What A World, What A World…
At the end of this post you’ll get a chance to win a signed copy of Betrayals. I’ll just tell you that up front.
My beautiful weekend suddenly sprouted Things To Do like a wet log in the forest sprouting mushrooms. Not even the good kind of mushrooms either–not edible or, ahem, fun ones. No, these mushrooms are slimy and gunky and poisonous and…oh, yeah, some of you may be trying to eat. Sorry about that.
Well, it’s better than knocking around the house bored. And after Friday I’ll be able to get back into the swing of yoga. That will help tremendously, I suspect. The deep breathing and stretching does wonders.
The Little Prince has fallen in love with, of all things, Mozart. He has a Mozart CD that must be played during schoolwork or at bedtime. If we can’t find the Mozart CD, it is a tragedy comparable to the sinking of the Titanic. Complete with tears, teeth-gnashing, the whole nine. Funny little guy.
And now, for your chance to win a copy of Betrayals! Don’t forget, you can also win a copy over at the Deadline Dames–the Readers on Deadline event ends Wednesday Nov 12th.
But here, it’s a little different. You know I’m doing this luck experiment, right? And it seems to be working. So I want to hear about the luckiest thing that ever happened to you, dear Reader. Put it right in the comments HERE. The contest closes Saturday the 7th at midnight, and I’ll use Random.org to pick a winner from the comment numbers. Please note that I can only send prizes to US addresses. (Please do not tell me what a horrible person I am for not being able to send stuff overseas, mmmmkay?) You will get a signed, personalized copy of Betrayals. And if that ain’t cool, I don’t know what is.
See you tomorrow–the Friday post will be late, because I’m due at the airport in the morning. (Don’t ask.) But I will be around.
Now, tell me about that lucky thing.
Related posts:
Tags: books, deadline dames, Strange Angels, win some stuff
November 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Well this might not be considered lucky by many people, but I think the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was NOT getting into any of the PhD programs I applied to. Let me explain–having decided when I was 16 that I was going into clinical psychology, every move that I made for eight years was with that goal in mind (nevermind the fact that I really dreamed of writing for a living). I was an excellent student, so it was really more an issue of Fate intervening when I didn’t get in. And I finally acknowledged after the third round of rejections the year I was finishing my Master’s degree, that I did not want to do therapy anymore. I didn’t really want to do research. I wanted to write. Fiction. The thing I fell in love with when I was 12, that my well meaning parents poo pooed and said wasn’t practical. By NOT getting into a PhD program, I got started SERIOUSLY pursuing my dream of writing about six years sooner than I would have if I was still taking classes and doing the dissertation thing. So by that token, not getting in was lucky as it’s allowing me to pursue my dream.
There. Longwinded enough?
November 5th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was when my husband got sent to Hawaii for work training and I got to go with him.
A week in Hawaii and the only thing we had to pay for was my plane ticket. Not a bad deal.
November 5th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was my son. It took me 3 years to conceive him and now, 12 years later, he was worth every moment of uncertainty.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
The luckiest thing that happened to me was being chosen to attend a leadership conference for my college my freshman year. Let it be known that I had horrible self-esteem, was incredibly shy, and was a total bookworm (still am the last one). Thanks to that conference, I’m more assertive, friendly, and confident, so much so that I studied abroad in England for a year away from my very close family.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Not a major bit of good luck, but perhaps the luckiest thing in recent memory was winning a pair of Nike Coraline shoes from the movie contest.
I’ve entered numerous contests online and never won a thing, so I was quite surprised when I got an email saying I’d won a pair of the shoes, and they are pretty neat. Now to put together a costume to go with them.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Luckiest thing that ever happened to me? Hm… Lady Luck & I are far from being BFF’s so I’d have to say the luckiest thing ever to happen to me was finding a $50 bill stuck in the door at West Edmonton Mall.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I’m gonna have to go with NOT dying in 8th grade.
I played keyboard in the jazz band in those days. One afternoon I went to plug in my amp and they tell me the prongs of the plug touched in the socket. It blew me across the room. I don’t remember that part. I saw a flash of light and a puff of smoke, and suddenly somebody was walking me towards the nurse’s office.
The electricity made a very short circut through my thumb and forefinger, rather than, you know, going through my whole system. (Though for days afterwards, people got a kick out of telling me all the ways I could have died: if the floor had been wet, if I hadn’t been wearing rubber soled sneakers, etc.)
It was the day before my 13th birthday. Lucky 13, right?
(I do like to joke that I had straight hair before this happened and curly hair afterwards… but really it’s been curly all my life!)
