Perhaps just wishful thinking, hoping maybe lady luck decided to finally swing my way, maybe a little desperation, because I haven’t been ANYWHERE outside of this dang state, the same city, since my honeymoon!  But Perhaps, a combination platter of these things, caused me to nearly, get scammed. Even when I was going to write this post in the morning, with a ’scam..question mark?’. I still wasn’t 100% sure if it was a scam, and I was just going to have to put something in, (fee wise), which i didn’t think earlier, i mean FREE, IS FREE, but I should know better, living in NY, born and raised,  how could I not realize, nothing is ever free, and also, my luck just ain’t that good.

 

   What am I referring to? Hubby says I got a phone call on his cell yesterday saying I had filled out a lil card, for a free vacation, at the local pizzeria, which I had done, you know, you fill it out, put it in the little box, and I have not done that since I was a child, I just lately have been thinking, my luck has been so bad, my entire life, that I’m just basically do for something great, ya know? I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling, but trust me, if I had all day, and wrote out all the things that have made me so unlucky, your jaw would hit the floor, you’d throw your arms up and cry ‘YOU WIN’, for now, just trust me, in what I’m saying, lol.

 

 Whelp, supposedly I won 4 days, and 3 nights, on a bahama cruise for 2, FREE vacation. (Did i mention FREE?). It said, NO timeshare, no catch, no fine print, yadda, yadda, so when I listened myself to the message, I sort of believed it..YEAH I FINALLY won something, and I finally get a trip, which I have been dying for, I was ready to pack, lol. I mean, at 1st I had slight reservations, but knowing that it wasn’t an online thing, so obviously phoney, and it was a REAL person on the phone, not a voicemail message, and I kept in mind, that I DID fill out a card, and my name COULD have been selected, and thinking, who would allow a scam to run in their place of work, right?, I always thought of those types of things as ‘real’, just unlikely for me to win, so I didn’t bother, but something urged me to do it, and I thought, YEAH it paid off. Whelp, lady luck was behind my shoulder, laughing a little bit, I’m sure.

    Last night, I called the # the lady had told me to call. I mean by the sounds of it, hubby told me not to be excited, just because, he knows, we just ain’t lucky enough, and he had been scammed in a different way before, but then again not TOO differently, and wanted me to keep my head on my shoulders, which I had thought I had, until disappointment sets in, and your super duper bummed, which means, I never did keep my head on straight at all apparently. That is the true test, you don’t get majorlly disappointed, if you keep your distance on an idea, and don’t put any stock in it.

 

     Like I said, I had called the #, and oh boy, there was a voice mail, (bad thought),  but the guy sounded very genuine, so I thought, professional, and I thought, ok this could still be good. Whelp, about 10+ minutes in, there was no mention of the plane fare, or cruise part, being FREE, I heard about the hotel accommodations, but what about the rest? I started going..oh no,I mean that’s the most expensive part of the trip. I don’t live in Florida or the Bahamas, so it would be $500 maybe more nowadays, just to get to Florida, so that was certainly bad news, but I thought it was a free vacation, not a free motel room?  Whelp, then he continued on, and made it seems again, sort of nice, with the boat ride, and dinners aboard, free meals if you choose the cruise option, and then it hit..cruise option $99 a person, for port taxes or something like that. Even this morning I thought, whelp $200 for a cruise including drinks and food, is a steal, BUT now we are adding a bunch of money we do not have right now, on top of this so called ‘free vacation’.  They can make it sound decent regardless, IF you are one of the suckers like me, who actually stays on the phone for that long. I didn’t even realize at the time, as I did today, cause I guess I just wanted it to be real, so I could get that dang vacation I’ve been itching for for over 1/2 a decade, and that there were lil other things like hotel room taxes, I never even knew hotel rooms had taxes on them, that is the only good part of being a woman, not having to pick up the tab for dinners and trips, lol, whelp at least I guess not until your married, if you have an income, lol.

     Part of the reason i created this site, aside from the, I’m happy to be good at something, and also, to help others, and feel good in the process, because I had the idea to do this a long time ago, just didn’t know if i’d be good enough, that was the negative side talking then, but another benefit, at least for the monetary part, many free things to have fun and do here at ipole, but..is to help with the struggle I see hubby going through on a regular basis ($ wise). It wouldn’t be alot, but something certainly would be a contribution to what i see on a daily basis, that causes alot of stress between him and himself, and even between the two of us. I’d feel good about it, if I contributed something, so it will be a nice perk, but I digress back to my story….These lil things (mentions of taxes and such, in the message), seemed to slip by me, and this morning I decided to do what I smartly always do, but not always a benefit to me..check it out online.

 

    Whelp, if it wasn’t for online reading, who knows, how stupid I might have been, still thinking..maybe the trip is a good deal and idea, and get so into it, I’m packing my swimsuits, because I only had to do a tad of research and was then able to easily read about other people, completely and totally hooked, line, and sinkered, on this ’scam’,  and pondering about the same free trip, some already having paid between $85-$200 up front, for quote un quote ‘fees’. At least I had not gone that far.

     I can’t even make it to the USPDF Pole dancing championships in a couple weeks, like I had wanted to, right now, I just don’t have the $140, and that is just bummer enough, especially living not far from the event, like a slap in the face, so as you can see, no money to spend, and so I was glad I read all I had, but disappointed at the same time, because, I wasn’t chosen, I wasn’t special, I didn’t win, I’m still the same unlucky loser I was before the call. Isn’t that damn sad to think about yourself..to yourself? That’s how I felt though.

