Pocket Book Bingo
I attended a networking event the other evening. I showed up, not knowing a soul, and walked through the beautiful grounds on the way in. Before I reached the front door, a little squirrel was stopped in front of me, to take a little drink from a puddle, and then a baby brown bunny darted out from behind a bush to wish me a good evening. So flipping cute!
So I went to the event, where I met about 15 women. When I got there, I was afraid I had gone to the wrong place and interrupted a personal bitch session smack down, or maybe a rehearsal for Real Housewives of NJ or something. I mean, these women were at their New Jersey worst. There is a nasty, nasally twang when NJ women get angry and are expressing it. There was yelling, there was eye-rolling, there was even table-banging as someone vented their anger about a work problem. I was thrilled beyond measure that I didn’t work where she did – it was intimidating! It was Jersey Shore worthy!
But I digress. The title of the networking event was Pocketbook Bingo. I didn’t know what it meant – until I got there. There were 10 beautiful new purses sitting on the counter – from black slouchy bags to a light green shoulder purse, a sparkly clutch, two light blue bags, three tan, and one neon pink. Of course, I fixated on the neon pink one.
Luck, however, wasn’t on my side on this particular Bingo night. I’m rarely lucky when it comes to games, probably because I don’t care about winning, but, truth be told, I wanted the purse. The way the game works is that the winner of each game chooses a purse from the counter. If someone wins more than one, they pick a business card from the jar and that person would get to choose her favorite.
As each bag was chosen, the others who coveted that particular bag would sigh and say, “Oh, I loved that one,” or “That’s the one I wanted,” or “Hand it over, chickie.” Everyone would laugh, and the game would begin again.
I lost the first game, and the second. The first purse to find a new home was one of the pale blue ones. Then the black, the sparkly, and the green. One by one, the winners chose their purses, and game by game, I continued my perfect losing streak. Finally, it was down to two purses, the bright pink and a plain beige. The woman who won the game was a lovely person who works as a social worker. She was very studious-looking, outdoorsy, and looked like a backpack suited her better. But she excitedly chose the pink purse. As with each choice, I sighed and said, “oh, I love that one.” The winner smiled at me and proudly put it in front of her on the table.
The last game commenced, and like the others, I lost again. It was okay, though, I had met some new friends, met some women I hope to never see again, made some new contacts and had seen a squirrel and baby bunny! As I was saying my goodbyes, the owner of the pink purse called my name and asked me to come over. She said, “You know, as much as I love this purse, I am never, ever, going to use it. It looks just like something that would look amazing on you and it matches your blouse perfectly – would you like it?” So guess what – I was a winner after all. And now I have a beautiful new, pink purse.
Now, for the grandson update. We all piled into Ruby to do some fun shopping and playing in a new water park. We got Arthur some new water shoes, a new towel, and some sunscreen. Arthur is fearless, and the moment we got to the splash pad, he ran pell-mell into it and danced and laughed his way through the sprays. When he got thoroughly soggy and chilled, we scooped him up and dried him off, and brought him to the playground. Time after time, when we’d put him down, he’d head right back to the water park. That boy knows what he likes! After a thoroughly delightful playtime, we all piled into the car, took a trip to a beautiful park right at the bottom of George Washington Bridge, and enjoyed a picnic lunch before I dropped them all home again – another perfect day.
