TRAVEL CONTESTS

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

THE THING WITH FEATHERS *

Another coincidence: Memorial Day weekend was as much about birds as it was about appreciating that summertime was upon us in that wonderful, unofficial way, as well as hiking into Shenandoah National Park, relaxing with friends, very hospitable friends at that, watching Isaac play for hours on end with friends with no schedule whatsoever. Glorious. Where the birds came in is thus: I met a new species, an Eastern Phoebe, which I found irrestible. They have this way of looking at you, as well as a pattern of flight that resembles that of a hummingbird, at least momentarily, when it's in a holding position. I heard but did not see a Pileated Woodpecker, another first. We passed one in the car at one point, but I didn’t look quickly enough when my friend pointed it out to me. And at night, I heard an owl. But I forgot its name.

There were butterflies and frogs, tree frogs, bull frogs, green frogs, so many frogs that it sounded like the rainforest. This was central Virginia, not Central America.

Last evening, I was clicking around looking for area bird clubs. As it turns out, the Audobon Society is sponsoring a sweeps with a prize of four nights in Chesapeake, Virginia, at the Homewood Suites by Hilton, Chesapeake/Greenbrier, plus the following: “car rental for duration of stay (restrictions apply, including driver must be at least 25 years of age and have a major credit card in their name), a kayaking trip with Kayak Nature Tours, LTD, a sunset sail in the Chesapeake Bay on Schooner Serenity, free tickets for public skating at the Chilled Ponds Ice Sports Complex, a free round of golf at the Chesapeake Golf Club, free admission into the Virginia Living Museum, and free admission to the Norfolk Botanical Garden.” Not exactly a bird themed package, despite the sponsorship and the name “Bird’s Eye View of Virginia,” but I'm sure if we won, we’d manage to have a few bird moments.

To enter, click HERE. Then click on the photo of what looks like a male Hooded Warbler.

Note: Isn’t it enough that D.C. residents don’t have representation in Congress? With this sweeps, if you live in D.C., you can’t enter online. At least I couldn’t. Someone apparently forgot to include D.C. in the list of states. I’m mailing a postcard to:

“A Bird’s-Eye View of Virginia” Sweepstakes
1878 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14610.

One time entry only. Closes June 30.

* You know the reference. Here’s the source:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

-- Emily Dickinson
(Poem # 254.)

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

PRAY TELL: SWEEPS IMITATE LIFE

I have been on pins and needles all day waiting to hear if Isaac made the select travel soccer team he tried out for two weeks ago. He made it last year, and hoped to play with the same team again in the fall. After hours and hours and hours AND HOURS of waiting – I started checking last evening in the off chance the club had gone ahead and posted the results as a courtesy, but no such luck – we finally got the word. While I waited for the announcement, which was to be posted on the club’s website by 5 P.M, per a noon email from the team manager, I checked the site countless times, I speculated that something unusual was afoot, that they were dropping more players on the team than usual or some such potential complication. I prayed. I cursed. My interior monologue devolved into alternating mantras: “Cruel and unusual” and “SoccerHead headache: how would I spell RELIEF?” and “What the hey?” A little past noon or thereabouts, I noticed his coach was online. (We both have AOL accounts, and his addy automatically pops up in my Buddy List.) Of course, I wondered what to read into that.

Then at 1:37:44, I got an email with the subject line “soccer and stuff” from someone whose email address I did not immediately recognize. I thought, “Who’s this? A GRIEF COUNSELOR? Isaac did not make the cut and they’re dispatching A GRIEF COUNSELOR to bear the bad news?”

It turned out to be about a separate soccer matter.

Ah, the waiting. Last year, Isaac tried out for another team and did not make it. That hurt, even though the waiting only amounted to a few hours. After a team practice, the manager said she’d send out emails that evening, and she did. Isaac made the team he’d tried out for as backup, the one he didn’t care about making when he tried out, at least not going into tryouts last spring. Then he had one of the great experiences of his childhood, with a wonderful coach, wonderful teammates, wonderful families. Which is what made waiting for this news this afternoon nearly unbearable.

True confession: For tryouts, I was nervous about Isaac falling back into his favorite position, defense, and not charging the ball as much as he should, a skill I assumed the men with the clipboards (they all happened to be men) would score, that I went to the store the afternoon of the first tryout and bought two bottles of his two favorite sodas, Orangina and IBC root beer and, like some hybrid Jewish-mother-stage-mother-soccer-mom, ordered him to, “Drink! Drink! DRINK!”

Pop, as they say down south, yes, pop, the soccer mom’s steroids.

