Let me start off by saying that I never win anything. I play the occasional scratch-off lottery ticket and am lucky to get my money back. I get into office football pools and nothing. I might as well have taken that money and set it on fire. I went to a casino once with my friends Justin and Mark and was the poster boy for the house always coming out ahead. I think you can probably imagine where all of this is going. I’m going to tell you about another bad beat story or I’m going to tell you the tides finally changed in my favor. Thankfully for me it is the latter.  

I don’t listen to the radio much these days. I tend to stream music from my phone or listen to a CD. If I am listening to the radio it is usually to AM sports talk. I am not a fan of any of my hometown sport teams but I do enjoy listening to the local guys talk about them. For whatever reason the other day I decided to turn on the alternative music station. They were playing a Sublime song I’ve probably heard 200 times in my life and I almost changed it but left it on. The DJ then came on to announce they were about to give away $1,000 in the next 7 minutes. My interest was piqued so I left it on and suffered through a Bush song that was popular when I was in high school over 20 years ago.

The DJ came back on and gave out a keyword that you had to text to a certain number. I was almost to where I was going and they said you had 20 minutes to text so I waited until I got to my destination and sent the text off. The keyword by the way was CASH in case you were wondering what it was. I then got a confirmation reply saying I was entered to win the $1,000 and the winner would be called within the hour. I didn’t think about it too much and put my phone in my pocket and went into Target. I was there to get some groceries (this was a Super Target) and some cleaning supplies. I was in there for about 45 minutes and just got done putting my bags in my car when my phone rang. I had actually forgotten about the contest by then and was expecting it to be one of my friends or my Mom. I got my phone out of my pocket and the caller ID was a number that I didn’t recognize. I almost didn’t accept it as I do get the occasional spam call like everyone else but did answer it. The caller announced themselves as the DJ from that station and asked who they were talking to. I still didn’t know that I had won. I told them my name and they said congratulations I had just won $1,000!

I was in shock. The DJ asked me what I planned on doing with the money and I didn’t know what to say at first. I eventually spurted out that I was going to pay some bills with it. How exciting right? I didn’t know it at the time but I was also on the air. After they got all my information I then got a call from Justin telling me he heard me on the radio. He jokingly asked if he could borrow $250. I still can’t believe that I won. I am supposed to get the money from them sometime next week. I am going to pay some bills with it but I also plan on having some fun with it too.