Showing posts with label raffle prizes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raffle prizes. Show all posts

Friday, March 9, 2012

Luck

Last night I attended a "Ladies Night Out" fundraiser dinner. Despite taking a highly strategic approach to dropping my raffle tickets into the small pink bags corresponding to various prizes (i.e., zero tickets in the full bag for the weekend get away, three tickets in the almost-empty bag for the Thursday night comedy club show), I did not win a single prize. In contrast, last year I won three.

Last year's haul at "Ladies Night Out"

Three weeks after winning three prizes last year, our baby died. A week later, we were informed I had a disease that only 900 of the 310 million Americans are diagnosed with each year. When I showed off my three prize baskets to Ryan that night, I had felt pretty lucky. A month later, I felt very unlucky. Had I used up my luck on an autographed basketball, crotcheted newborn sweater and blanket (that should have been Lily's but is now in our basement), and a hand-painted chair for Katelyn? Or was my diagnosis a continuation of low probability events happening to me?