By 2:30, I was started to get mildly annoyed, even though not being able to compartmentalize is my issue, not anyone else’s, certainly not a soccer club’s. (That’s right, I own it, I bought it on layaway, the psychotherapy plan.) I contemplated emailing the team manager, but held off. One question on the soccer club’s homepage kept catching my eye: THINK YOU'RE READY TO TRY OUT FOR A TRAVEL/SELECT TEAM? Today, before the team announcement, in the middle of the Big Wait, my answer was a resounding, “I’m not sure anymore.” I was mainly annoyed with myself for having assumed that I would know the answer by the time I went to pick up Isaac after school; he would be expecting the word from high when I went to get him. This was dragging on longer than I'd thought it would, and I was beginning to wonder if that would be the case. Then I fantasized about IM-ing the coach and begging him to take me out of my misery. Oh, what a faux pas that would be. Then, pouf! The coach signed off.

At 3:20 or so, I called Isaac’s father at work, since his is the email the club would be notifying. I wondered if the club would be sending out email notifications in advance of posting resulting online. No answer. I tried his cell. No answer there, either. I left voicemails asking him whether he’d been checking his email this afternoon. He emailed. No email on his end.

I know this is over the top. Therefore, I know I am not losing it. They say lucidity and self-awareness are the last things to go.

At 3:56, there was an announcement on the website confirming the manager’s noon email: TRYOUT SELECTIONS WILL BE POSTED BY 5PM TODAY, MAY 30. This left me wondering whether the manager had gotten a head’s up or whether there’s a four-hour lag with my AOL server and the site – which has been known to happen.

It’s 4:15. Do I know why my child is?

I hate not knowing. My fear of flying is rooted in not knowing, in what might be going on behind the cockpit door. (This pre-dates September 11 by almost 20 years.) I hate when someone asks, “Guess who I ran into today?” or “Guess what?” GUESS? I can’t take that. Tell me at once, I command thee. Or even worse: “I have something I’d like to discuss with you, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.” Oh no you don’t. And what is waiting but not knowing. In its most innocuous form, it’s not knowing when: when it will be your turn to check out, when the plane will take off, when, when, when. In its more complex form, it’s not know the result of something, a medical test, a school application. If there’s uncertainty about the when, it only aggravates not knowing the what.

4:52: I know. He made the team.

To celebrate, I’m entering a Coca-Cola sweeps (refrain: soda as soccer mom’s steroids) for a trip to the country of the winner of the World Cup.

I’ll post the details later. Right now, I’m going to get Isaac. Then, I’ll really going to celebrate. (Though it will be mixed, not knowing who else made the team.) Still, I'm having me a nice cold beer. No pop for this mom.

P.S. 7:44: We drank blue beer, since Isaac’s team has the word “blue” in it. (He just had a wee bit, not as much as the green beer I give him on St. Patrick’s Day.)

To enter the trip to the country of World Cup winner, click HERE. You can enter daily until, well, until the sweeps closes on July 1.

To fantasize about which country you’d like to win the World Cup and then perhaps visit, here's a map of the world with the 32 soccer teams flagged for your traveling fantasies. Click HERE.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

QUELLE COINCIDENCE DEUX

Speak of the devil: France was in the air yesterday, when I referenced my exchange-student stint in France. This morning I clicked upon a contest with a prize of two nights in a château for two, plus air. Details are sketchy; the E.U.’s advertising disclosure rules are not as rigid as ours, so it’s often impossible to get anything concrete beyond the names of the sponsors. In the case, that would be Air France and Hotels France Patrimoine.

In some ways, France no longer inspires me. But then I think back, to all this: I’ve sipped Chambord at the Château Chambord, had cognac with breakfast in Cognac, bumped into Alain Delon going into the movie “An American Paris” in Paris (when I asked him to let me take his photograph, he looked at me with hiss-eyes, and asked, “Qui êtes vous?” And I responded, all meek, “Je ne suis personne. Je ne suis qu’une américaine à Paris.” He relaxed and POSED for me. Then he proceeded into the moviehouse), I ran into former minister of culture Jacques Lang and famous photographer Marc Riboud and the Dali Lama when the Dali Lama was visiting Blois. (When we wrote as much in a postcard, our friends in Paris thought we were joking.) Oh, and I heard Joan Baez in concert when I was in Antibes with my high school French teacher, and a few years later danced with the Village People at some disco in Paris that was all the rage at the time. I was an au pair in Fontainebleau for a few months. I went camping with the Guides de France, first in the French Alps near Briançon and then in Provence, where we rented a wagon from a fellow who rented Gypsy wagons to people. And we bumped into a band of Gypsies, and all the Guides thought it would be fun to see if they could guess that there was a foreigner, an American, among them. (They did not.) Then there was a party in the château out near Chartres with a friend of friend who was doing his service militaire, and on the way home he threw a dud grenade into the Seine for fun. Then there was climbing to the top of the Puy de Dome in Auvergne and inhaling this pungent, lavender-infused air and practically having the wind knocked out of me over the beauty of it all.

