Tony and I, like a lot of other people across America,
played the lottery for the first time in the (very small) hopes of winning the
big $640 million jackpot. Not to
be corny, but hey… you can’t win if you don’t play! Mega Millions did seem to create a bit of a stir in Buffalo,
but there were not the 2+ hour lines like in other areas
of the nation. The longest I saw
was a line at Tops’ customer service extending to the Redbox machine.
We bought our tickets at our local convenience store. We felt kind of awkward, as we hadn’t even looked at one of those
Mega Millions scantron sheets, let alone filled one out before. Tony and I played a combination of
quick picks ($5) and our own “lucky number” combinations ($5) in celebration of
our first lottery experience.
Before the big numbers were announced, Tony and I met up for
dinner with our friends Matt and Ashley to celebrate Matt’s upcoming
birthday. While enjoying our meals,
we talked about what we would do with all that money when one of us was sure to
be declared a winner that night. Our
plans started out conservative, including solid investments and paying off
student loans. However, the ideas
soon spread to the outlandish. Tony
insisted he would be the first owner of a pet Wooly Mammoth following their
upcoming cloning. Matt and Ashley
brought up getting a “jump around” in the backyard as a major perk. Matt pointed out that there have been
articles written about the downsides of winning the lottery… one of which is
strain on marriages. I think a
Wooly Mammoth would be a definite problem for Tony and I, compounded by one
actually inside of a jump around.
When the numbers were finally drawn, Tony and I waited
anxiously. We refused to look at
the flimsy sheets of paper until the last number was drawn. Scanning through our sheets, we found
we were the proud winners… Of $2!!!!! Oh, the exciting prospects of what we can do
with all that cash.
And, here she is: our lucky ticket. That circled "23" means the big bucks!
Things I have learned from my one time playing the Mega
Millions lottery:
(1) Tony
and my lucky numbers really aren’t very lucky: I am pretty sure we share our “lucky numbers” with half of
America. And, at least for the
lottery, I think they are more of a distraction than an actual help. Using “our numbers,” mostly which
extend from a combo of meaningful dates and old sports jersey numbers, the spread
was pretty poor… not a single number on our “lucky” $5 sheet came up. Also, I
realize we don’t have very many meaningful numbers in the 30’s-50’s. Bad choice.
(2) Quick
picks are the way to go, especially if you are playing more than one
board. If it hadn’t been for the
quick picks, we would have won nothing! And looking through the history of big winners,
most of them were quick pick winners anyways… not that I am planning on
regularly burning money on lottery tickets.
(3) Playing
is more fun BEFORE the numbers are drawn: it is pretty sad when the excitement
following the drawing constitutes looking for just MAYBE one number showing up
on your ticket… and just about everyone is set up to lose anyways.
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