Fake out phone calls and hopefully no fake candles

There are a few science fiction and fantasy stories that I have had laying around for awhile. My only problem is that there aren't a lot of magazines that publish this kind of fiction. At least not as many compared to those that publish literary, mainstream and contemporary.
So eventually I happened upon the Writer's of the Future contest. Yes, the same one started by the creator of Scientology.
They look for unpublished science fiction and fantasy writer's. This isn't the first time I had sent a story for their contest. In previous times they have sent an e-mail "we got your entry" and another "thanks but no thanks". Needless to say I was floored when I got home and found a message from them on my machine.
Don't get too excited that's what I did to. No, there weren't any problems with my entry. The lady that entered my entry noticed my address and realized she had grown up right near where I live. She wanted me to call back and tell her all about Lansing.
I knew she had nothing to do with who wins the contest, but it can never hurt to be nice or to "know someone" so I called. Sadly, there wasn't much different about Lansing except we have a minor league baseball team, the Lansing Lugnuts. And they no longer make sense since all of our GM plants are now gone, which was also a highlight. Anyone who has lived here before last year can tell you how weird it looks now that the GM plants are no longer standing.
Anyway, she didn't think I would call and she was super nice. She told me this was the best contest to get a start at and to keep writing. She also said she would root for me to win.

It was pleasant but I still can't help feeling it was a little bit of a bad joke like birthday candles that relight themselves after you blow them out. Maybe that's not the best analogy because the phone call was not meant to be a joke. I only used that comparison because it made a good lead in to the next thing I was going to say.

Tomorrow is another birthday for me. I get a three day weekend. I have lots of stuff to do but it's my birthday so if I don't get it done, it's the one time I can't be mad at myself.