With a slight spring in my step I walked to the curb to cross the street and go back to work. Every so often, I run across ( well not literally run, but you get the idea ) the street to the gas station to buy a pop or something at lunch.
As I stood in line my eyes wandered the registers and I spotted the lottery signs. The current Powerball jackpot is up to $176 million dollars. If by chance you should happen to live for another 20 years, of course, you could get that on a payment plan and take the whole thing. The other option is to take a lump sum which is $89 million ( before taxes ).
I found it funny as I crossed the street that I was already beginning to figure out how to spend it. Let's see - finish paying off the student loans, pay off the rest of my car, set up trust funds for the kids . . . but then I caught myself.
Oh my god!! Was I too late? Did I already jinx it? You're just supposed to put the ticket in your pocket and forget it about until the numbers get called. Then as you find out a day later, through the newspaper or television or radio, that, "Hey those numbers sound familiar? Those are the numbers that I had on my . . ."
Then, as you frantically comb through a pile of dirty laundry searching for it . . . your GOLDEN TICKET . . . you praise whomever might possibly be responsible for this moment of fortune to shine upon your life.
I don't usually buy lottery tickets. Go ahead, call me an idiot for falling for the "poor tax" that suckers in people like me. The lure of the sweet side of life beckoned and I answered the call. What can I say? Momentary weakness? Boredom? The faint glimmer of hope in a life filled with drudgery?
By virtue of the fact I have gone on to post this, my chances are null. The odds are insurmountably stacked against me. I'll be lucky if even one number comes up. But really I should have known this before I bought the ticket.
If luck were a disease, I have a natural immunity.
As I stood in line my eyes wandered the registers and I spotted the lottery signs. The current Powerball jackpot is up to $176 million dollars. If by chance you should happen to live for another 20 years, of course, you could get that on a payment plan and take the whole thing. The other option is to take a lump sum which is $89 million ( before taxes ).
I found it funny as I crossed the street that I was already beginning to figure out how to spend it. Let's see - finish paying off the student loans, pay off the rest of my car, set up trust funds for the kids . . . but then I caught myself.
Oh my god!! Was I too late? Did I already jinx it? You're just supposed to put the ticket in your pocket and forget it about until the numbers get called. Then as you find out a day later, through the newspaper or television or radio, that, "Hey those numbers sound familiar? Those are the numbers that I had on my . . ."
Then, as you frantically comb through a pile of dirty laundry searching for it . . . your GOLDEN TICKET . . . you praise whomever might possibly be responsible for this moment of fortune to shine upon your life.
I don't usually buy lottery tickets. Go ahead, call me an idiot for falling for the "poor tax" that suckers in people like me. The lure of the sweet side of life beckoned and I answered the call. What can I say? Momentary weakness? Boredom? The faint glimmer of hope in a life filled with drudgery?
By virtue of the fact I have gone on to post this, my chances are null. The odds are insurmountably stacked against me. I'll be lucky if even one number comes up. But really I should have known this before I bought the ticket.
If luck were a disease, I have a natural immunity.