Winning is not everything...but it sure feels good

You have received a believable-looking business-sized white envelope in the mail. The return address is from a company called Peerless. Printed on the envelope, in bright red letters, are the words "You May Have Already Won." Tell the story of what it is you may have won-or what it is you didn't win. Tell what you do with this envelope.


Start with: Life takes some funny twists and turns...

Life takes some funny twists and turns when you least expect it. Or in my case, when you're 24, broke, and bored out of your mind.

I was watching the news one morning when I got an unexpected call from an old buddy. I hadn't heard from him since my freshman year of High School and even back then we didn't talk that much. Most of the time we'd be high from smoking weed or laughing our pants off about something indecent so you can imagine how less than thrilled I was to hear what he had to say.

He said he'd been working for this new networking website called peerless.com which is basically a dating site by a company that thought a) the synonym for the word "friend" lessened the lameness reputation of online dating and b) hoped to cash in on the less than eager market participants. He also said that they had been down with successful pairs and needed to "hit the numbers" really bad since he was putting his younger brother through college (the tuition hikes have been preposterous), and made most of his livings off commissions of successful matches. Well, to cut to the chase, he said put my information in the clientele database.

With that being said I started going off at him about how nice it was of him to think of me as a spinster in the making that needed some geek's help to fulfill a happy life. I was inflamed. I was heated. I could barely hear him on the other side trying to explain.

Wait.

Huh?

I heard the words "prize" and "Hawaii"

My brain is back.

He explained that to draw in more clients, every month the company drew a man and a woman's name for a free three day trip to Hawaii and this month I had won!


OMG I was so excited.

He continued to say that there should be a white envelope in my trashcan somewhere.

Uh-oh.

I quickly did a mental rewind of the activities I did for the past few days. I had just come back from visiting my cousins to a sizable amount of mail and luckily hadn't bothered to sort them out yet.

So anyway he said that my plane leaves tonight and if I wanted to go I'd have to pack immediately, meet him at the office by 2 to get all the paperworks done, and be at the airport by 6.


I said no problemo, dude. Hawaii here I come!

I quickly found the white envelope with the a return address from peerless

I tear it open and to my horror found out that I would be staying in Honolulu.
What's what's wrong with Honolulu? My loathsome ex-boyfriend lives there and after the horrible and humiliating breakup, I had sworn to knife him if I ever saw him again.

I threw the envelope in the trash.

I glanced in the trash can again.
There printed neatly in bright red letters on it read "You May Have Already Won"


Hmm..

The next morning I awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and the captain announcing that we will be landing in Honolulu in two hours.

I looked out the window to see the bright blue waters. The sun shone nicely and I felt more relaxed than I had in days.

We finally landed and since I only had my carry on I had a few minutes to spare before the hotel bus leaves so I told the driver I was going to grab a magazine at the newspaper stand and that I'll be right back.

I was rummaging through the stacks trying to decided whether I wanted to read Cosmo, Elle, or Harper's Bazaar when a screaming child came running down the terminal. Everyone looked and so did I.


The boy belonged to a young girl with bleached blonde hair, enormous boobs, and an obvious fake tan who screamed back at the boy when she caught up with him. Another guy followed them with another baby in his arms.
It was my ex-boyfriend.

He had gained a few pounds, looks tired from all the partying he did in his earlier years, and I'm sure parenting hasn't lifted up his spirits.

I glanced back at the stack of magazines and realized I already had my morning entertainment for the day.

I turned around and ran into someone. He was tall, muscular, and had the face of Enrique Iglesias.

The good-looking guy introduced himself as Josh and apparently he is the male winner for the trip.
He pointed across the terminal to a happy looking peerless employee who pointed me out to him and explained that he just wanted to come over to say hi. He had the most gorgeous smile I had ever seen.

Yes, I think I may have already won.