“Anticipation”

I can hear Carly singing and almost taste the tangy drop of ketchup painstakingly laboring to plop from the bottle mouth. But my anticipation is also seasoned with reality; at last count there were nearly 420 contest entries. I’m just a wee squishy packet in the contest condiment bin.I haven’t read all of the entries, but I’ve read enough to know that people are serious about living better stories – or at least they want to be – and that was the point of this exercise. Someone will end up getting to fly to Portland with a friend, attend the seminar, stay in a swanky hotel, and get bottled water and mints. And freshly vacuumed space.

That offer to “vacuum the space around your seat…” was what did it for me. Actually the marketing for this seminar was brilliant. Kudos to Don and the other organizers. Aside from the obvious honor of attending the seminar itself, they “spiffed” it up nicely. Undoubtedly some entrants were enticed by the chance to fly to Portland. I would love, love, love to fly to Portland – my former hometown, the home of my oldest son and many dear friends. But it’s not like it would be a first for me. Don and gang surely anticipated this, so they threw in the “swanky hotel.” Again, a pretty irresistible offer, but I have been blessed to enjoy some nice hotels in my lifetime. (Thank you, Jay Harding, for working your butt off for those special trips.) And then, knowing that some can’t resist the simple pleasures in life, they offered bottled water and mints. But the promise of vacuumed space – brilliant! How did they know that some of us have spent so many hours of our lives vacuuming other people’s space that we’d be delirious at the thought of someone else vacuuming ours? I guess they have moms, too.