The lottery numbers for the Super 7 came out on Friday. But I’m giving myself just one more day of fantasy, just a few hours more to pretend that my numbers came up and I can now buy that Cheez Whiz-coloured Ford Mustang convertible. Ten of them, in fact.

Sometimes when I’m awake in the wee hours of the morning, fretting about this or that, that one $5 lottery ticket turns it all around. I think it’s worth the price.

Lottery tickets are one of the few items that have actually become more in demand since the downturn of the economy. Everyone is hoping for that quick fix…just win the lottery and hell, I won’t NEED a job!

I’ve been buying them for years, just one a week, $5 and that’s it. Recently I won $10 and a free play, and that was very satisfying. Not exactly millions, but satisfying. I’m sure if I added up how much I’ve spent over the years, it would amount to quite a bit, maybe even a shocking amount. Let’s see: $5 x 52 weeks, times how many years? Nah, never mind.

I don’t like to think about the statistics. I think people come up with them just to depress us all. I don’t care if my chances of winning could be compared to being one grain of sand on a massive beach, or that I have a better chance of getting killed in a car accident or struck by lightening. Who comes up with these depressing statics anyway? Party poopers.

Then there’s the story about the 8 Lottery Winners who Lost Their Millions. I know I just put a link to the story, but do yourself a favour and don’t read it. Why would you want to find out how stupid people with a lot of money can be? You wouldn’t be that stupid, would you? Or finding out how greedy friends and family might become if they found out you had all that money? Who’d really want to know that? Reality is for suckers.

Part of me is excited and the other part dreads walking up to the ticket checker (I always go to the machine first to check my ticket, in case the lottery clerk turns out to be a liar and a thief!) to find out if I have won. Most of the time I get a “Sorry, not a winner.” Which of course means, “YOU ARE A LOSER!!” One time, I brought my ticket to the clerk when the machine wasn’t working. She had a bit of an accent, and she told me I’d won a free play…then I swore she said “You won the extra.” I stared at her and my heart leaped “I won the extra?????”. “No,” she said, dashing my hopes and making me feel instantly stupid, “You WANT the extra?”. Crap.

Although my fantasy does include a Cheez Whiz-coloured Ford Mustang Convertible, most of the time I just lie there and imagine the faces and responses of my family and friends as I hand them a big, fat cheque. I like to think about the people I’d help, and the joy it would give me to do something for them. I go through my list of people, one by one, and eventually I drift off to a wonderful sleep with a little smile on my face.

Five dollars to win the lottery each and every week is a small price to pay, no?

IJ