Here’s something that has only recently occurred to me: when you purchase an item of clothing from a store whose hangers are labeled by size (let’s say Target), it’s a good idea to check the ACTUAL LABEL on the item to confirm. I learned this lesson the hard way: via a size-too-small “shaping cami” that I wore the entire day yesterday, despite discovering around lunchtime that it was leaving actual welts on my sides. It was only after I nearly dislocated a shoulder trying to get the damned thing off last night that I thought to check the size. Brilliant!
This next one’s even better.
I only enter contests for things I really, really want to win. I was obsessive about the drawing for HGTV’s Dream Home in Park City this past November. I entered to win a shopping spree at Aldo. That’s about it. You know why? I am afraid that if I enter contests for smaller prizes (things that would be nice to have but don’t necessarily light up my Covet Receptors), it will dilute my chances of winning A Big Thing That I Really Want. Like luck is a bank account, and each entry is a withdrawal, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Did you know that it actually works THE EXACT OPPOSITE WAY? Not only does entering one contest have absolutely zero bearing on your odds of winning another, the more contests you enter, the higher the odds are of winning something at all? I had this epiphany yesterday, as well.
Don’t worry, I’m printing this off to send with my MENSA application.
05/30/2012 at 4:56 pm |
1. The hanger-size-not-corresponding-to-the-actual-size thing drives me crazy. Just because you ran out of hangers, Target staff member, does not mean you can just throw shirts of all sizes willy nilly onto hangers that say L or whatever. It is disheartening.
2. I too believe that luck is like a bank account! I know I believe this because my mom described it to me, when I was a kid, in almost exactly those terms! Magical thinking is hereditary, I guess.
06/21/2012 at 10:00 pm |
I have been meaning to reply to this comment since you left it. This is why I probably should not have a blog.
I don’t know where I got the idea of luck as a bank account, but it kills me that your mom actually explained it that way! Kindred spirits.