Lucky Monday!

I rarely win anything randomly. I buy 6/49 tickets, Bingo scratch tickets, and enter every random contest that comes in my inbox (for fabulous trips and amazing prizes!) but I never win. In grade school, however, I used to win a lot of contests, but only colouring contests. I was the queen of colouring contests, and although I have absolutely ZERO talent when it comes to drawing, I can, and have always been able to colour between the lines, so I entered every colouring contest I could. And most of the time, I won. It didn't matter what the picture was or how many people entered. One of my favourite wins was in the fourth grade. I remember wishing every single night before bed that I would win the contest. The prize was a Get-Along Gang doll and at the time I LOVED the Get-Along Gang.

When my mom got the call, she was home from work on her only day off of the week, and she rushed over to the school to pick me up so I could go pick out Dottie before anyone else got her (because she knew I wouldn't want to get stuck with the Moose).


She had real, working rollerskates. She was awesome.

Once, I even won a contest with only fifteen minutes left to enter. It was a contest from the Avondale Dairy Farm, this huge ice cream factory in the country where my mom and dad would take me and my sister on Sunday nights to get ice cream during the summer. The contest was printed in the newspaper but when we saw it, there was only half an hour left until it closed. So I tore the picture out of the paper, grabbed my pencil crayons and got in the car, where my dad drove, while I coloured and my sister passed me pencil crayons as necessary (me: Peacock blue. she: Peacock blue!) and as though she were passing me the scapula like we were in a Gray's Anatomy episode. I didn't win first prize, and I can't remember what first prize was, but I remember that my prize was BETTER! I got an ice cream clock, my picture framed, and FREE ice cream for like a month! It was crazy.

Sadly, I can no longer enter colouring contests because I'm too old and I am not qualified with any skill that would let me win any other type of contest. Maybe we all only have one real contest skill. Some people are great at triathlons, others can touch a car for 48 hours without stopping. Some people can name songs on the radio just by hearing the opening note. I guess my skill was colouring between the lines. And it was a good run while it lasted, but still I'm sad that I don't win any contests anymore, because it's fun to win contests, isn't it? So that's why I am SO excited today! Because I just won a galley of Beauty Shop for Rent!.

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that Laura Bowers, author of the upcoming Beauty Shop for Rent, was having a ...


Beauty Shop Galley giveaway?

And all you had to do was send in a funny or scary picture or story about your time at the Beauty Shop? Well I sent this story, and it won! (Actually, I think it was a random draw, but I'm just going to believe it was my story that won the book because then, at least, I'll feel like finally, some good came out of that horrible hair experience.)

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you, Laura! I can't wait to read it!!!

Oh, and it's not too late for you! Laura is having one more giveaway on April 6. For all the details on how to enter so you, too, could win your very own equivalent of a colouring contest prize, go here. And good luck!