 

    The people who did take the trip, said there were other hidden fees that came into play down the line, and that accommodations were substandard, and I checked out the hotel they said we’d be staying at (I’d say they are right), and booking your own trip would be better and cheaper even, and the boat is a lil ferry like thing, you are on for like 8 hrs, and not a true cruise at all.  Then there was mentioned, that they were not really chosen, that EVERYONE gets a phone call, who enters for this so called ‘free trip’ and to prove it, one girl and her boyfriend entered, and both got separate calls, that they won. That just made my heart sink and go ‘ok, I didn’t lose any money, but faith in luck and happiness in the thought of a getaway, sure went out the window’. 

 

      You know, all my husband has said for me the past few years, is that you HAVE to play the lottery, you are bound to hit big, and he knows my whole life from birth and up, can’t tell you how many times, as I can be quite the little chatter box, lol, me? no….lol. But he’s never heard of someone falling into so many crazy rare situations, having so many negative twists of fate, soo much bad luck, he just said no way, it’s time for you, you have gotto play the lottery or something, your time has gotto be coming. I’ve never been a huge gambler, not with my own money anyhow, lol, I like getting tangible goods with my cash, but at the same time, I did at least (WAH) enjoy a nice trip to Vegas, but it was never on my dime, I haven’t been anywhere since being married, so I’d be the cheapest gambler in the world if I was paying myself, lol, I just like something to show for my money, but I do enjoy the thrill of a good slot machine pull, or keno game, or even quick draw, poker, stuff like that, I just could never get hooked on it and spend a fortune, that isn’t me. I know someone who sinks their child support that way, and I just don’t understand how something can be that addictive and not be ingested internally, but it’s obviously quite possible.

 

     So anyhow, I get these lil things in my inbox from a ‘fortune teller..some sort of person like that’, just free inserts with a lil message, and stuff  like my lucky days and numbers, once every few weeks or so, not even sure how I ended up getting subscribed to that, but they have been coming for a couple years now, I hardly ever read them, but when I do there has been a lot of luck, and money, in them, and whatever, I don’t put any stock in that, nice to hear, but never comes true, and this happened last night it said that before I found out the truth about the trip and I was like ‘hmmm’, but joke on me again. I like I said am not a huge gambler, so I don’t play lotto but once in a blue moon, for a buck, and I mean like once every couple years, lol and I haven’t bought a scratch off lottery ticket since like 1989, lol. a kid basically. That was cause they were sort of cool, and I had a friend, you know, one of those friends, who wins at EVERYTHING, EVERYTIME, the kind you are happy for, but at the same time, you wanna scratch their eyes out (just kidding Maddie, lol), but literally every scratch off game, I WON, every carnival game ever played, impossible ones even, lol, WON, she’d take home 150 prizes, and I’d be sitting there with nothing, and she’d hand me something and go ‘Here shelly’. that is her, I’m the opposite, so she should be playing the big lotto, that is for darn sure, but I’m just not this type of person, but hey if my luck was due for a change, OK THEN, I’ll try. 

     I picked out a bunch of numbers, ended up filling out 10 lotto games for mega millions, and hubby turned them in, $10 for one game (I didn’t realize that all the #’s apply to the same game). I thought that is crazy and soo not me, I could get a shirt for that, marked down from $60 to $10, lol, that is my thought processes, but he said DO IT, your due and so I did. It was actually Friday, February 13th, so I figured, an unlucky person, on an unlucky day, but alas, as you can see, pining away on a stupid bahama vacation, I did not become the next mega millionaire, lol.

       I know the last 2 blog entries, have ZERO to do with pole dancing, AT ALL, but I wanted to vent and to show that there are a couple things in life that do hold true. Nothing in life, is truly ever free, everything has strings when it seems to good to be true, and on that note, if it is too good to be true, Whelp, keep your purse strings closed, that is, unless you’re the invinsible Maddy.

       Whelp I have a pounding migraine since yesterday, so I gotto get my eyes off this screen, it’s making me nuts. Sorry I wasn’t on the board yesterday (or today, thus far), but my head is really pounding away, nothing seems to wanna work on it, so i promise to be back in action ASAP. Kids are also under the weather with a cold so…One of those CALGON TAKE ME AWAY moments in time.

      I’ll be back with something pole dancing related in my next post, I promise with a video or something, and I appreciate it, if you didn’t laugh and call me sucker after reading this story..naive a bit? maybe, but I don’t wanna think of myself as a sucker. Now if I went for that direct buy crap, lol, then call me a sucker. A actually had to go and get hubby to run back in and get his $500 deposit back on that scam, now that day he was a big sucker. NEVER fall for that one, unless you have 20 million dollars to spend on a home you will start refurnishing from top to bottom, lol, but he can’t make fun of me once I bring up THAT sorted little tale.

 

Much love, hugs, and kisses, (until next time), shelly

 

PS- I might extend the deadline for the contest, because I haven’t really promoted it fully yet, so I’ll keep you posted on that front. I can’t believe we are in March already. Spring around the corner..YEAH!

 

PSS- Don’t think I don’t know how to space paragraphs, and align them properly, wordpress, is weird like that, i edit, and center, and add my spaces, and it sort of oddy ‘does it’s own thing’, sometimes I can’t get my blog posts to bold no matter how many times i select it. Anyone w/ experience on this type of site? GREAT $100 there, lol. xoxo