Well, apparently I‘m going to have to wait a little longer to be a billionaire. I bought two Powerball tickets for the historic $1.5 billion drawing and didn’t match so much as one stinking number on either ticket. I suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t quit my job yesterday after all.
This was not my first brush with lottery letdown. I am hopelessly addicted to believing that life is a magical experience, chock full of meaningful coincidence and synchronicity, and I am forever looking for “signs” to guide me and confirm my beliefs. 34 years ago when I gave birth to my daughter, I was certain the stars had aligned to mark this momentous occasion with a generous gift. I checked into the hospital at precisely 7:40 a.m. and gave birth exactly twelve hours later at 7:40 p.m. on…wait for it…4/7! The message was clear—I was obviously being given the winning lottery numbers. I dispatched my husband to the nearest gas station to play the numbers zero, four and seven, in any order, for one week. Back in 1982, that was about as fancy as the Pennsylvania lottery got, three numbers, pulled daily. For the next seven days, I waited anxiously for the televised 6:30 drawing. Nope, not a single zero, four or seven was ever pulled that week. Apparently, the universe had decided my baby girl was gift enough, and I had to agree. She was more than enough.
I never gave the lottery much thought again until a few years ago when, once more, I felt I was being directed by powers greater than myself to buy a scratch-off ticket. It all started one day when I stepped out of my car at the gas station. Looking down, I saw an old scratch-off lottery ticket directly under my foot. I picked it up and tossed it in the trash. The very next day, when I got out of my car at a grocery store where I didn’t normally shop, another used scratch-off ticket was on the ground right beside my car. Hmm. Again, I picked it up and threw it in the trash. The third day, I was walking through the parking lot after work when what should appear in my path but yet another scratch-off ticket. Well, that was the clincher. I immediately headed to the nearest QuikTrip and added two $5.00 scratch-off tickets to my normal purchase of diet Snapple peach iced tea. My hands shaking in anticipation of hitting it big, I took a dime out of my wallet and began scratching off each square. When all were scratched and done, the only money I was holding was my dime.
So for the past two weeks, while billionaire fever infected seemingly everyone in the nation, my temperature remained a cool-headed 98.6. And then my husband, who was out of the country at the time, called and asked if I had bought any tickets. When I told him I was beyond falling for empty promises of quick riches via a set of magic numbers, he laughed, but urged me to pick up a couple tickets for fun. After all, I’d be participating in a historic event, he argued. The next day when I stopped at QuikTrip to satisfy my daily tea habit, I plunked down four bucks for two quick pick tickets. For the following 36 hours, I tried not to focus on the “what if” thoughts, but I couldn’t help furnishing a restored Tuscan villa in my head. By the evening of the drawing, “what if” had turned into “why not,” and I had pretty much settled on the design of the new swimming pool I was planning to add to my villa. Then, as both times before, my hopes were dashed. I don’t just lose, I lose thoroughly and completely. I don’t even come close, not one matching number, not one ho-hum prize, not even a measly bag of fries.
The next time I get the urge to buy a lottery ticket, I’m buying a couple extra bottles of Snapple instead. I believe a little Peach iced tea could taste quite refreshing on a hot Tuscan summer day.
I think it’s harmless fantasy for most of us. I know I enjoyed my fantasy tremendously! But I’m not attached to it. thankfully.
It’s fun–and free–to dream. But, honestly, can you imagine the chaos that would accompany a windfall THAT big? I’d be satisfied with a more modest jackpot, say, in the multi-millions range. 🙂
Hi Lee,
I wanted to come by to thank you for visiting my site this week. I am glad you liked my guest author’s post about how to manage blogging stress.
In response to your post, I don’t play the Lotto. The odds are stacked too high.
I know Carol Cassara, by the way. Thanks again for the visit.
Janice
Hi, Janice. Well, the three or four times I’ve played in my life haven’t gone too well for me. I actually used to do better with McDonald’s Monopoly. I got a few diet Cokes out of that! Thanks for stopping by.
Lee, I have a great idea. I never pick a number in the race, either. So here’s what we do. We each buy tickets, select our numbers, then contact each other and buy a third ticket that has numbers we didn’t pick. We’ll win big and split it. Mine will be an infinity pool looking across the Umbrian countryside. 🙂
Kate, you’re a genius! Okay, this is definitely our plan the very next time the lottery hits $1.5 billion. And we can visit each other’s villas and everything–and then head up to Piemonte to see all my relatives too!
