I tend to throw my name in the hat for most contests or giveaways that boast prizes that appeal to me, but it’s a rare and surprising occasion that my name is drawn as a winner.
Once when I was a little girl of about 8 or 9 years old, I won a collector’s teddy bear complete with a fancy hat and string of pearls from an event I attended with my Mother and I felt like I was the absolute luckiest girl in the entire world.
That experience has now been trumped, and I am not sure that any contest winning will ever come close to that feeling again.
I’m an internet shopper and blogger, so as you can only imagine how often my email is bombarded with sale after sale notice from retailers I may or may not recognize. Chances are, very little of it is actually unsolicited as I do sign up for email lists, newsletters and fashionable contests on a regular basis, but never the less I still tend to delete most of it if the first 3 words of the subject line do not appeal to me. Or I should say I USED TO delete most of it. My behavior has been reformed, following an unexpected experience that brought me indescribable joy with two little words…You Won.
The Outnet.com plays host to a luxury shopping experience at slightly reduced prices from suggested retail, however with names like Emilio Pucci and Alexander McQueen in their repertoire, the reduced price is often still something most of us would have to save for months to afford to work into our shopping budgets. Window shopping, on the other hand, is free. I love looking at the amazing designs and daydreaming about what I would buy if I could get my hands on a Black Card, it’s almost as rewarding an experience as I imagine making the purchases must be.
One day while cleaning out my email, I came upon a notice that the Outnet.com was celebrating their birthday with their annual $2 sale and that I could enter for a chance to be one of 2,000 people to shop. Sure, why not? I entered my information, not really sure what the $2 sale was exactly, and pretty sure that everyone that keyed in their first and last name was going to get a shot at whatever this deal was going to be. A few days pass, and I get another email from the Outnet.com, and this time the subject line says “Congratulations! You have won a ticket to the $2 sale.” Yeah, ok, sure, I’ll bite…but still not sure what it is that I’ve won a ticket to, and sure that everyone who registered got this same email.
Another day or two pass by, and I get a second email telling me that I need to watch my inbox for a special link to enter this sale and that I may only purchase one item for $2 and once I have made my one purchase, I am not allowed back into the sale. Now, I am intrigued. This level of detail sounds like it may just be something to check out. I head to my favorite social networking outlet, Facebook, to see if there is any buzz about this whole $2 sale business, and am surprised beyond all belief to read comment after comment on their Facebook wall from people expressing their upset feelings that they did not win a ticket. Are you kidding me, have I actually won something here? I’ll believe it when I see it.
The morning of April 15th arrives, and I receive an email telling me that the $2 sale is now open, and I’m ready.
I jump into the showroom and am immediately overwhelmed in a sea of designer names attached to current and trendy beautiful couture pieces that are nothing short of breathtaking. I start madly trying to add piece after piece to my shopping cart, but each time I click the Checkout button I find that someone else has purchased the piece more quickly than I. After about an hour of this, I become frustrated with it, and call customer service to ask if I am doing something wrong. The customer service person politely tells me that he sees nothing in my shopping cart and asks me to take a look at the site and tell him which piece I’d like to purchase and he will process my order for me by phone…quickly. I request the first thing in my shopping cart, an Emilio Pucci pale green playsuit valued at $1,200. He tells me my size is available, and begins the checkout process. With each question he asks, I wait for him to tell me that someone else has just purchased it and I will have to choose something else. After about 3 or 4 minutes…he tells me my total is $2 and asks what credit card I would like to use to pay. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? I pay, and then wait by my mailbox in a tent for the next 4 days. Ok, not really, but in my mind I did. The piece arrives and it is so gorgeous and authentic that I am briefly stunned. I try it on, looking for the most negative detail I can find, and decide it’s too small for me. So I pout about it, hang it lovingly in my closet next to Nanette Lepore, and then walk away heartbroken but determined to tone up over the next month or two to make the fit work better for my body. A few hours pass by, and I decide to try it on one last time just to be sure about my fit concerns, and when I do I wonder what the hell I was thinking the first time. Not only does this FIT, it looks exactly like I hoped it would. I love it. It’s soft and silky and a little slice of fashionable heaven. As it turns out, I actually WON something worth winning.
The moral of the story, I suppose, is to always enter contests you hope to win…and don’t delete every email. It might be a $1,200 Emilio Pucci pale green playsuit.