Suddenly, there’s this tremendous pull.

To enter, folks have to answer three questions CORRECTLY. That’s a twist. I don’t think it’s fair for me to give away my answers, which I believe were correct. Suffice it to say that in two out of three questions, your process-of-elimination-skills should trump any knowledge gaps. The third question is also pretty intuitive. To enter, click HERE.

Friday, May 26, 2006

THE VERY GOOD FRUIT

With my luck, this will be the one I win, a three-night stay at some to-be-announced la-di-da spa (with an Approximate Retail Value of $8,500, I think it’s safe to say this is a la-di-da spa; airfare is included) on, drum roll please, Beano, the natural anti-gas dietary supplement. Check out the URL: WWW.BEANOGAS.COM. This is serious.

There are actually two ways to enter this one: 1.) a contest, which includes submitting a recipe and a short essay about a friend and the recipe and how you support each other presumably in all manner of anti-gas assistance, and 2.) a sweeps, with a straightforward personal data entry.

I'm opting for the sweeps, as fun as it might be to write a little vignette about my best college friend and my shared love of healthful, delicious food and, while we’re at it, fart jokes. (How can I write about this and not go here?) My best friend grew up in francophone Africa, and I spoke a smattering of one-summer-as-an-exchange-student-in-France French. If I’m not mistaken, I think one of the first times I impressed her with my French was the day she realized I knew how to say “fart” in French. (If you're curious, it’s “péter.”)

I suppose I shouldn’t snicker here, because this Beano supplement might be doing a lot of people a lot of good. It corrects deficiencies of the enzyme alpha-galactosidase. Without this, people develop Complex Carbohydrate Intolerance, with all the predictable symptoms.

To enter the Beano Spa Sweeps, click HERE.

To enter the Beano Spa Contest (you must provide a recipe and an essay) click HERE.

Toot toot.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

BOUNCING OFF THE SWEEPS WALLS

I’m coming off a deadline, which tends to involve a systemic halt of extraordinary dimensions, as though I’ve woken up to a home devoid of caffeine after several days of doing major drugs of the stimulant variety. And it’s a halt, not a crash. A crash implies downward motion that eventually comes to rest, while a halt is stopping indefinitely without release, stopping with the Sisyphusian knowledge that I must take a few long, deep breaths and get ready to do it all over again.

Of course I’m hopelessly addicted to it all. But my poor adrenals.

This morning, I clicked around and entered three sweeps, including this one: Four days in Nassau, Bahamas, at The Pelican Bay at Lucaya. Presumably this means four days, three nights, but I couldn’t get the darn Official Rules to scroll down so I couldn't get the full details. This one is sponsored by M&M’s, to promote Pirates of the Caribbean. (A stretch, I’d say; M&M’s seems to have developed White Chocolate Pirate Pearls especially for the occasion.)

To enter, click HERE.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

GRAD SCHOOL TRAVEL MARTYR

I’m going back to school this summer, to complete my MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Goucher College. It’s a great program with a tremendous faculty, and this summer’s two-week residency is packed with stellar guest lecturers (Mary Karr, Kathryn Harrison, Ted Conover; last summer, John McPhee dropped by and deconstructed one of his pieces for us).

I am really, really looking forward to getting back into the groove of being a student after a year off. The only thing dragging me down, along with the prospect of completing a 150-page manuscript by next spring, is the fact that the residency impinges on my ability to take an extended trip with my son Isaac this summer. (He recently gave me permission to use his name here. )

Now I could, but based on my experience in 2004, when I came home from 10 days in Costa Rica and scooted up to Baltimore for two weeks THE VERY NEXT DAY, this would not be a wise move. Nor would piggybacking onto Isaac’s trip with his father to Ecuador right after the residency this summer -- as tempting as that might be. I've considered flying down and Isaac and I doing something that complimented the first leg of their trip (which will probably include the Galápagos). It just feels like too much, especially since I am going to be working through all this, and over the course of the next two semesters.

I know it’s only one summer, but it’s the only summer Isaac will be nine, and in a few years he’s probably going to be going off on his own to places like Spain and Brazil and Bolivia with his soccer coaches.

Anyway, there's always next summer.

