Hamilton Lottery: Winner!

I enter a lot of contests. I almost never win. Often I decide no one ever wins and it is all a promo technique. So when I heard there was a lottery every day for Hamilton tickets, I paid no attention. I knew all about Hamilton from the massive promo and hype but it seemed so way out of reach, why bother.

But then my granddaughter got Hamilton-hooked and I started listening to the music also to see what the draw was all about. All the time. Going to the performance still seemed a dream but I casually started entering the lottery every so often.

I thought the tickets might go down, they didn’t.  So I downloaded the Hamilton app and began to enter the lottery daily. “Unfortunately you are not a winner” was the daily dish.

We had a biggish anniversary last summer and, of course, thought winning the lottery would be perfect but who knew if that would happen. By now I had been entering for about a year. Another plan emerged, what if we forego all gifts for all the other holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, anniversary and spent it all on tickets? Would it be enough? It was. We didn’t win the lottery that day so purchased tickets for all our holidays combined. Amazing doesn’t describe it. All the hype? Absolutely worth it.

Like coming home from a long-awaited trip, we wanted to go back. So we kept entering , both of us,  we entered for tickets for every performance we could attend. Six more months went by. 18 months total of entering.

Meanwhile, the songs became themes.  “Look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now!”* fed my hopeful optimism about life. “I am not throwing away my shot”* reminded me to take advantage of every opportunity. “Who lives who dies who tells your story”* fits right in for a book I’m working on. I pressed ENTER again on the app. My husband did the same.

Last week, the day before Valentine’s, Tom texted me: WE WON! My response was incredulity. I couldn’t believe it. People won, we won!

Announcement on the app.

This time our seats were front row, literally.  We could almost touch the actors. Felt like a dream.

$10 tickets for the lottery.

We sat on the edge of our seats, on our provided boosters, mesmerized the whole time. Due to front row, we missed a bit of the whole stage experience but boy were we close and spellbound. By now, most of the songs were committed to memory but I succeeded in not singing along!

Our seats!

I think I could go every night and never tire of it.

How lucky we are to be alive right now.*

Rise Up!*

Hope for the best,

Tish

*All songs by Lin Manuel Miranda

PS My new book is available now! 100 Need to Know Tips for Moms of Tweens and Teens (order here https://amzn.to/2T1SpV8)