Lottery Fever in the City - Mega millions

What would you do if you win the lottery for over 100 million dollars? Would you quit your job and retire early? Would you build a foundation to help your favorite charity? Would you get your dream car or fund your dream business?


On Monday, I went to our neighborhood liquor store to get a lottery ticket since my last one a long time ago. My first question was how much is a ticket nowadays? The guy at the store smilingly answered a buck. I can only imagine what he was thinking about me and none of them are any good. Or he probably got a lot of similar questions that day from first time ticket buyers?  Welcome to lottery fever! 


My lottery fever started with Mijo who's been monitoring the jackpot prize ever since it has gone up to 100 million. Nobody won during the Tuesday draw so the pot was raised to somewhere close to 150, and then 200 million after Friday. By this time, even people at work have contracted the fever. Groups of 10 and 20s got together and bought tickets as a team. There is strength in numbers, after all. It is almost comical to witness this process. A designated leader collects $5 from each member, buys the tickets, photocopies the tickets with the names of the members of the group, and then distributes the copies. Are you ready for the best part? The occasional discussions of our most exciting dreams and plans - what to do with the prize money? This part gives us a temporary high.


I've heard the most interesting and creative ways to spend millions of dollars from my coworkers and friends - spending the rest of their lives living at The Ritz, a spending spree at the Hermes store in Paris, buying a Sonoma winery or donating to a favorite museum. When nobody wins and the prize money gets sweeten, the process is done all over again. 


 Anyway, back to our neighborhood liquor store. Of course, Mijo and I have our plans too so we buy our tickets on top of the group tickets I joined-in in the office. I thought to myself, whether a buck or five bucks worth of tickets, if we are destined to win, we will win we have a list incase we do win. 


Over dinner, we tell each other what to do with the prize money and I get another temporary high in the meantime. Sigh.


 ~rl