On the Brighter Side

 Picture (ipod) by Richard Andersson, sales, Henrys Kanata

The fluffiest, biggest snowflakes descended slowly, seemly hovering before carpeting the ground with its freshness. Moments later, darkness as the flurries began in earnest together with crazy wild winds that swirled, picking up the freshly fallen snow and scattering it around the parking lot reducing visibility near zero. This was followed a few minutes later by a burst of sunshine as though the powers of being decided this was too theatrical reducing the moment to calm and brightness. Such was the weather fluctuation over a two-hour period while I waited in line with about 55 people at Henry’s for a chance at getting a $500 gift certificate.

When I arrived there was not a soul to be seen and after waiting about twenty minutes I thought perhaps I’d made a mistake and it was all in my head that Henry’s was giving away gift certificates today. For the first forty minutes I stayed in my car, cozy warm like, drinking my tea and playing on my ipad. Then a couple people arrived, lawn chairs in hand. There were four people in line when the guy in the car next to mine got out and joined them. I thought I better get my butt in gear even though we still had over an hour before the doors would open. And just as quickly everyone sitting in the comfort of cars had the same idea, and reluctantly joined the growing line.

The people in line were very chatty; I guess being cold will do that to you or maybe they had one too many coffees. An older lady first in line was a pro I could see that straight away. She was bundled up from head to toe, sitting in her lawn chair, a hot thermos of coffee at the ready, accompanied by her friend. They both looked like they were settling down for the long haul as thoughts of winning occupied their mind, I’m sure. She said last time she got $500 and has gone to at least three of these events!

A guy beside me said he was in this store for the first time yesterday, and was told to come back this morning for a chance to win. He was shopping for a camera for his teenage son who was enrolled in a high school photography class. Still yet another young man said he had nothing better to do this morning so thought what the heck. Some other guy mentioned his wife ordered him to come down and he knew better than to cross her. Most of the people in my group of ten had participated previously for the chance to win either a gift certificate or one of those midnight crazy events and all were pretty hopeful to come away with something.

A staff person came out to tell us what to expect a couple of minutes before the door was to open. Only ten people at a time in the store, each would get an envelope that had a gift certificate valued between $10 - $500. “You must use it today because it is only valid for today.” she stressed.

Our group was first to be ushered in and we each got our envelope. Funny, now that we were ‘good friends’ we peeked into each other’s envelope seeing what the other got. Alas, lady luck was not smiling upon us this day and no one in our group got the coveted $500. The lady who last year received a $500 gift certificate and her friend each received $10. She said, “that’s okay, that’s okay.” The man that was shopping for his son got $25, but his wife was at the back of the line so they had another opportunity for the $500. The guy who had nothing better to do today, got $50 and mine was $25. Sweet!

Was it worth it? Yeah. I’d do it again. At any rate, I was planning on buying a camera lens for hubby and this morning I got $25 off my purchase. Not to mention, it gives me something interesting to blog about.