November 5th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I think the luckiest thing to have ever happened to me was meeting my soul mate. Yes, I do believe in that! Even though our time was not enough, I feel lucky that we had any time at all. So besides been blessed that have a wonderful 6 year old son, I’m lucky that I got to expirience something that happens once in a lifetime.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was waiting until the last minute to sign up for classes my freshman year of college. I couldn’t get into enough courses I needed to be considered a full-time student, so on a whim I decided to take Russian Language class to up my number of hours to full-time. Why Russian? No reason other than it sounded fun.
Thanks to that whim, I became friends with another student, who then introduced me to her husband’s brother. As of November 26, David and I will have been together for literally half of my life (19 years). That whim changed the course of my entire life, and I have no question whatsoever that it was for the better. If I’d settled on Psych 101 or something else that day, I’d never have met a man who is truly the most wonderful human being I’ve ever known. So yeah, I’m damned lucky.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Most people would say that I’m a very unlucky person. Electronics fail in my presence, I’m accident prone, and always seem to be in the wrong place at the right time.
But I see it from a different point of view. For instance, when I was two my dad was opening a pop-top bottle of orange juice. Being a curious kiddo I leaned in to watch him pry the top off with a pocket knife. He slipped and stuck the two inch blade into the bridge of my nose.
Most people would say unlucky. But I think it was a great amount of luck that kept the blade from going even an inch to the right or left and blinding me in one eye. All I got out of the deal was a little scar creased across my nose.
My lucky scar.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
It’s hard to find a specific lucky moment when I look back. My life seems to be a series of very specific but seemingly random circumstances that has led me to be here. If I hadn’t made a chance comment to a girl I knew in high school, she wouldn’t have been my friend for 4 years. If she hadn’t been my BF, I may never have met or dated my first serious boyfriend. If not for him, I might have gone to an out-of-state college. If I’d done that, I wouldn’t have met my obsessively violent ex. If I hadn’t met him, I wouldn’t have felt lonely enough to have a reason to pick up the book series THE WHEEL OF TIME. If I hadn’t picked up WoT, I never would have met my best friends, my self-adopted sister, or my husband. I would not be where I am now. I would not be *who* I am now. I LIKE both who I am and where I am now.
… So I suppose that was a pretty lucky chance comment.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Throwing up in my hotel room (very bad fish from the hotel restaurant) prevented me from likely being being ensnared from what I hope was a beautiful Russian spy (lovely phone voice).
This was in Moscow during the cold war and those things did happen back then.
I have no idea if she really was a “swallow” (old spy slang term, look it up
) and I certainly was no catch but the whole meeting sounded wrong (too long to tell here) and before I could make up my mind, the fish decided to swim to freedom through my throat.
Whether it was luck, bad luck and/or a really complex (and likely weird) conspiracy by the soviets remains unknown.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
As I was driving to my high school yesterday morning, I hit a deer for the first time. The lucky part is that absolutely nothing happened to hurt my car aside from his bumper being a little loose, and the deer just ran off. There wasn’t even any hair on my car; my dad had a good laugh, because I made him come and check it out for me. And because of that, I missed a meeting during which I would have been shanghaied into extra projects/more work.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I have recently come to realize that most of the things that have meant the most to me in my life so far: a music contest I unexpectedly won, being admitted to a college I never thought I’d get into, starting a freelancer career – they have all happened or been the result of coincidences (”luck”), rather than my own meticulous planning. Since this realization, I have stopped trying to plan every aspect of my life, and I believe I’m a happier person for it.
If I have to choose one, I’d say my greatest moment of luck was when I went from completely incapable, deeply depressed and almost homeless, to making a living on writing out of my own apartment (once I could prove income, I could get an apartm. lease) – all in a matter of a few weeks. It all still feels like a fluke to me, but it’s been the best thing I ever did.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I found my husband on myspace. Dfall places! And by accident he found my profile aNd we started talkin and 6 mos later we were engaged. Which was crazy since wwe were both 37 single never married and wanted nokids. Same interests ! It was like no way! I felt like the luckiest girl ever! I mean totally by accident when I had given up! Anyways love your books!
November 5th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me had to be when I was in a car accident with my grandmother and sister and we all survived. That was pretty lucky. Oh and when my cat left the house and we couldn’t find her for two days and she came back unscathed and with a dead mouse in her mouth. We were really lucky!
