I won the lottery!!!!!

I didn't but reading about the person who "possibly" won, ticket hers but misplaced or whatever story was last out, I guess I could say it too.  I do not gamble and that includes the weekly pilgrimage to the lotto machine.  I do not play slots or any of those casino games and though I enjoy a day at a nice track (NY's Saratoga or San Diego's Del Mar) or watching the big horse races on tv (yes I like the hats and the whole show) I do not associate gambling with anything other than some painful memories of a father who enjoyed it more than the wallet and his family did.  


However, when the lotto jackpot his $240+ million I too went and bought a ticket, and needed instruction on how to fill out the lotto ticket -- not for me the Quick Pick -- if I was going to be a millionaire I was going to earn it.  This giant jackpot...well it got into everyone.  The best part was that as we started talking about it the jackpot became all or nothing.  It was not enough for us to win a million anymore, after taxes and paying off mortgages and various other debts, I would be able to take a nice vacation but back to work I would trudge.  It was not enough to live on more, sometimes double, than our weekly take home pay.  We needed to be the .25% and we were all living large.   There were round the world trips, college tuitions saved for even the kid who needs several extra years beyond the 4 required, hell we got generous medical school and law school too if they wanted.  Our houses and apartments well they had been nice but now ...well we really could not do without a place that did not have "wings".  The talk in the office was of "would you quit or would you give notice?" ... me well I would give 2 weeks notice, after all looking at every Dateline or 20/20 on lotto winners most of them do need a job later so did not want to mess with my references.  We ladies were buying Hermes bags and other stuff we had drooled over from afar. The men were buying electronics in stadium sizes.  I would like to tell you that we had as much discussion about the charities we would donate to or the good we could do with that money...but that would be a lie.  We spent and spent and spent and it felt good.  


I know here is where someone is going to berate me for the capitalism - materialism- blahblahism.  I do not feel bad though.  I think it shows that most of us would like to have nice things and we define those differently.  We all would want more than we have and that is ok.  It is the ability to reach for that which makes the US still unique.  The person who is poverty stricken had the same lotto dreams as us I bet, but while we had it in our comfortable homes they had it with more need.  That is what imagination is for.  In reality if I won lotto, after some serious self and family/friend spending, I would buy up foreclosed homes and just give them to people who were in need.  I would like to help those who are down and out.  I would like to not be angry that the celebrities in the States seems so do so much more for other places rather than the people who need them here by putting my money where my mouth is.  All this and more ..if I won lotto.  Until then I do what I can even if that sometimes means just being kind to a stranger.  I continue to support small businesses and hope that big ones keep employing those of us who need them to.  I did not play again after I did not win...but that lotto ticket bought my co-workers and I something that we do not usually have time for these days in the office...a couple of minutes where we were just having a laugh, sharing a dream and most of all not running to our next meeting...it reminded us that we are more the same than different...and mostly it did make it seem like all you sometimes need is a dollar and a dream.  

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