Don’t You Love it When You Do Something Good and Get a Reward You Didn’t Expect?

First off, let me say that I never win sweepstakes, drawings, raffles, door prizes, lotteries, or anything of that ilk. Never. Nada. Zip, zero, zilch. I do not have that luck. Now don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of other luck – I get that, and I’m not trying to be greedy, believe me. I’m just trying to set the scene here. And the plain and simple truth is that I don’t have random-selection luck. Keep that in mind. It’ll make sense later.

I am on the Board of Directors of the local concert band – an organization of adults (and a few particularly motivated teenagers) who practice and play free outdoor concerts one night a week in the small town where I live. This is somewhat amusing to people who know me because, in addition to no random-selection luck, I also have no musical ability. Whatsoever. Never took lessons, can’t play an instrument, can’t carry a tune in a bucket (or a carry-on suitcase, a purse, a satchel, or cardboard box, or whatever else you might happen to have handy). I got nothing. Nada. Zip, zero, zilch again.

So how am I on the Board of a band, one might ask? Well, I might reply, because I have a mother, and that mother has a best friend, and that mother’s best friend has a son. And said mother’s best friend’s son and his charming wife and her equally charming family happen to be very musically talented, to play in said band, and to be involved in its management. Because of this, said mother’s best friend enlisted said mother into the Board because they needed “disinterested” (simultaneous translation: not married to or directly related to a band member) parties to serve as Directors. And when I moved back to said small town, I was also so enlisted.

So there you have it – three paragraphs in and so far it’s all back-story. I’ve broken about every writing rule. Eek, she said. There’s a front-story here too, I promise, and I’m getting there. Just not quite yet.

In order to provide free concerts, the concert band and its Board of Directors do a small handful of fundraise-y things: sell snacks and drinks at regular concerts, host a pizza party at the season finale concert, sell 50-50 tickets at each concert, do a raffle of gift baskets with local restaurant/business gift certificates, do a raffle of handcrafted cool stuff (if someone happens to donate said cool stuff). They also seek out local business and civic organization sponsors. Well, this year, one of said local businesses was my favorite bookstore in town (and it’s not just my favorite because it’s the only real bookstore in town – it would be my favorite even if there were choices): Present Tense.

Present Tense is the kind of store that I would own if I were inclined to own a bookstore, by the way. It is stocked with cool and interesting books as well as Other Good Stuff like candles, soap, mustard and jam, funky toys, yummy tea, nifty cards and pictures. It is owned and staffed by knowledgeable and interesting people who actually read the books they sell. It hosts book groups and reading circles and can special-order anything under the sun you might want (and a host of things you don’t even know you want yet). They’re willing to hunt around for out-of-print things and used books, and also buy/sell used books. It’s just one of those fun places to meander through.

Well, Present Tense sponsored a book week, during which a percentage of all sales would be contributed back to help support the concert band. And everyone who shopped that week was given a certificate to indicate that they were doing so in support of the band. You filled it out with your name and address – I assumed for mailing list purposes. I like getting bookstore mail, so I dutifully shopped/filled out/dropped off and generally did all the things I was supposed to do. La-di-da, hooray, took my new book home and there you have it.

And then a week later, as I was going through my spam folder, I saw it. An email from Present Tense. An email from Present Tense congratulating me on winning the drawing that they had conducted in association with the concert band book week.

Well hooray for me, she said!

I was informed of my good luck, congratulated on winning, and told to show up at the store to claim my “prize package.” Seriously – that’s what it said: “prize package”. Hooray indeed – as that implied more than one prize. And I never win anything!! (See – told you that whole back-story beginning thing would eventually play in here…)

So I went to pick up my prize package, which consisted of: one Boardwalk Empire tote bag, one jar of fancy yummy looking Chardonnay mustard, five handmade soaps that smell incredible, and two books – Party Favors (political fundraising novel) and A Lucky Irish Lad (memoir about growing up Irish in America). All great stuff. All free. All because I waited and shopped during concert band book week.

Don’t you love it when you do something good and get a reward you didn’t expect? 🙂