it's about time

FINALLY!!! I'm finally going to talk about this patio contest. I got the email I was waiting for last night and so now the results....

Okay this is a reminder of what I did:


This was my competition:

So who do you think won??

If you guessed "A little bit of Paris in Naperville" you guessed right! Can you BELIEVE IT?!?!?!?!?!? I was soooooooooooooo mad, no words will do my anger justice!! There are three reasons why I was so aggravated:

1) they told me I lost by one vote. I don't know WHY someone tells anyone this. They told me I lost the karaoke contest by one vote. They (Brittany, my sister, was on the student council) told me I lost all the superlatives that I was 'in the running for' back in high school by one vote (side note, I am not bitter about this. I was thinking about everything that I've been told I've lost one vote to and this very random HS memory popped into my head. Of course, at the time, I wished I would have won just one category and was mad. But truly, now, I couldn't care less). Okay that side note made me forget my other example of losing by one vote, but there was another time someone told me I lost by one vote. For all of you out there who might be judging something in the future, DON'T ever tell anybody that they've lost by one vote. It is infuriating!!

2) the contest announcement said "send in your picture or drop it off at the office." So that is what I did, I emailed it to the property manager. The Paris lady bought some decorative manila folder and inside she glued 4 pictures of her patio, threw on some generic (yet unfortunately cute) scrapbooking details relating to Paris, such as an Eiffel Tower and I think a croissant or two (I hate croissants), and then wrote in oh so awful looking handwriting "A little bit of Paris in Naperville." So the presentation was night and day between hers and everyone else's, who just sent in the picture as instructed. AND it makes me mad because I could have out shined that presentation! Obviously, they were instructed to not take the presentation into consideration when voting, but how do you separate it? The folder made the patio look better than it really was, so naturally I'm mad.

3) I spent I think 4 or 5 hours putting everything up and then taking it back down and putting it all back in its packaging. It looks like this Paris lady took all of 20 minutes, no joke. 2 to set up the furniture and pillows, 1 to light the candles, 3 to plant that pot thingy, 5 to find her poster and hang it, 1 more to take the pictures, and then 8 more minutes to put the little folder thing together. I really think that's how her time broke down. It took me 20 minutes just to pop open all those dumb little fiesta balls. They are only dumb now because I lost by one measly vote. They were awesomely fantastic when I was a potential 1st place winner.

Okay so is everyone just DYING?!?! Looking at both of those pictures again makes me mad. Mad at the stupid folder presentation, mad at how much time I wasted setting up my patio, and mad at how excited and hopeful I was when I turned my pictures because now I feel silly for thinking I would win, you know what I mean? Her patio is just totally different than mine, more adult and let's relax, whereas mine is party time! And I, of course, am always up for party time!! Anybody with me?! :)

I still won $150, so I can't get extremely mad. Actually, now, 3 weeks later, I'm not that mad anymore. I've accepted my second place fate and that I will forever be coming in second.