The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Alright, here's the deal. I've been trying to win an Xbox 360 in the Mountain Dew drawing every 10 minutes. I put a total of about 7 entries in the 6:00 pm eastern drawing on Friday 9/9/05. This was what time I got off of work. I didn't get to look at the internet all weekend and when I finally did this morning I saw...on the winner's board....in the 6:00 pm eastern timeslot...on the Friday 9/9/05 calendar day....the initials....A.M.....followed by the city/state, Chicago, IL....That's me!

Now I had entered a few times before, I like Pepsi products and there no use wasting the codes when the prize is an Xbox 360 before you can buy it. I hadn't put any codes in for a few days at least and then I see this. My problem if you haven't seen the contest site is that they don't tell you the winner's name. Living in a city with a couple million people there is bound to be someone else with the same initials as me. There are definitely other Chicagoans who drink Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Some of these people enter this contest, I know because I've seen other winners from the Windy City. But, to meet all of those criteria and enter in the contest on the same day, with the same 10 minutes time slot...what are the chances?

Now the website says that you will be notified within 72 hours if you won, just in case someone does have the same initals, in the same city, yadda yadda yadda. So I should be expecting to get my e-mail and updated account history page tomorrow or assume that I am not the winner.

So I get on the Xbox 360 forums and start reading what others experiences had been. Apparently there are a few people that have thought they won, but didn't because someone else had a matching description. I could live with this. I would be a little disheartened, but I could live knowing that someone else won. I had not one before and I probably won't be the winner sometime again in the future. Then I found people who didn't get notification until 130 hours after they won. This is where I'm having a problem.

I would just hate to lose all of this time I could have been entering codes into the contest. I get the codes anyway, I drink Pepsi, they are sitting in my messenger bag. Do I give them away, throw them out. You can only win once so entering them in may be useless. It's the not knowing that I can't stand. I've already found out from my fellow Xbox forum members that calling is useless, they won't release the list until the contest is over and they won't tell you if it's your name or not. You just have to wait.

So, frantically...all day...I've been checking back on the website and checking my e-mail hoping for some new information. My 72 hours should be up at 5:00 tonight (Chicago time). It's driving me crazy. If I don't know soon I may explode. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get notification by tomorrow. I just have this feeling that it has to be me.

I suppose I will continue to drink my Pepsi. I will let my messenger bag fill up with with plastic bottle caps. I will continue to frantically checking my e-mail and checking my "Account History" section of every10minutes.com. I will keep realizing that Tom Petty was right...The Waiting is the Hardest Part.