November 5th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I had my luckiest moment ever just recently. It’s been getting very cold here in Illinois recently and my car isn’t in the greatest shape. So when I go to start my car at 6am and make the 20 minute drive to work, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope today isn’t going to be THAT DAY. Strange sounds are very common when I start my car in the morning so I thought nothing was out of the ordinary as I pulled on to the Interstate and started cruising at 70mph. Half way to work I’m wondering why it’s still so darn cold… Heater ON. Heat turned up. Temperature gauge over the red zone like it’s leaning in a hurricane…. Yikes! I had to pull over on the side of the interstate and wait an hour for it to cool down by which time I’ve already called in to work on my cell phone and managed to find a ride before the cell battery could die. Once the car stopped steaming and I got the radiator cap off I poured in the antifreeze I so conveniently had in my trunk and tried to start it. No luck. My car was dead. Ride to work, ride from work to sisters, car starts, gets off highway, dies at gas station, battery in car dead, antifreeze everywhere, car towed to mechanic (bless his magical greasy hands), next day (today) I get a phone call… All that mess and it was a simple fix! Zombie car lives! I tossed out the used car catalog and kissed my car hello! The cost didn’t kill my going-to-college-soon-saving-up funds and I got a text from my friend at the bookstore that Betrayals was in sitting in the backroom! *thanks her lucky car stars*
November 5th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Um, I’m lucky because I will still have a job after January and that is a truly amazing thing in Michigan.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
The day I discovered reading was one of the luckiest days of my life. It was during a very difficult time in my life. I was a kid and I thank the universe every day that I found it when I did. Reading was an escape from my life and it has continued to be my saving grace. I still remember picking up the book (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) that had been tossed on the street like so much garbage. It was damp and soggy from the rain we’d had the night before. I read it in one day, then reread it over and over again. I didn’t have much money and had no way of getting to a library so every penny, nickel and quarter I found I hoarded until I had enough to buy more at yard sales in my neighborhood. (we actually had them pretty frequently) Today I’ve got more copies of Dracula than I know what to do with. I’ve still got my first copy though.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
When i was in 8th grade – woe those long years ago, I won $200 on a radio call in. I bought the family a VCR…even then i was into tech. Don’t laugh, it was tech back then.
Looking back – it was mom’s station not mine (country), they wanted me to say my “favorite” radio station on the air (hmm I did = but it wasnt them). I didn’t understand that they really meant for me to say them.
My dad was driving home and he heard me on the radio….said he could hear my younger sister screaming that I won and I said ’shh, I’m talking to the radio”.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was when I decided to start over and moved cities without a job and right before I moved interviewed for a great one in the new city that I ended up getting 1 week after I moved.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I am seriously NOT the lucky one in my family, my younger sis is – she was the one who always won free tickets from the radio stations, etc… still does, actually! I always seem to pay for everything I get.
About the luckiest I got was in residency when I won a free trip to the Bahamas – sadly, with all the travel date restrictions on the trip and my restricted schedule, I never got to go!
My husband was the lucky one – back when we started dating, his dad won a car raffle – 1985 Camaro – which he sold to hubby for $250! All well and good until said car was stolen which he found out the morning he took his LSATs, thus realizing he really didn’t want to go to law school anyway…
November 6th, 2009 at 1:08 am
It’s hard to pick the luckiest thing. Last year while I was driving to work, I had a green light. I don’t know why, but I slowed down instead of keeping my speed up. A firetruck, with NO siren on, NOT even lights on just ripped right through a red light. If I hadn’t slowed down, I would have been creamed, since they were going pretty fast. I made it to work, then my knees turned to rubber.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:37 am
My luckiest thing was a stomach flu back in 1997. I went online later that day and met my husband (married 3 years later) in an irc chatroom. Turned out we both went to that room every day, always on different times. If it wasn’t for that flu bug, I wouldn’t have met him!
November 6th, 2009 at 7:49 am
This is a tough one!
I’m not sure what constitutes lucky but I’d say the luckiest thing would be meeting my husband way back when during summer vacation in high school (1999).
If I wouldn’t have been invited to a sportsman’s pool pretty far away from my home I probably NEVER would have meet him. I was surprised my mom drove me there.
The funny thing is though, that I HAD meet him. I glimpsed him in my BFF’s home room one morning. I’d never seen him before, I had a boyfriend at the time but it didn’t matter. It was an instant attraction. I had to know his name, which my BFF told me he was called Pattymac (Patrick) and that I was not interested in him. He was a loner and a weirdo.
PFFT!
Seems fate had it’s own idea of what I was and wasn’t interested in.
But if you mean lucky as in winning stuff etc, I seem to be pretty good at winning blog contests.
I win one or two a month it seems. I just won a 9 book contest and I was floored to see I had won because I kinda gave up thinking I had no chance of winning. But I did. That’s pretty lucky. 