This summer, we’ll probably do something short and sweet in New England and the mid-Atlantic, combine visiting friends with visiting places like Plymouth and Salem, Mass., or, closer to home, Williamsburg and Jamestown. (Yes, I have U.S.-history-lesson motives here.) With stateside vacations in mind, here’s a fun sweeps, five nights in one of Marriott’s 2,700 continental U.S. hotels, airfare on CheapTickets and a six-day car rental from Herz. To enter, CLICK HERE. Warning: You have to play a game matching U.S. “Wonders of America” postage stamps with the region they’re depicting, but like so many of these things, you can enter even if you get every question wrong. You can enter once a day daily until the sweeps closes on July 15.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

BACK TO NATURE

As I’ve mentioned before, as recently as last week, one of the oddest things about my contesting experience so far is the thematic coincidences. Last week, there was Barbara’s Bakery. Last evening, my evening constitutional led me to a contest sponsored by Nature Valley, the granola bar folks and a favorite on-the-go breakfast of mine for years. I haven’t entered yet, because I am still on deadline and this one is a genuine contest, not an effort-free sweeps. (I'm in such a mad dash, I haven't sussed out details on the prize, except that the winner gets to pick out a favorite place in nature listed on the site.) In addition to clicking in the standard data, name, address and so on, I am going to have to write up something about a favorite place in nature, the theme of the sponsor's website, one of those interactive participatory things the precise aim of which eludes me. Am I supposed to compare my favorites with other people’s favorites? And should I care?

Despite the lack of clarity on my part, I can’t denigrate a site that celebrates nature, especially when it contains such a stunning satellite photograph of North America. For details, CLICK HERE.

Monday, May 22, 2006

RE-ENTRY AND AN EXCEPTION

Never say never: I just entered a cruise sweeps. This one, of Norwegian fjords, fits my cruise specs to a T: It can only be to some place very, very interesting, or to a place only accessible by boat. This cruise is for seven days. The sweeps does NOT include air. Departure is on August 27, 2006 from Harwich, England. To enter, CLICK HERE.

Besides the usual re-entry whirl, I'm on deadline. More later.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

BOOK 'EM, BARBARA'S

For all my wanderlusting, actually going on a trip can feel like logistical overload when work-family-household planets are not properly aligned. Mine certainly do not feel aligned this afternoon as I get ready to head out to a four-day conference first thing tomorrow a.m. Work deadlines, a half-painted kitchen, an elderly cat with digestive troubles, a nine-year-old son with a half-finished geography assignment and a zillion other little things that individually do not amount to much but collectively assume the dimensions of Mt. Vesuvius, ready to blow.

This frenzied state makes the thought of winning today’s featured sweeps, six days and five nights in Waikiki, especially enticing. To enter, click HERE. One entry per person. The sweeps runs through September 30.

The sponsor is BARBARA'S BAKERY, maker of healthful cereals and snacks. The package includes air and a whale watch. Barbara’s website quotes one of Mark Twain’s many descriptions of Hawaii: “the peacefullest, restfullest, balmiest, dreamiest haven of refuge for a worn and weary spirit the surface of the earth can offer.”

Here, here, says this worn and weary spirit. For a captivating article on Mark Twain’s Hawaii, click HERE.

Fretting aside, I know I'll be raring to go as soon as I’m farther along with my preparations.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

VROOM VROOM TWO

Yesterday, it was Audi. Today it’s Ford. (I can’t resist singing, “Have you entered a Ford sweeps lately?” to the tune of the Ford jingle. Yes, if it hasn't already occurred to you, I am as intractably corny as Kansas in August.) The compare-and-contrast semiotics: With the Audi sweeps, the prize included accommodations at top lodges in Colorado (the grand prize) and Utah (first prize); they were arranged by Abercrombie and Kent; you get a Audi Q7 for the trip, but you do not get to keep it. With the Ford sweeps, you win a trip to Las Vegas and tickets to a Penn and Teller show, PLUS a car, a Ford Escape XLT Sport.

I realize this is comparing tangerines and pomegranates, but I think the semiotics, while predictable, are worth noting.

To enter one, CLICK HERE. One entry per email. The sweeps closes November 30.

On luck: Speaking of cars, I park my car in a rented parking space in a lot next to my apartment building. My next-spot parking neighbor is a man who works for my building’s management company. Last evening I saw him for the first time in months, and asked how he was doing. He told me has a blood disorder and was bitten by a mosquito and it’s done something to his blood and that’s doing something to his liver and if they can’t cure it he’s going to have to be hospitalized for 40 days for treatment and if that’s not effective he’s going to have to get a kidney transplant. He bemoaned his bad luck. “It’s something like one in 100,000,” he said, and then mumbled something about the lottery, the logic of which I did not follow. Of course this brief encounter reminded me for the millionth-plus time how lucky we are when we have our health. I wish him well. Here’s to everyone’s health, and I mean everyone's.

