Why I Play the Lottery

I was driving around town the other day, listening to Dr. Laura (that's whole 'nother blog) and I heard a preview for another show.  I'm not sure who it was, I think maybe Sean Hannity?  I don't really know who he is or anything about him though so I can't say for sure, all I know is it sounded like some opinionated blow hard like Rush Limbaugh (hate) or John and Ken (love).  The guy was saying something about some statistic that the higher a person's income, the less likely they were to play the lottery.  Okay, I guess I buy that.  I don't know whether this is an actual factual statistic or something he made up.  Then he said something obnoxious along the lines of  "because people higher incomes are too intelligent to waste their time/money playing lottery hoping to get rich".  I wish I could remember the exact line because it was really obnoxious.  I understood the point he was trying to make, and he was probably right, people with higher incomes (I believe he was using $100k per year as the standard, but I don't really even remember that) probably don't stop and pick up a lottery ticket every week. But his delivery sucks.

And it got me thinking, why, do I  play the lottery.  Do I wanna win?  Duh!  Do I think I'm going to win? Probably not (don't read that Universe! Of course I am!) so why waste the money?

I guess it's because I'm not just buying a chance to win the Jackpot, I'm buying a little bit of hope, and you can never have too much hope.  I'm also getting myself a tiny bit of imagination, and keeping up a positive attitude.

When I buy my ticket, or tickets (the most I ever bought was $7, and that was hard because I am cheap) I usually go to the same store, the Bootlegger II on Avenue K and Division Street, and buy them from the same clerk.  I say the same thing, or just about, " give me (however many) quick pick tickets, and make at least one the winning one!" and she always says "okay, I'll try to get the right one this time!".  I make sure when I buy them to think that one is the winner, and I make sure to believe I have a winner right up until I see that I don't, just in case the Universe is paying attention.  I might spend a few seconds thinking about what I would do with the big bucks if I win.

But that's about it, I don't bet my life on winning the lottery, I don't get disappointed when I don't (okay, except that last really big Mega Millions, I was kinda depressed then) and I don't think people that play the lottery do so because we are lower on the food chain.

So far my system hasn't really worked for us, we are not yet millionaires, so today I picked  my lucky numbers: 3 for the number of grandchildren I have (and marriages, third time is the charm!), 28 for my anniversary date, 11 for the number of years I've been married, 9 for the number of children we have, 40 for my age, which really is fabulous, and 41 for the Mega because I will be that fabulous in a few months.  Wish me luck!