November 6th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I have to chuckle because my two examples closely match two others above. My first stroke of luck was in college when I stopped by a new professor’s office to ask her about graduate schools in social psychology. She and I got to talking and she offered to sponsor my senior thesis on gender and aggression. I eventually finished the thesis and presented it at a regional conference in New Orleans. After this professor gave me a great reference, I got into graduate school with another professor who was president of that conference. Now I have my Ph.D. in social psychology in the area of gender & violence and work at another university as a professor myself (teaching, research, writing, etc.) All because I stopped by her office to ask a question. My other very lucky moment came when I joined eHarmony (YAY) and met my fiance – both in our late 30’s (37, 39), never married, don’t want kids, etc. It’s hard to find someone who’s not scared of a 37 year-old feminist who studies stalking and has a Ph.D. in psychology, but my fiance is just that confident in himself. Our wedding date is this May 27th.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:33 am
The luckest thing that has ever happened to me would be the birth of my son. He is an amazing boy and makes me happy every day.
I always thought I would have at least two kids, but knew after having him that I would only have one. I did not want our relationship to change; that may sound selfish, but it’s true. It is hard to remember my life without him.
I am thankful for him every day!
November 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am
The absolute “Luckiest” thing to ever happen to me was when I met and then fell in love with and married my BEST friend. He loves me for who I am and has made me proud to be me. He accepts me warped as I am. He is the kind of man who will tell me I already have too many kitties and then turn around and bring home another or tell me to go get it. A few weeks ago when out shopping, he caught up with me in the book section of the store. I was perusing a book when he pointed out another book by an author he knows I enjoy. A few days later he was late coming home from work, but when he got home he had a wrapped up present for me for “just being me” – it was the book he had pointed out AND the one I had been perusing. This man just “gets me” and I am truly Blessed!!
November 6th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I went with my friend to the viewing/award presentation of the film she had edited for a 48hour film festival. Afterward, her team went to a bar to celebrate the two awards the had won, I went with her/them. I got to talking to one of the actresses that was in my friend’s movie about American Idol, since I happened to be wearing the hoodie I bought when I tried out for season five. She asked me if I had ever done any acting. I told her nothing outside pretending I was sick in school when I wasn’t. She has a business where actors pretend they have whatever psychological problem to teach peer councelor or police officers how to handle different disorders properly. She said she thought I could probably do it and offered me a part-time/contract job with her. At some point that summer, there was a special training that needed actors to play sick people, to teach actors how to act like doctors in an ER. I was a ringer (I only had heartburn.) I made $10 dollars doing it, and since the people organizing the training made a movie that was listed on IMDB, I can search and find my name on IMDB.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I don’t know, I try to think of my life as a combination of bad luck and hard work. Bad things come out of the blue sometimes, things you can’t control. You can’t stop bad things from happening sometimes, no matter how hard you try; you can just roll with it and try to cut down on as many of them as you can. But you can work your ass off for good things to happen, even if most of the things you hope for don’t come to pass, and I think most of the good things that have happened to me come out of hard work and waiting around for the right opportunity. I would say that meeting the love of my life was luck, like so many other people here are saying, but it took some time and a lot of hard work for us to get together.
I guess as far as luck, things that were out of my hands, I’m very lucky that during the darkest times of my life, there have always been people there – people I knew and people I’d never seen before or since – who helped me get through it and out of it. Without them, I would not be here, and I would certainly not have accomplished half of what I have in my life. I owe a lot to the kindness of strangers and the patience of friends.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I know this is a weird answer, but I think the luckiest thing to happen to me was actually being born alive. Because of medical complications I won’t go into here, I almost wasn’t. A lot of other lucky things have happened to me since then, but without that one, all the other things would’ve been impossible. So, I’m going to have to go with that.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
So far, the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me is getting a partial scholarship when I didn’t even apply for it. It’s lucky because law school is overly expensive & I needed all the help I could get.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
My luckiest moment was…
My two sister’s and I were home alone for the weekend, my parents and grandma were out of town.
It was just past midnight, and I woke up. I tried going back to sleep but decided that it was too hot and stuffy to sleep upstairs in my room. I get up and walk down the stairs to sleep on the couch where it is cooler and less stuffy. Once I was down stairs I saw that the front door was unlocked (including the child lock) and cracked open. I was immediately awake and rushed to shut the front door, ran up to my room to grab one of my many softball bats and I began sneaking around the house to see if there was any weirdo in my house, after a quick search there was no weirdo and my little sister was missing. I woke up my other sister that was still asleep and we woke up everyone (neighbor, grandma, mom, dad) and got to talk to the police.
A few hours later, found my little sister – she had snuck out to see her boyfriend who lived up the street.