Oh, my goodness! Relatives in Piemonte? I want to visit, with or without lottery winnings, Lee! I have been to Italy five times so far and simply can’t get enough of it. The Piemonte area is on my to-visit list. I hear Alba is incredible. I’d also like to go south to Campobasso where my great grandparents came from, but unfortunately, we have no connections there now. So much to see and do, so little time (and not nearly enough money)! Ciao!
Kate, Kate, Kate, we gotta do it! All four of my grandparents were from Piemonte, near Torino. My parents’ aunts and uncles have passed away now–I met them when I was young–but lots of cousins still there. My cousin from here (USA) and his wife just visited in the fall. I may have to go economy class, though, since my two lottery tickets bombed!
Don’t toy with me, girlfriend!
Would I do that? 😉
Love this! I’m the same way…thinking I’ve seen a sign or suddenly being guided to the lottery desk as I leave the store! And a couple times I won 20 bucks or free ticket! Haha
Didn’t bother this time…too much! I’d be so happy with just a mere million…or half! I sure wish they’d change it so millions of folks could each win one! That’s my fantasy world I guess!
Hey, you’ve done better than I have! It’s so funny how people get all excited about buying a lottery ticket when it hits some record number–like a million or two isn’t worth having! I’ve played about five times in my life and NOTHING! I guess I’d better get dressed for work. 😉
I’m sure you’ve heard of the lottery curse, right? First you win the lottery, then get divorced, your family won’t speak to you (because you refuse to give them each $5 million, even though they haven’t spoken to you in forever before this), you go bankrupt because you spent it all partying and buying up Lamborghinis — seriously, who needs it? You dodged a bullet.
Nooo, Linda, you know darn well that’s the curse of the ex-husband! 😉 The biggest thing I’ve ever won was an American Girls doll outfit for my daughter at a mother-daughter tea about 20 years ago! And most everybody still talked to me after that, but I guess I shouldn’t press my luck!
Instead of buying a ticket when the office went in on a pool, I flushed $3 down the toilet. I knew my chances were as good as anyone else who actually bought a ticket. Haha. For insurance one of my coworkers promised me $2 million. And in front of witnesses. It felt like a win-win situation for me.
Ha! I promised all my adult ESL students a million apiece when one of my two tickets hit the big one. I hope they’ll settle for sugar cookies from Kroger because that’s what they’re going to be getting from me instead–and I had to count out my dimes and quarters at the check-out counter to buy those!
I bought two tickets this time, just for fun, and had a wonderful time imagining what I’d do with my riches. No harm, no foul. My daughter, however, bought her first ticket and experienced her first crushing heartbreak to go along with it. She stayed up to see the numbers drawn and everything poor girl.
Awww, poor thing, betrayed by dreams of lottery riches! 😉 Here’s a funny P.S. to the time I kept finding the scratch-off tickets. After I won exactly $0.00 on the two I bought, my friend–who knew nothing of my escapade–emailed me to say she’d just gotten a wild hair when paying for her gas and bought a scratch-off ticket out of the blue and won $50! I felt like she should have given it to me. Obviously, the psychic signals got crossed.;-)
I did the exact same thing only I was building a cabin on the Oregon coast. It would have been stunning sigh…
Man, Rena, we could have traded vacation spots when we wanted a change of pace. Oh, well, looks like we had better keep working and paying the mortgage on our primary residences for now!
You ALMOST made it! Yet…you still made something out of it. A lovely post.
I’m done with it, I’m telling ya! I’m not getting sucked in again. 😉 Thanks so much for your kind words and for stopping by, Anna.
Haha – this is exactly how my lottery attempts go! & kind of why I play too. I don’t do it regularly, but I’ll occasionally think I should, and then convince myself that there is a reason I’ve had that thought so I must do it. There’s never a reason!
It is clear to me that the universe enjoys sending you on wild goose chases! (Or the mathematical principle of coincidence is messing with you, which I think does make you pretty special – mathematical principles don’t pick just anyone to mess with!)
The old bait and switch, honey, it gets us every time! Explains my first marriage, by the way. 😉 As for mathematical principles seeking me out–I’d say we’re mutually repellent! Thanks for making me laugh, Lucy!