Roll Up the Rim: Even Better than a Toyota Matrix

During the “RRRoll Up the Rim to Win” season, it seems like with every minimum purchase of a medium sized drink at Tim Horton’s, everyone holds on the hope of winning a prize. The “grand prize cars, TVs, grills, bikes, Tim cards and of course 47,000,000 coffee & donut prizes” are the goal as the drinks are enjoyed and the rims are rolled. My friends and I were guilty of frequenting the Tim Horton’s beside my high school during our fourth period spare to test what destiny our teas and coffees would behold. A random order in our line ups would affect who wins, and I watched with amusement as a cynical friend won a free coffee on her first try. Even my boyfriend could always be counted on to have two medium cups in his hands whenever he would pick me up from school. “If you win the car,” he’d tease, “It’s completely yours, even though yours truly bought the cup. Needless to say, none of us won the car, and with my good fortune, for me there were no free drinks or cookies.

The chances are advertised as 1 in 6, but after 17 or so messages of nothing other than “Please try again,” I had lost any real expectations and numerical count. By then the contest was drawing to a close anyways and my wallet was noticeably lighter with less extra change. One day, my boyfriend surprised me with an obviously homemade replica of a “Roll Up the Rim” cup. All of the colours, pictures and words were in their right place, complete with some badly translated French. But instead of the usual advertisements, there were little sentences of: “Hot! Like you. Chaud Amiez Vous” “Over 47 000 000 kisses” and “1 000 000 Hugs available.” Instead of 25 years of the “RRRoll Up the Rim to Win” promotion that he was celebrating, it was a cute way to celebrate what he calculated was our “12.5 Months” together. There was even an actual rim that could be rolled up! I smiled and laughed as I slowly peeled by the paper that was so carefully taped on. The words I read were “Win Kiss!” as my boyfriend leaned in to kiss me. I thought his gift was finished, but he told me to roll up the other side too. On the other side read “Win Donut Gagnez un Donut” and he presented me with a donut. I may not have won a Toyota Matrix, but I have something better: an incredibly sweet and creative boyfriend.