Here’s one thing I know for sure – I won’t be a mega millionaire tomorrow.  I know this because I did not buy a single ticket for tonight’s drawing.  So I won’t be taking the cash option buyout of $462 million ($347 million after taxes).

I don’t tend to invest a lot of time and energy on things that have a ridiculously low possibility of  producing a return.  Not that I don’t ever play the lottery – I have had a subscription to the North Dakota Powerball lottery for a few years now.  I send a check a few times a year and play my same old numbers.  Every once in awhile I win.  The state sends me my winnings in the mail – typically $12.  I have yet to have a year where I come out ahead – which is why I keep my investment at just one ticket for each drawing.  It allows me to gamble with the lowest level of commitment – so I don’t completely foreclose the possibility that lightning might strike, but I keep it in perspective.

I know that despite the odds someone will eventually win that obscenely huge jackpot – hopefully someone who really needs it and uses it well.  I know that with a single ticket winning is possible – I get it.  But as I said, I already have made my commitment to my lottery folly in my Powerball subscription.  I recognize that I am one-in-a-million, but when the odds become one in 176 million I know when to hedge my bets with sensibility. 

So I won’t be rolling in millions tomorrow, but if you happen to be the lucky person who has all the right numbers I wish you well and I hope you will remember how many people and organizations you can benefit with even a handful of those millions.

Day nine hundred and ninety-eight of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C