Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick.....

So, my husband is crazy about Chick-fil-a.

I mean, who wouldn't be? Delicious, chickeny goodness.

What has enhanced his love for said chain is their restaurant grand openings. Every time that a new Chick-fil-a is opened, the first 100 people at the restaurant receive 52 combo meals for free. FREE. That equates to about 300 dollars worth of free food....not just any ole' food....Chick-fil-a. Need I say more?? In college, Daniel went to about 15 of these grand openings (which works out to about 5,000 dollars worth of free Chick-fil-a, mind you) which entail camping out in the parking lot for 24 hours, but enjoying free food and great company during the wait. He has eagerly taken me under his wing in following in his footsteps.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, there's a catch. If there are more than 100 people at the restaurant 24 hours before it opens, the workers do a raffle to see who gets to stay and get the prizes. (I know, I'm speeding through the explanations. Feel free to email me with any Chick-fil-a related questions and I will expound...especially if you would like to hear about a certain incident at a Chick-fil-a near Cincinnati involving sticker name tags and cheering crowds :-p) If your raffle number is chosen, you get to stay. If it's not, you're sent packing. Two of the three times that I have gone to one of these grand openings, I have been sent packing....let me go into further detail about my latest defeat.

There was a grand opening scheduled for tomorrow morning near Nashville. Daniel couldn't go because he had to work, but my very kind and patient boss told me that I could go (not without a few chuckles and head shakes, mind you). Tim and Austin, two of Daniel's closest friends, also went, so we rode together. We left Jackson at 3:30 am.....yes, 3:30 am. If we weren't at the Chick-fil-a by 6:00, we couldn't get in to the raffle. We heard rumors along the way that there were a lot of people waiting already, but we held out in hope that we would get in. When we got there, all rumors proved to be true. There were around 160 people waiting!

Well, we finally got settled inside and they handed out raffle tickets. There we stood anxiously peering at our numbers and trying to work some mental brain waves towards the Chick-fil-a employee who was calling them out (Mama Sue for those of you who know the traveling Chick-fil-a gang....I know, I am only proving my nerdiness here, but hear me out...) First number called....not me. Second...third.....fourth.....thirteenth.....twenty-second. I was getting nervous, but we were only a quarter of the way in, right? Thirtieth......thirty-ninth....forty-fifth....fiftieth. Half way through, still none of our numbers called. Sixty-first....sixty-eighth.....seventy-second....eightieth. Okay, so this was getting ridiculous. Our luck was getting increasingly worse. Eighty-fifth.....Ninety-second.....ninety-ninth. We all held our breath and our tickets for dear life. one-hundredth. Not us. Nooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily, they called 10 extra numbers in case someone dropped out. Austin's was called as #101. We had agreed to share coupons if only one of us got it, so we didn't completely lose....but Tim and I left in the rain, feeling rather dejected (well, Tim more than me. I got to go home to my sweet husband, so I wasn't too disappointed ;-)

My dear mother-in-law heard of our plight from Daniel, called, had us stop at their house on the way home, and made Tim and I a delicious breakfast. Didn't turn out so bad after all :)

So, for future reference......don't go to a Chick-fil-a openings with me. I'm only one for three!!!!