It's Only Money, Honey

Some of the conversations I've had in the last two weeks about the lottery:

At the Bank

I withdrew a couple of hundred bucks. The teller advised: "Don't spend all that on lottery tickets, although if you do that'll be okay with me because I'm going to win and quit this job!"

With The Family

When the lottery was at $80 million, my sister said if she won she'd give me five million. I became annoyed. Only five million?? She said her plan was to dole out five million dollars to various family members, then give a million dollars each to 50 others to change their lives. I continued to be put out that I was only getting five while my cousin -- who was also slated to receive the same as I --  purred "I'll be happy if you only give me a million, Pat." Things became heated and finger pointing ensued, pointing that implied I was no good and greedy, which, in the context of this conversation, I was. My ridiculous family and I were arguing about lotto winnings my sister had not and probably would never receive.

From The Friends

I've mentioned my friends Gloria and Ed on this blog before. Gloria and Ed seem to be quite fearful of winning the lottery, which begs the question why they would even buy a ticket in the first place. But Ed did buy one when the lottery got up to $380 million or whatever the number was this week. Then they started wringing their hands and sharing concerns: 

"We'll have to move! Everyone will know who we are and where we live!"

"We'll need to hire security."

"People will want to borrow money."

"How could we possibly spend all that money?"

"What would we buy?"

"We'd have to hire financial planners, and how would we know whom to trust?"

It's funny how lottery fever sweeps over people, causing agony and arguments and optimism in those who haven't even won, and in some who didn't even play. I guess the money would be nice, and I like my sister's idea about changing people's lives (of course I wasn't serious about five million not being enough to suit me). I also appreciate the worry that comes with having so much cash in the bank, and speaking of the bank...yeah, not having to work anymore seems appealing. Still, I didn't bother to buy a ticket this week. When I look around at where I've been and where I'm going and the people I've been lucky enough to have pass through my life I feel, corny as it sounds, that I already won the lottery a long time ago.