Monday, May 15, 2006

VROOM VROOM

One of my most coveted trips thus far since I started blogging is an 11-day Colorado Road trip, with an Audi for the trip but not to take home. That’s the Grand Prize. The First Prize is a road trip through Utah. Ooh. I’d take either. I’d been entering this one daily until last week, when I started experiencing technical difficulties with the Audi microsite. I thought it was my Flash, but I was able to click around other Flash sites. I never resolved the problem, despite a call to a most helpful Audi customer relations woman. The sweeps closes TODAY. So if you can access it and are so inclined, CLICK HERE for your last shot at this one.

Otherwise, this is without a doubt my most hectic week since I started blogging two months ago. Entries will be short and sweet.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

THIS IS A TEST

I am going away next week, to The Castle on the Hudson, and want to make sure posting by email works.

Friday, May 12, 2006

CALLING ALL TEACHERS: TRIP FOR TWELVE

I’m sure as hell bound for Hades if the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I’d meant to post notice of this one, a trip for one teacher (and an adult chaperone) and up to 12 students, between ages 13 through 23. To enter, or just to check it out, click HERE. It’s sponsored by EF Educational Tours, an outfit based in Cambridge, Mass. I am not entering, since I am a student these days, not a teacher; I can’t speak to how much information they want beyond the basics. I think it’s just what’s there on the online entry form. This looks like it could be a terrific opportunity for a teacher and his/her lucky students. Last year's winner took his students to Costa Rica to study biology.

NOTE: Do not delay! The contest closes May 31.

P.S. Here's a teacherly thought: Apparently Samuel Johnson said, “Hell is paved with good intentions.” He did not mention roads, he did not write the oft-used, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” No matter. In my humble opinion, usage improved the expression. Everybody likes a good road trip, even if your final destination is Hades.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

QUELLE COINCIDENCE

Now, if this isn’t a coincidence. Just yesterday I mentioned how my son’s had Australia on the brain for at least four years. I know we’ll get there; recent summers have just been too complicated for us to take a trip to the other side of the world. Now here’s a contest with a prize to the Great Barrier Reef. Actually, the winner gets to select his or her prize from three trips. The two other choices are Costa Rica and a safari in Kenya. Wow. For us, it would be between The Great Barrier Reef and Kenya, since we’ve been to Costa Rica. (A fantastic trip, that Costa Rica trip.)

To enter, click HERE, it's an icon on Citibank's site, and follow the instructions. (Message to Citibank: What is with the Ugly American Tourist dude on the entry page?) You have to answer three trivia questions. For each correct answer, you get a chance to win. Then it gets a little complicated, not terribly, but a few more steps. I wasn’t able to get all the way through it because my computer’s acting funky. (Damn spyware. Or, maybe it’s the President. They’re monitoring our phone calls. Blogs might be next.) I’ll post thoughts on how navigable this one is once I get the hang of it -- this evening I hope. We’ve only got a little more than a month to go for it: You can enter once a day through June 16. Residents of Colorado, Puerto Rico are not eligible.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

BIRTH TRAVEL

Travel is taking on every thematic form imaginable these days. Marathon, public library, independent bookstore, plastic surgery, dental (Costa Rica’s supposed to be good for that), alternative medicine (China, where else). Unless they’ve already slipped out or are plotting to flee Namibia for parts afar, Angelina Jolie appears poised to deliver her baby in Africa. This begs the question: Will she inspire other women to follow suit? Will we soon see destination births, á la destination weddings (which once upon a time seemed like an extravagance only for the rich)?

I seriously doubt it. Yes, cost is a huge factor. But so too is sense of, and attachment to, place. The last thing I wanted to do when I got close to delivering was to stray too far from home. My baby was due the week before Labor Day. That summer, I did not travel, not even to the beach in North Carolina for a week, because I wanted to be near the best medical facilities in the event something happened. I did not visit my parents in Connecticut, because I wanted my baby to be born where I lived. I felt a primordial attachment to home, my home, and hospital, my hospital. Now, I’ve traveled some, but I’ve never lived a peripatetic existence of a movie star, so the attachment psychology there is something else altogether. Plus, Angelina Jolie has the damn paparazzi in the mix. Good for her for ducking those beasts.

Fortunately, the urge to travel returned as soon as I recovered from my son’s birth, a medically necessary C-section. He weighed nearly 11 pounds. He proved to be a stellar traveler. He never fussed when we traveled, not by car, train or plane. He made himself at home in hotel and motel rooms, rented houses, friends’ flats. After his imaginary friend Bodie, an African elephant, joined the family, when my son was three, Bodie came everywhere with us, too. Now, when my son got older, we did have our moments, like the time he announced at the top of his lungs “Mexico sucks!” shortly after we arrived at the airport in Mexico City. He was six. I didn’t know he knew the word “sucks.” He did come around, though I liked Oaxaca much, much more than he did.

