I Didn't Win the BIG Prize, Whatever It Was

Drat, it wasn't the BIG prize. I do not know what was the BIG prize, maybe it hasn't even been picked up yet, and the library staff do not know what is in the envelopes.

But at last Sunday afternoon arrived, all but the remnants of Old Settlers are gone, the library parking lot is open again. I admire my own restraint. I was not at the library doors at 12:59, I didn't get there until about 1:15. I admit to a bit of impatience, which I thought I kept well-hidden, when it took the library clerk about four minutes to identify my library card number and extract my envelope from the box.

With the envelope in my hands, I knew immediately that the prize was a gift card. The really BIG prize is probably described in a letter, not a gift card. (Kind of like hanging my regular long stockings at Christmas, and being able to tell through the fabric whether I had gotten a delicious juicy orange, or an everyday, ordinary apple.)

A Starbucks gift card, amount unknown. I read the back of the card, which I am to protect like cash, and when the designated amount is spent I can re-supply with any amount I choose. I'm grateful for the prize (and wonder if everyone who participated received an identical card), but I am not a fan of Starbucks.

Not since the winter season they advertised, well in advance, of an upcoming chestnut-flavored drink. I love anything made with chestnuts, candies, ice cream, yummy scones (which I was able to get one October in northern Spain during chestnut harvest). Unhappily, even before the concoction was available, the news came out that the flavor would not be actual chestnut, it would only be artificial chestnut. Something like the almond drinks they had advertised the winter before. only not made with almonds, created with artificial almond flavorings. I never had one of the almonds drinks, but the day Starbucks had announced they would debut the new chestnut offering, I was first in line. Didn't taste like chestnut, didn't have much of any taste to it. I never ordered another one.

Maybe their coffee is not made with real fresh-ground coffee beans, but chemical laboratory crafted artificial coffee flavor. But there is some good news -- my son wants to negotiate with me, he has a use for the card. Yuuuu Haaaa.