I always find it curious how one reacts when one hears about a big lottery win from one’s hometown, especially if one happens to be out of town at the time.
I was in Vancouver for the weekend when I heard about a Lotto 6/49 ticket sold in Vernon had won a $5-million jackpot.
And this was on the heels of a $50-million jackpot won just 24 hours earlier on a Lotto Max ticket sold in Kelowna.
I mean we all know we’re lucky to live in the Okanagan in the first place and apparently the lottery gods are trying to emphasize the point.
Now having purchased a ticket in both draws, yeah I know the odds but there is a therapeutic value as well, I figured I now at least had a shot at being in the mix as the window of possible winners had closed to at least my neck of the woods.
OK, I hadn’t actually purchased a Lotto Max ticket for the April 8 draw in Kelowna so that was probably not me. But, you know, maybe they got it wrong and it actually was sold near Kelowna, as you know we sometimes feel like we live in the shadow of the bigger city and we’re not that far apart and……OK maybe I didn’t win that one but there’s still hope for the Lotto 6/49 jackpot.
And, I rationalize, I don’t really want $50 million, that would complicate my life too much and maybe even make me paranoid about things, even though I’m just saying all that cause I know I didn’t win and secretly I think I’m up to the challenge, or I wouldn’t buy tickets each week with the anticipation that I could.
But, hey, $5 million was just about right and I actually had a chance at that one because I did buy my ticket in little ol’ Vernon.
I could retire a little earlier than anticipated (like in two weeks), help out family and some charities (although how much and how to do it was already causing angst in my brain….) so I don’t feel too greedy, and then, well, be greedy with the rest, ha.
Trips, maybe a cabin or a motorhome to travel North America, or take a cruise for a couple years, the options are endless and believe me they were all racing through my head as I showered Sunday morning.
Now some people might have wanted to find out right away if they won or not by checking the lottery website or writing down the numbers provided by the media.
But not me.
I wanted to keep the dream alive as long as possible. The logic I was following, if you can call it that, is if I check the numbers right away and they’re not mine (which I knew was the likely result), the dream is over.
By deliberately extending the time of not knowing I was actually adding to the value of the ticket by adding hours to the dream of being a multimillionaire. Not to mention my procrastination habit was actually paying dividends for once, in a delusional kind of way.
I thought about trying to go the whole weekend without knowing, teasing myself with the possibilities the entire time, but a few hours later I passed the lotto booth at the Pacific Centre food court and couldn’t help myself. I checked it.
Sure enough, I was a winner. Of a dollar.
I smiled at the inevitability of it all, I think. And I promptly invested my winnings to keep the dream alive.