He’s got the traveler’s spirit. Out of the blue a few months ago, he said he wanted to go L.A. He’s been pining for Australia now for at least four years. He wants to go to New Zealand because of the scenery in Lord of the Rings. Hawaii’s on his list, too. On past trips, he’s come up with his own Travel Rules, adages really: Don’t judge a city by its busstop. As for hotels: It’s not the way it looks, it’s how it feels.

I think he’d like the feel of this one, and the looks, too: four nights at the Paradisus Palma Real Resort in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. This SWEEPS, sponsored by Woman’s Day, is for a family of four. The rules define a family of four as two adults and two children. (I always check the language with these family prizes, since I’m the single mother of a singleton. If I won, we’d ask a mother-son pair to join us.) The resort looks wildly luxurious. My son would love it, though so far, the thing he loves most about traveling is having a chance to be out in nature. If we went to Punta Cana, we’d have to be sure we found a great place to merengue. Woman's Day, by the way, has a slew of giveaways, travel and others; click here. For the Punta Cana trip, it’s one email entry per day through May 18.

As for my prognostication on destination births, I should disclose that a few years ago, when wedgies made a comeback, I predicted they’d be a flash in the pan. They’re still as big as ever. Shows to go. Meanwhile, I get my Angelina and Brad news from this site, PittWatch.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

ALWAYS A BRIDE

It wasn’t a mirage, the sweeps I thought I saw last week, for a three-night stay at Little Palm Island Resort in Little Torch Key, Florida. I found it, on About.com’s Trips, Vacations Contests and Sweepstakes listing. By the way, it’s a great listing of travel contests and sweeps.

This SWEEPS, billed as an escape for brides, is a lure to get folks to subscribe to Conde Nast’s bridal titles (Bride’s and Modern Bride); it is of course open is to anyone. If I won, I’d try to avoid all brainwave activity on the subject of weddings, brides and marriage. I’m single right now, and do not know if I will meet a man who will inspire me enough to be institutionalized again. As in enter into the institution of marriage, not the other sort of institution. There’s one entry per person. The sweeps closes May 20.

Monday, May 08, 2006

SHORT AND SWEET: ST. MARTEEN

I got an early anniversary present this past Friday in the form of a six pack. Not beer, but a nod from friend and blogger extraordinaire Bethanne Patrick, AOL’s Book Maven. She kindly included Travel Contests in a six-pack list of favorite blogs. Big thanks, Bethanne. I appreciate the support, the instruction, on things like terms like “sticky,” and the overall enthusiasm for my project. I've had the good fortune of traveling with Bethanne. We met on the road, at a writer's conference. She's great company, whether hiking a Hudson Valley trail or floating in an infinity pool at a desert resort.

Now, as for the anniversary, yesterday this blog baby turned two-months-old. It’s been another fun month. I remain stunned by the number of sweeps out there, slightly fatigued by those that let you enter daily and rather befuddled that many sweeps limit online entries to one but allow infinite snail mail entries. I’m sure I’ll straighten all that out before this luck lark of mine is over.

Today’s SWEEPS is for six nights in St. Maarten on Caribbean Travel & Life , three nights each at Princess Heights resort and Green Cay Villas. They look lovely. (As you'll see, there are other contests on this link. I have had time to research them. I'm having some work done on my kitchen tomorrow, and must remove everything by first thing in the morning. Sigh.)

Friday, May 05, 2006

EL CINCO DE MAYONESA

Why not. I like mayonnaise on almost everything. Here’s a fitting prize for today’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations: Four nights at the One&Only Palmilla resort in Cabo San Lucas, for two, with airfare. The sweeps is an enticement to get visitors to concierge.com, Conde Nast Traveler’s site, to fill out a rocking questionnaire on music and place. Fun and funny, with questions about music festivals and how important various artists are in contributing to his or her country’s image abroad. To wit, in the Caribbean category, you can weigh in on Desi Arnaz, Buena Vista Social Club, Celia Cruz and Cuba, Wyclef Jean and Haiti, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley and Jamaica.

You can skip the questionnaire and enter the sweeps directly if you like. The sweeps closes on May 31.

Speaking of Desi Arnaz, he and Lucy used to stay at the One&Only Palmilla, as did Bing Crosby and John Wayne. The website (linked above at the first reference) is not the most navigable thing. It’s for other One and Only properties around the world (Bahamas, Maldives, Dubai, Mauritious) as well as the one in Cabo.

