Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Pulling an Grandma is Now Pulling a Mom

Once upon a time, a daughter went to her parents house weekly to help them out with household chores and errands.  On such occasions, the mother would occasionally buy said daughter (me), as well as herself and the father an instant lottery ticket.

Enough of that, this is no fairy tale.  My mom has picked up right where Grandma left off on the instant lottery bandwagon.  Grandma loved gambling of any kind.  Generally speaking, I think it's a waste of money but if someone wants to buy me a ticket then sure, I'll do the scratchy scratchy.   On one of these occasions, mom decided to splurge and bought three $5 instant tickets... one for her, one for dad and one for me.  As is usually the case, I forgot about the ticket right after I threw it in my purse.

Several days later my mom calls me and asks me if I scratched my ticket.  She sounds weird, mysterious and kind of shifty.   I told her I forgot about it and then I said, "you sound weird, what...are you pulling a Grandma and thinking you won $150,000?"  She says, "yes."   Oh boy, here we go again.  My Grandma was notorious for thinking she won the lottery.  I cannot tell you how many times she's called me, convinced she was the next instant millionaire.  But in her defense, she wasn't so great with the reading and writing, having only completed school to the third grade.  So she often misinterpreted how to play or what the gist of the ticket was.  Mom has no such excuse.

She asks me to get my ticket and then proceeds to tell me that on the back is an extra game and it is there that she believes she hit the jackpot.  It's set up like a slot machine and you match oranges or cherries, etc.  Or if you have a dollar sign, one of these $, you win the amount shown.  She says she has a dollar sign and the prize amount shown is $150,000.  "Are you sure?" I say several times.  She assures me that is what she has.  I had a dollar sign on my ticket, with a prize of $3 so I told her I would go cash it in and ask some questions then get back to her.  So she waits on pins and needles and I go to the grocery store and chat up the lottery counter lady.  She assures me that if mom does indeed have the dollar sign and the $150,000 prize listed, then she is a winner and she tells me how we go about redeeming the ticket.

Leaving the store, I call mom and tell her the good news.   It looks like she's a winner!   I am working that day so I told her I would finish up my job and then come over and we'll get the redemption process underway.  She's excited.  I'm excited and start planning my trip to Italy!   I go home on Cloud 9 thinking about all my exciting plans that can finally come to fruition.  And as I'm just finishing up my job, she calls and says, "I don't think I won."  So I say, "What changed?  You either have the dollar sign or you don't."  Mom informs me that she's looked at it again and again and now it's looking more like an icon of an actual dollar than a dollar sign.  Big diff there mom.  The plane that was taking off for Sicily in my head just turned back around and landed in Akron and threw me off.  So I tell her, hold onto the ticket and when I come for my regular weekly visit, I'll look at it.  So that is where we leave it for the next couple days.

Wednesday rolls around, Wednesday traditionally being Mom day, and I head over.  When I get there I ask right away to see the ticket.  What I saw was not a dollar sign, nor was it a dollar icon.  It was an unscratched area.   Mom hates to wear her glasses.  I don't know why this is, but she does.  It's a constant battle every week with me yelling at her to put on her damn glasses so she can actually see what she's buying.  It's pretty much a given to me at this point that she did not have her glasses on when she attempted to scratch off this ticket and basically missed the whole area except for one tiny little corner.  You could not tell what was under there, it was hardly scratched off at all.  So how she thought it was a dollar sign, a dollar icon or anything else for that matter is beyond me.  I am trying to keep my cool but my fury is starting to take over.  She had me running to stores to find out how to cash this non ticket in, a ticket that wasn't mistaken for a winner, she never scratched the fucking thing!   So I scratch it, and it's not a dollar sign.  It's not a dollar symbol.  It's a fucking orange!!!   Not even close to either thing she thought it was. 

Do you think this convinced her that she should wear her glasses when she's trying to read something?  It hasn't!  It's still an on going weekly battle. Oy give me strength.

16 comments:

  1. I am peeing my pants laughing! How funny...I know it pissed you off but I think it is priceless! And for it to be an orange is especially funny.... LOL...sorry but I will be laughing for days about this!
    xoxo
    tell Ro your nurse friend said her eyeballs would fall out if she doesn't put the f*$(#*%# glasses on!

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  2. I love this post. My Mum lives with me and much as I love her, at times drives me nuts. I tell others the stories and they find them hilarious!

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  3. My mom - 91 - is too far away for us to have these sorts of encounters, but there have been some incredibly frustrating and hysterical phone conversations. "I feel your pain" - as a former president used to say.

    Thanks for the laugh.

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  4. Ah, Mums and their old habits...Your post made me laugh. I thought that my Mum had some weird habits but she doesn't have this one. Lol!

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  5. My favorite line..." The plane that was taking off for Sicily in my head just turned back around and landed in Akron and threw me off." Totally cracked me up! LOL!! Awesome post! :-)))

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  6. Love this post, hilarious! Don't blame mom; until you scratched it off it could have been a dollar sign! ;P

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  7. Bet you've never been so disappointed to see an orange!

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  8. Woah. I feel your frustration. My Dad's a chronic gambler. He'll never change. Every time I visit him we always need to stop by the betting agency multiple times, and he still goes through the racing pages in the daily newspapers. Sigh. Parents.

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  9. Not winning was a big disappointment, absolutely. But the battle rages on with her and her glasses. I don't think I did that when I got my glasses at 15 years old so it's not exactly pay back. I just wore them because I enjoy actually seeing :)

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  10. Ah yes, I've been there and feel your pain. With the MIL it's the hearing air that she refuses to wear. My son asked recently why, no matter what he says, she answers, "That's nice dear."

    But be forewarned: she has become your grandmother...who do you think you'll become by the time you're the age she is now? Just remember this post when your daughter is telling you to wear you #%*^ glasses!

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  11. Funny, funny, funny! Your mom will never change so don't even try. Reminds me of my mother who was always convinced she would win the lottery. One time, she called me to urgently go to see her because Time Magazine, no less, was going to give her $1,000,000. Of course, it was just a sweepstakes.

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  12. LOL @Eric, I don't have to worry about my daughter getting on me since I don't have kids. But I do know, at 45 years of age, I've been exhibiting signs of being like Mom for several years now in other ways :)

    Thanks everyone =)

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  13. Hey Lalia -

    Great story for me/us to read but not so great for you living it at the time. Oh My. You have to love the older folks, huh! If it makes you feel any better, I am constantly going to the gym with sweatshirts, shirts, tanks, shorts, and sweatpants on backwards. I just get dressed in a hurry and fly down the hill to the gym. Whoopsie!!! LOL. Love your post. :)

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  15. HAHAHA I love this. Mum's and their antics. My Da (grandfather) once clicked on those "You are the millionth winner, click here!!" at the side of the computer screen. Poor guy!! I had to explain it's all a scam. Lol.

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