Offer Not Valid in Alaska or Hawaii

A couple of weeks ago I was running errands and I heard a McDonald's radio ad. Honestly, after the words "snickerdoodle shake" my mind was spinning. How could I arrange my schedule of stops to hit a McD's around lunchtime?

Then I heard the dreaded words at the end of the commercial:
Offer not valid in Alaska or Hawaii.

It's a phrase I've heard most of my life. And most of the time I ignored it. I'm certain in some obnoxious teenage moments I mocked the folks living "abroad." But I do remember in one enlightened moment many years ago thinking, "those poor people in Alaska and Hawaii."

Now I am one of those people.

Turns out, when you read the fine print on many things like sweepstakes and giveaways, it's only valid for the contiguous United States. That's right--we even have a specific vocabulary for ostracization. Think about it. When have you heard "contiguous" used for anything other than excluding Alaska and Hawaii??

We're limited in what we receive on Maui, so several times when I've shopped at some online stores hoping to either have things shipped directly to me or at least to a local store for pick-up, I was disappointed but not surprised when some things weren't available for either.

What was surprising was the first time I shopped on Amazon.com and got the message that an item I was interested in couldn't be sent to me. That's when you start to question the universe. Because if Amazon can't get it to you, where are you?

On a tangent, I was intrigued to see this article explaining part of the cause of the cost of living and supply issues for those of us living non-contigously. If successful, this legislation would help with the cost of exclusion. Hopefully, it would also have some impact on availability.

Still, geographic isolation means even with the best of intentions and logistics, some things just aren't feasible. So, while on the mainland for Christmas I tried the snickerdoodle concoction (turns out it's a McFlurry, not a shake).

Was it good? Yes. Would I have happily paid extra for it on Maui? No.

As frustrating as it feels at times, I like to think the universe has some sort of plan. Or at least a system of balancing the scales. So, whether or not you know what you're missing, in the grand scheme of things, it will all work out the way it's supposed to.

Because...this.