Versions of Hell: I have a running list of personal versions of hell, situations that would kill me (as if I wasn’t dead enough already) if I had to endure them from here to eternity. One would be waking up every morning knowing that someone was going to throw me a surprise party but never knowing what time. Another would be waiting in line forever at the D.C. Motor Vehicle Department to renew your license because without it you won’t be able to board the plane you are taking the next day and not knowing if you are going to get the license. (This last one is based on a true story – mine.) Here’s a new one: Going on a scrapbooking cruise. To each his own, but whoa. That’s one combo from Hades for this scrappy, mishappy keeper of my son’s childhood photos and mementos. Port of call me crazy.

Three more versions of hell: No music. No travel. No sweeps.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

My father’s father’s people were from England, my mother’s parents from Ireland. I know precious little about my father’s mother’s people, except that their country of origin was Holland. That would make winning this sweeps, four nights in Amsterdam and airfare, sweet. If I won this one, I would crack the family-research whip and learn more about this fleeting ancestress, an elementary-school teacher who taught citizenship courses after she had my father. Her father was struck by a train when he was crossing the tracks when she was 12; she sold salt-water taffy on the boardwalk in Atlantic City to put herself through “normal” school. Past that, I know almost nothing.

I must confess that Holland has never been high on my where-to-go-next list. It’s flat, wind mills aren’t my thing. But trips that start with low expectations, even ambivalence, can hold the most magic. The Dutch people I’ve met over the years have been nothing but lovely. Smart and cool (actually, very cool) and warm. I know the people would pull me right in. And, if we went during winter, the ice skating. And of course, there is the art.

Still, I haven’t been wanderlusting after Europe from some time. I’ve had my heart set on Africa for years (long before the recent Brangelina Effect, as previous posts will attest), Viet Nam, Chile and Peru (different countries but I’d probably hit both in same trip), the Seychelles. Speaking of places I’d like to see, the other day, on Jaunted, one of the travel websites I read daily (well, Monday through Friday; see links to my Daily Fixes to the right), I learned something new: There’s a club for people who’ve traveled to 100 or more countries. The Travelers Century Club was founded in 1954 by a couple of serious travelers.

Clicking around the website inspired me to make a list to see how far I was from the big One Hundred. I’ve got 76 to go. Here are the 24 in the order they came spilling out of my pen: Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Korea, China, France, Italy, Spain, England, Denhark, Ireland, El Salvador, Alaska (it counts), Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Haiti, Malta, Sicily, Monaco, Vatican City. Airport layovers count. (Of these, Korea, Alaska and El Salvador were layovers; Korea and Alaska were scheduled landings, El Salvador was a diverted flight.)

Maybe Holland’s next.

Sweeps Mirage: Earlier this week, I could have sworn I found a sweeps for a stay at the Little Palm Island Resort & Spa, one of those enchanting little places I stumbled upon late one night in a desktop-traveler's moment. I even cut and pasted the rules. But now I can’t find the darn thing online. If I do, I will post accordingly.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

VANITY FAIRNESS

I get it. Last week was virginity, this week it’s vanity. Hours after I entered the Slim-Fast Time 4 the Beach sweeps the other day, I got an offer, via email, for a Total Makeover sweeps. That sounds about right. I’m thinking I could use a total head-to-toe makeover. It’s a daily entry affair, sponsored by Allure, with a four-night stay at Canyon Ranch, either the Tucson or the Lenox (Mass.) (I’m a New Englander through and through, but who would chose Lenox over Tucson when airfare was part of the package?)

It seems we are moving into High Vanity Season. This makeover is actually two makeovers (if you win, that is; participating is the first phase of the makeover, the prize is the icing on the cake). The first makeover is a participatory weight-loss and exercise program. It runs through October 30. Good gravy. By then, the beach and the pool will be but fading memories, and we’ll be bumping up against the holiday weight-put-on season. Trick or treat.

P.S. This is a once-daily sweeps. You log an entry when you log on. But subsequent entries are obligatorily interactive; unless I’m missing something, it seems you have to log in information about your exercise and meal activities every single time you enter. This is an incentive sweeps. Come on. I had two margaritas with dinner last evening. (Yes! My first in ages! Yesterday afternoon, I spontaneously made after-work plans with my trip-winning friend and contesting inspiration Ms. Shoes. The first margarita, at Ms. Shoe’s neighborhood bar, was among the best I have ever imbibed.) Another option to enter is the postcard option. But I’m not going there.

