Not Just Yet

so I didn't receive a call from Hallmark.

I should've expected as much - it's only my first time ever entering into one of their contests, and if nothing else, I'm proud and happy that my card was at least mentioned on their Facebook Fan page during the judging process.

Hallmark will continue to have lots of contests and I will certainly continue to enter lots of contests. That being said, I just wanted to write about how grateful I was yesterday. For what, you ask? I mean, afterall I was completely rejected by Hallmark and one of my life goals is not going to be checked off my list as quickly as I first thought, BUT I do know some really awesome people.

Let me explain.

In the days leading up to yesterday, I pretty much told EVERYONE at my company about my card. literally, everyone. If they didn't see it on facebook or twitter, they could hear me talking about it in the hallways. I even told Tom Coyne about it and even my boss, Dave. It was so exciting that it was all I could think about. Everyone knew that yesterday was the day I'd find out, one way or the other.

I was nervously sitting at my desk, dreaming and hoping that my phone would ring and it would be Hallmark telling me they've chosen my card. Hallmark does this thing where they post 'blurries' on their facebook fan page. Essentially, the Hallmark team hangs up the finalists and then the winners cards on a wall and then take a picture. They must upload the picture and blur out the cards so it's hard for you to tell whether or not yours is up there. After the post the "blurry" of the winning cards, they tell everyone that they have started making the calls.

Of course my face was glued to the screen to see if my card was among the blurries. I didn't have a good feeling but before I knew it, I had people calling, texting and emailing me left and right.

From Chris, Cristin, Danielle and Katie huddled around a computer trying to decipher to Nick and Lila asking me which I thought could be mine to Liz asking me to send her a screen grab of the Blurries (she can't get on facebook at work) to see if she could tell to Andrew texting me that he thinks my is the second one down in the third column. I didn't ask any of these people to follow it but the fact of the matter is that they all know how important this was (and still is) to me. They were right there with me and we're just as bummed (ok maybe not as bad) as I was when I realized I wasn't getting a call. Hell, even this morning one of the senior VPs in the company, Kelly, called me. He said "2 things: can you print a book for me? and don't worry about Hallmark - there's always next time."

Sure, there are tons of creeps and bad people out there in the world. But damn, I'm lucky to know so many good ones. And on top of that, to have this many people on my side? Wow.