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Eyes on the Prize

A little while back, we were hanging out with some family friends. As it so happens, we've gotten to the point in life where a lot of our friends have kids, so this particular outing involved some little human beings (side note: this is quite possibly my favorite description of children). In this case, the little human beings involved weren't that little, as they'd already started elementary school. Still, the fact that they were little will become relevant, and hilarious, in a moment.

Over the course of the afternoon, we eventually started watching some television. I don't think everyone was watching, but the television set was on, so a few folks were paying attention. I want to say it was set to sports of some sort, but I don't honestly remember. Basically, people were generally involved in conversation with each other, but those that weren't actively speaking had something else to distract them.

One such distracted person was one of the smaller humans, and he was entertained by the actual game as well as the commercials. There were commercials about local outings, other programs on that channel, and random medications. I know that he was paying attention to those because one piqued his attention enough that he decided to heed the call for action.

Which commercial, you ask? I'll just replay the (slightly paraphrased) conversation for you so you can get the full impact, as I did:

Little Human: "Mom, can I have your phone?"
Family Friend: "Why do you want my phone?"
Little Human: "I want to enter that sweepstakes."
Family Friend: "Which one?"
Little Human: "Rogaine." (if you're unfamiliar with the product, it's a hair loss treatment)
Family Friend: "What?! Why?"
Little Human: "I want to win."
Family Friend: "What are you even going to do with Rogaine if you win?"
Little Human: "I just like winning stuff."

I mean, I can sort of understand where he was coming from if I stop to think about it. Who doesn't like randomly winning stuff? Heck, I still amuse myself with the Safeway Monopoly game. I just have the benefit of knowing the odds of winning a sweepstakes, and I know what happens to your personal information when you enter those contests. The little human is still figuring all of those things out, so I can forgive him for being tempted by the Rogaine sweepstakes. Still, it was hilarious. Everyone involved laughed quite a bit when the conversation came to an end.

I don't think I'm ever going to hear an ad for Rogaine without smiling ever again.

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