Baaaaaaaaaaah!

I realized today that I am a dumb peon. I am a card-carrying member of a generic demographic. I am an unthinking, gullible sheep.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaah.

I came to the revelation when I counted and discovered I had amassed 48 Monopoly game peices from McDonalds. I don't want to even think about the weekly average that must mean, considering the promotion has only been going on for the past three and half weeks.

(Note: Before I contiune, let me add that 80 percent of my McDonald's visits this month have been for breakfast (as if this gets me off any hooks) and since I've been travelling so much for work, I really didn't have a choice but to have fastfood for breakfast.

Normally, I pride myself in cutting through marketing BS but something about those blastesd peal-off chances at fortune suck me in like nothing else. I know popping open a cold Bud Lite won't result in eight women in bikinis showing up for the big game and I know that wearing a certain designer's jeans won't instantly make me cool (not that I need any help). However, I also know that if I just one more hashbrown for tomorrow's breakfast I'm going to peel of the bane of my existence, the elusive fourth Rail Road or - dare I hope? - Boardwalk.

I wouldn't feel bad if I were already going to eat at McDonald's or even if I had plans to eat at some other fast food joint and altered them for a shot at the "french fry lotto." No, what's truly pathetic is that I've increased my McD rate solely for the purpose of getting those silly peal off stickers in teh hopes of winning $1,000,000 (or at least a free small order of fries). I am the perfect target of McDonald's marketing genious. The promotion didn't just win me over from Burger King or Wendy's, it's won me over from my own common sense. I am a slave. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Part of me says I can justify these extra purchases because a friend of mine in elementary school won $100,000 from McDonald's "so it can happen to me, too!" As if that logic made any sense.

The game ends in a week so the McDonald's-free light at the end of my tunnell of stupidity is within sight. Of course, I'll also be away from home three breakfasts before then. Who knows? In the game peices I might collect, I could win a bundle of cash, a new car or trip around the world.

Or, I might skip McDonald's, get a bacon, egg and cheese Toaster Sandwich at Sonic and win back my pride.