Apparently I was supposed to win...

Tuesday as I was leaving my office a scruffy looking man I had never seen before looks up from from sorting and checking his lottery numbers in old newspapers and points at me and says "YOU should buy a ticket tonight... it's 49 million, y'know." I smiled and said, "Alright then, I will." and turned to leave and he says "I'll be back next week to pick up my share." and I laughed.

I did go buy a ticket that night, but sadly I did not win.

I find myself buying these blasted things more and more. I figure that $1.00 buys me a days worth of lottery winning fantasy. For a mere dollar I get to redecorate my dream home, buy all the camera gear I want, pay off all my bills, kidnap my husband and travel the world and only cook when I feel like it, which is almost never. $1.00 is a small price to pay for this fantasy.

Some people pay much more for their fantasy lives... men in strip clubs stuff bill after bill into the sequin clad g-strings of hot college girls trying to imagine what it would be like to have sex with them.

I would like to think I would be generous with my lottery winnings, and if I do ever win, that is my intention. I bet I would disappear for a little while though until all the fuss has died down. I bet folks I knew in elementary school would crawl out of the woodwork and say "Hi! remember me? I used to beat the snot out of you on a daily basis, but you forgive me RIGHT?" Old boyfriends and people who called me names would suddenly remember things differently and try to contact me. I would probably get calls at all hours of the night saying "I'm a friend of a friend of a friend of so-and-so and my sister needs a new car and a kidney..." You get the idea.

I don't want anything terribly extravagant. I just want a house far enough away from from my neighbors that I don't have to see or hear them. I want a house big enough to have an art room, a music room, a computer room, a room to dance in and enough bedrooms to have overnight guests at a moments notice. I want a pool, a secret garden and a place to build a fire. I would have big parties, small parties and crazy parties.

I would quit my job that very moment and never look back. I would learn to invest enough of it to insure we would never have to work again.

I would get a tattoo by Chris Garver of Miami Ink. I would hire a professional cook to make us healthy, yummy meals. I would learn to belly dance from a real person instead of from a DVD. I might get an apartment or condo in Boston to use as a crash pad for those nights we go in to see a show. It would be nice to be a short stagger or cab ride to bed on those evenings. I would travel the world taking pictures of my adventures.

I'd buy another hearse and have it fixed up pretty... maybe make it into a camper of sorts and drive around the country in it... gas prices be damned! Actually driving around the country with Ron would be a must. Driving vacations seem to suit us rather well.

I would set up college funds for all the kids I know. I would help my friends in any way I can... y'all would be driving new cars at the very least! I have been very lucky in my friends over the years and I would do my best to do what's best for you all.

What would you do if you won $49 million dollars? Would you buy a house? 2 houses? Travel the world? Learn to fly a plane? Would you disappear?