To enter, click here; there’s an icon about the contest smack in the middle of the screen. Anyway, all this makeover talk has me thinking about scales, to weigh myself (a bathroom scale), to calibrate the fairness of it all (the scales of justice). Go for it.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

MAY DAY

I love this photograph. I got it from istockphoto.com. I also use dreamstime.com to stock my blog. I keep meaning to credit photographers. I started out doing as much. I even heard from one, about a Las Vegas photograph. He appreciated the credit. He wished me luck. This one, in the Bahamas, is by Roberto Adrian, a Miami-based photographer. What I love about this picture is that it makes you want to be there, right now.

I’m as civic minded as they come, but May Day has never tugged at my social-justice-workers’-rights heartstrings. I know that’s shallow as a puddle and that I should stop and consider the plight of those who are less fortunate in the workaday sense than I am. (Well, overall. What I do involves e-n-d-l-e-s-s vicissitudes and supplication.) Most years I am too intellectually indisposed to contemplate the implications of May Day, reeling with the incontrovertible cliché that swimsuit season is less than one month away. May One means it’s almost May Thirty-One. May Day, May Day: just over four weeks until Memorial Day, when we start hitting the pool, day after day. All these mouse-potato days at the computer (mouse potato: I don’t understand why that phrase hasn’t caught on, it is so apt) do not leave one fit as a fiddle. I am considering a standup desk.

Which makes this sweeps a perfect fit: Time 4 The Beach, a Slim-Fast promotion with People Magazine as co-conspirator. The prize is a vague four-day, three-night beach vacation of the sponsors’ choice, approximately four hours from the winner’s home. Let’s see: that could mean Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, yes, they’d fit the bill. Time for the beach! And the pool.

Of course yesterday, not today, was May Day. I was too fixated on margarita reminiscentae to get into May Day anxiety yesterday. As for the margarita I was considering making last evening, I ended up getting a bottle of Pinot Grigio instead of margarita provisions. I went to my neighborhood liquor store. I always ask the clerk if anyone’s won the lottery lately. This evening he told me that last week, some guy, the same guy, won almost every day, including $10,000. And this guy only buys one or two tickets a day. Now that is luck.

Anyway, I’m not impervious to these promotions. I just might do a modified Slim-Fast regime for a few weeks. It’s my second favorite liquid diet, after Pinot Grigio.

To enter online, click here. There's one online entry per person. You can enter as many times as you like via snail mail, provided the entries are mailed separately. The sweeps runs through June 30.

Monday, May 01, 2006

DOS MARGARITAS DOS

This one, for a four-day trip for two to Guadalajara to learn about tequila, made me realize that it has been ages since I last had a margarita. Martinis have been my cocktail of choice for so long that I practically forgot margaritas existed. Ah, margaritas, straight up, as cold as cold gets without becoming frozen, with a little salt on the rim, shaken and stirred.

I used to drink margaritas, way too many margaritas, when I cavorted, danced and otherwise lost myself with a long-lost friend from South America. I’ve had margaritas in Houston, California, Mexico, Florida, Costa Rica; in Costa Rica, the waiter deposited the drinks on my friend and my table with a flirtatious, “Dos margaritas para dos margaritas.” (As for martinis, I had my first Manhattan in Brooklyn, with the Manhattan skyline in full view, and my first Apple Martini in Manhattan, at The Algonquin.)

This is a contest as opposed to a sweeps. To enter, folks must submit an original design depicting margaritas using software provided by the website. Before you proceed, you should consider the rules. They’re strict in that the design you submit must never have been previously published or won any awards; I’m okay with that. I’m a writer, not a designer.

The rules are vexing in that all designs become the sole property of Chili’s, the contest sponsor. I don’t know if I’m okay with that. I realize that technology has pushed us to the edge of some new, yet-to-be-delineated intellectual-property frontier, and we, the collective culture, are rethinking the rules. I think if I were a graphic artist, I would refrain from entering this one, on the grounds that I did not want give away a design for which I might one day be able to charge. But since I’m a writer, there’s no economic self-interest or risk here. I’m entering. If you want to, click
here. I can't report back on how my entry went, because I keep clicking the entry icon before verifying my proof of drinking age.

As for tequila, which is made from juices of the blue agave plant, this
site is a tremendous source, including recipes. As for recipes, I’ll post the one I posted yesterday, the one a friend sent me some years ago; along with a gift, an antique silver shaker, circa 1900.

1 ½ ounces Tequile (she recommends Sauza Hornitos)
1 ½ ounces Cointreau or Triple Sec (the first choice being Cointreau)
Juice of one whole lime, or to taste

As for Guadalajara, I know very little. A visit would be a discovery.


UNA MARGARITA, DOS MARGARITAS

Maybe even tres margaritas. I'm having trouble posting today. Blogger's giving confounding error messages. What a perfect excuse to go out and get margarita provisions.