102: My New Lucky Number
Jun22 2006
3:00 PM
I decide I'm going to do it. Free Chick-Fil-A for a year. That's 52 coupons for free value meals. I tell Lori where I'm going and head from Mount Pleasant to James Island. It seems every cop in the world is on the same road I am forcing me to not speed. I even almost kill a bicyclist as he
veers onto the connector trying to fix his CD player.
3:20 PM
I make three friggin' trips around the block trying to decide whether there's already 100 people in line. Finally, after 10 minutes of driving I decide I'll be mad at myself for a long time if I at least don't get out and see what number they're up to.
3:30 PM
I just missed a sign-in and now they're doing roll call so I have to wait 20 minutes. I find out I'm number 106 - just 6 people shy of being guaranteed a spot in the top 100. I decide to go ahead and sign up hoping that at least 6 people ahead of me will drop out.
4:00 PM
My nuts are on fire. I'm in blue jeans and a collared shirt. Finally I get some reinforcements and a change of clothes. Ashley signs up as number 122 and Chip doesn't wanna hobble across Folly Rd. to get his driver's license so he decides to hang out. I'm told they're gonna have roll calls every hour. Anyone over the top 100 get entered into a raffle for 5 of the prizes. The longer you're there the more tickets you have the raffle.
8 friggin' 30 PM
Over 4 hours before another roll call. I'm pretty pissed but a free chicken
sandwich heals all the pain. That plus the pizza we ordered. Time's gone by pretty fast at this point. Having Chip and Ashley there make it a hell of a lot better considering there are definitely some strange folks at this thing. Luckily I'm not one of those. :-)
10:30 PM
yyyummmm... Chicken Nuggets. And some basketball. "Let it RAIN!" Chip and I shoot around for a little while entertained by a couple James Island thug teenagers who are also a hell of a lot better at basketball than I am. There's also a DJ. I win a
CD because I know the Kids in the Hall soundtrack. That makes me come to the sad realization I've watched too much
TV. Chip calls it a night and heads out without leaving me his damn iPod like he said he would.
12:30 AM
Another roll call followed by ice cream sundaes. We settle in. Lots of talks which several people. Meet some interesting people. Turns out there's basically two types of people at this thing. Younger people like myself, and older folks. Most of them have been about 6+ of these things. They're
friggin' experts. One guy's got roughly $4000 worth of coupons.
Blurry time between 12:30 and 5
Somehow I've stayed away the entire damn time! A lot of walking around. A lot of sitting. A lot of drunk people blowing the horn as they drive. One car even proceeds to cuss everybody out with some big F bombs. That's about the most exciting thing that happens.
5:00 AM (Hour 14 in case you're not counting)
The staff finally start to wake everyone up. Damn those people that got 5 hours of sleep. Damn the staff for lying to me about checking every hour. The final count starts. 102 - Are you
friggin' kidding me?! I'm number 102. I get 14 tickets into the raffle. First pick: not me. Second pick: thank you!!!!! I'm number 102, again. I get shuffled through the store with all these employees banging pots and high-fives. Not really wanted I wanted after having been up for 24 hours.
6:00 AM - The End
I get my 52 free value meal coupons and very happily leave the Chic-Fil-A parking lot. A little cat nap and it's off to work.
THANK YOU CHICK-FIL-A!
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