She got into loads of trouble, mostly because I had woken up but I was glad I woke up because THE DOOR WAS FREAKIN’ UNLOCKED! Some weirdo really could have gotten into my house, other bad things could have happened and I prevented it.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I have to say that i havent had many lucky things happen to me the only one i can think of is surviving JV basketball I had that ball in my face so much more than in my hands.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I have had a whole lot of what I would consider luck. I’m a 29 year old, twice married, mother of one. I’m also an addict. I have been sober for 3 years now and not a day goes by that I don’t realize, cliché as it sounds, that I’m lucky to be able to write this today.
I was addicted to drugs for 6 long, horrible years. I stole, I lied and I tested the limits of sanity. I push away everything I hold dear and it was luck, with a large side of love and faith, that gave me a second chance.
I recurved a phone call one evening from a friend of mine one evening, she was in the wake of pain and fear like I’ve never known. Crying hysterically, she tells me she’s gotten the needle of her syringe stuck in her arm. Her skin was so tough from the constant abuse of shooting up and her needle so overused, when trying to get a fix the needle snapped and became completely imbedded in her arm. Needless to say, I was in a state of drug induced ignorance but managed to get her to an ER where she was rushed for surgery to have the needle removed.
I was her last call that evening before she dialed 911. If I hadn’t answered, if I’d been unavailable, I would never have had the reality check that I got that evening. It wasn’t even 48 hours I was signing myself into rehab…ready to change my life. It was just damn lucky I picked up the phone.
I have been to hell and back, put there by decisions of my very own. A lot of love, faith, sweat, tears and luck is what keeps me sober and sane. I am the mother, wife, daughter and friend that I am proud of now. All because I answered the phone.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Tracy, a friend of mine played matchmaker with myself and her boss. She told both of us that we had been asking about the other (which wasn’t true). I gathered up the courage to ask her out. She said yes. We’ve been married for nine years this year with two wonderful children.
We were both lucky to have a friend that saw in ourselves what we ourselves couldn’t see.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Several years back I bought one of those lottery scratch tickets…something I almost never do because I basically see them as a waste of money. But I was at the store and had this feeling so went with it and ended up winning $1000 just from one ticked. I didn’t buy any others to get to it either. It was pretty cool.
November 7th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
The luckiest thing in my life didn’t seem so lucky at the time. I was 11 years old and my family was getting ready to leave Alaska. 6 cold freaking years and we were finally leaving..YAY. My family consisted of 5 kids and two adults. My brothers and I (2 of them, 1 of me) were from a previous marriage so were extremely close. My older brother was my best friend, protector (another story altogether) and confidant. Anyway we were staying with friends from the church as we had already let our apartment go. i decided at the last minute to go spend the night with my best girl friend. We had been friends since grade school and were inconsolable at the thought of me leaving for the lower 48. I wanted my older brother to come with, he’d always had a crush on her but he didn’t want to intrude on our last weekend together. This was a Saturday night. We went to church on Sunday and something was wrong, my brothers weren’t there. Long story short, they had gone “exploring” on our friends property and had fallen into the river. They both drowned. I know with complete and utter certainty that if I had not gone to my friends house, I would be dead. I would have followed my brother to the ends of the earth and many times in the year to follow I wished I had. Now 40 some years later I am grateful. Life has been beautiful even with the ups and downs because I am here to experience it. Luck…
November 7th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Luckiest thing that ever happened to me: I didn’t drown (because a friend saved my life). I was six, she was ten. At one point I was alone in the pool and just walking across – then the ground was gone and I couldn’t find it. I tried to reach the surface but I kept falling back under. Our moms were nearby, though sadly neither heard me screaming. I remember catching glimpses of my mom just sitting there talking to her friend. That was the worst part because I didn’t understand in those moments that she couldn’t hear me. My friend saw what was happening and dragged me back to the shallow end. If it wasn’t for her…I wouldn’t be sitting here. Now that’s lucky.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I never really have anything real lucky happen to me. Though for me at the time – it doesn’t really seem lucky and more, but when I was like 9 I used to go to this huge American Girl Doll Sale and you had to get tickets. My mom managed to get one really early ticket, and sent me in with a 2 way radio so I could talk to her. I reallly wanted a Felicity doll that year – as she was retired. So I went in and went to the Felicity table and they were all out. I started to walk aaway and the lady yelled after me saying the found one and so I got my Felicity doll and at the time I thought that was about the coolest thing ever that I would be so lucky as to get the last one.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:43 am
The luckiest thing to ever happened to me? Becoming a nurse. Sure, some days I pretty much rue the day I decided to enter this profession but most of the time, I absolutely love the craziness.
Saving people’s lives is a heady thing.