Feeling lucky?

My somewhat phenomenal streak of luck first made its presence known when I was a mere 2 1/2. Some kid selling raffle tickets for a school fundraiser came to my Grandma's door. She decided to buy a few and when trying to figure out who's name to put on the last ticket, she looked down. There I stood, looking all innocent and demure (probably not, but it makes the story better). Furiously penning my name, she returned the tickets to the kid. A little while later, my parents got a call. I had won $250. Not bad for a toddler.

In grammar school, I was absurdly PO'd that my mom couldn't have kept me in another week, resulting in me being born 4 weeks late, so that my 13th birthday would fall on Friday the 13th.

When I was in high school, I attended a softball all-star series that my young sister was playing in. I won the Split the Pot raffle the last two days of the series. I think the total haul that time was around $90. One year, I also won the grand prize Easter basket for filling out the Career Day fair questionnaire.

In college, not much happened luck-wise, but I realized that I seemed to have good things happen to me on Friday the 13ths. The first one I remember noticing this was a payday, and finding some really nice dresses and shoes majorly on sale and having an all around good day.

After college, the streak of luck returned. I won a 32" TV at an event I was helping my aunt out with. At another event where my mom was a co-chair (it was a Mom's Club thing for my brothers' high school), we both bought lots of raffle tickets so that we had a shot at winning the adirondack chair and table set my dad had built and donated for the second prize. She won the third place painting, and I won the first prize $400 airplane ticket voucher. I've also been attending a fan event almost every year for an author I love. We've been having a fundraising basket raffle for probably the last 7 years or so. I think I've only not won one year. For that one, however, I make sure the law of probability is on my side. My friends from that group of people have long been proclaiming I'm one of the luckiest persons they know and even gave me the moniker "Goddess of Good Luck". It didn't help my reputation that when I attended an RWA conference a few years ago, I won two of their baskets AND an Alphasmart Dana.

My most recent spate of luck was within the last month. I went to my local Borders' event for teachers and librarians during their Educator Appreciation Weekend. They were having a gift bag drawing. My name was the first name drawn after I walked in the door. Last week, I was telling a friend this at a conference right before we got roped into a demonstration by a vendor. Well, as a thank you for sitting through the demo, the vendor drew a name from those attending for a $10 gift card to Starbucks. My friend said "Watch, they'll pick your name." I was in the middle of saying "Don't even say that!" when they did. I greatly appreciate my luck, I just wish I could win money on the order of a nice Lotto prize one of these days. I've yet to break that original $250 for a flat out cash prize. I came close last year at my grammar school's all-school reunion, though.