Val, the Perpetual Bridesmaid, Is Once Again a Fraction of a Day Late, and a Thousand Dollars Short

You might recall how Val missed a grand prize scratcher winner of $100,000 by only a few hours. How a ticket she usually buys, at a place she always buys it, was sold to another person a few hours after Val was there. Que sera, sera. That ticket obviously was not meant for Val.

Well. Apparently, there are other tickets not meant for Val!

On Saturday, Hick, fresh from a profitable session at his Storage Unit Store, broke some news to Val.

"My buddy...the one with a storage unit across the way from mine...said he stopped at the BP this morning for cigarettes. He bought a five-dollar scratcher. And he won FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! I think it was one of those blue diamond tickets."

"The BP? Where's that?"

"Up the road there. By the old bowling alley that's a church thrift store now."

"Oh! Next to where the license office used to be. That's okay. I never buy tickets there. Good for him. That Double Diamond is one of the newer tickets. It quit paying, so I don't buy it much right now."

"He says he's going to use the money to pay off his mom's headstone."

See there? Val can accept defeat gracefully. A good ticket was sold to a friend of Hick at a place Val does not frequent. No big deal. Congrats to that guy. The winner was meant for him.

Hick and I had plans yesterday (a future story, of course), which put me at the Gas Station Chicken Store for my 44 oz Diet Coke much later than usual. Instead of noonish, I was there around 5:15. I bought a couple of scratchers with my redeemed winners. They did not win.

Today, I attempted to buy another of a same ticket I lost on yesterday. The Man Owner was working the register, and he said, "Oh. This may not matter to you, but last night, somebody won a thousand dollars on that ticket."

"Well! I don't want it NOW! Give me that one next to it."

See? When you're a regular, you get tips. Not that they necessarily help. That ticket I switched to was a loser. But don't you worry about Val. She left the casino yesterday with THIS:

That's just a little more than both of those lost-opportunity tickets put together, won between the time that first ticket was sold yesterday morning, and the second one later that night. Even Steven at work, perhaps. He taketh away, then giveth, then taketh away. All on the same day.