Mega Millions

500 million dollars. Wow. I wonder what past winners of the Mega Millions Lottery were thinking the morning of the drawing. Did they wake up that morning and say, “I’m going to be a multi-millionaire in less than 24 hrs.”? Was that day an ordinary day for them, taking kids to school, cooking dinner? Did they even think once about the ticket they kept in their wallet or purse or did they sit in anticipation, waiting for the big moment when the numbers were called? Did they split the cost of tickets and plan how they would split the money with others? Did they make a list in their minds of what they would do if they won? It seems so surreal that in the morning one could wake up like on any other day, dreading sitting in traffic with a mound of bills stacking up, carefully calculating your checkbook so that every penny is balanced, and then in the evening go to bed with millions of dollars waiting for you to spend.

I asked my mother last night if she had bought her lottery ticket yet. She said that, no, she had no use for that much money. If it had been 4 million she would have reconsidered. The only member of my family I have ever known who bought lottery tickets is my grandmother, and even she has decided to pass.

I never ever thought J and I had a shot at the money until this past year when a winning ticket was sold to someone at an H.E.B. store in Houston, about three miles from our old apartment. We had shopped there once when it first opened.
What would you do with that much money? Would you ever work again? I think I would choose to travel, but I would definitely work, too. I cannot imagine myself never working again. I would become too bored. And I would definitely donate a major portion to many different causes, not just one. I would give a reasonable amount to both of my daughters for a rainy day fund and pay for their college and for my future grandchildren. But I would not give them enough so that they would not try to support themselves.

So have you bought your ticket?