Lottery Craze Creating Crazy People

I am sure by now everyone has heard about the largest jackpot ever- 500 million dollars pre-tax -in the Mega Millions Lottery.  This jackpot is $110 million more than the previous record set in March 2007.  There are reports of people standing in line for three hours to buy a ticket.  Is everyone buying a ticket?  No, but many people will.  I watched 'The Wendy Williams' show yesterday and she said she has never bought a lottery ticket in her life.  The audience was shocked.  I don't blame her, I am not big on lottery tickets either.  I never win if I do buy a ticket, actually I never win anything.  I played the slots in Las Vegas--won nothing.  I have played the slots in local casinos-won nothing.  I am not a winner.  Coco, my oldest daughter is, she should have been named Lucky.  She has won $$ from lotteries, she wins contests, she even won a composter before it was popular to compost.  My youngest daughter Belle won a bicycle--that was exciting for her.  Lola not so lucky either.  Lola and I both don't buy lottery tickets.  On the other hand, Mr. B. LOVES lottery tickets.  His philosophy that he enjoys sharing with non-believers is, "Someone has to win."  I agree, someone will win, someone we don't know will win.  I hate to burst his bubble because I have watched him buy lottery tickets for twelve years now and the most he has ever won was $300.00.  I don't claim this as a win when I am sure the money invested does not equal the win.  However, it is something he enjoys and that's okay with me seeing as he is a non-smoker, non-drinker, and non-foodie.  So what's wrong with a few lottery tickets?  Lottery fever has hit and speaking of crazy lottery people, I was at the gas station last night to get a couple of colas.  The curbs by the door to my left were taken up by people parking their cars there to run inside.  The gas pumps to my right were both being used.  There was a narrow lane way through the middle of it all which I needed to drive through to get to a parking spot.
  Mr. B. said, "Just drive through the narrow lane but stop by the doorway and let me out and then drive around to the back of the store."  "Okay"  I pulled up between the parked cars, he swung open the door and jumped out.  Just as Mr. B. was getting out of the car a pickup truck came flying in the drive from the opposite direction, she parked it right in front of my car then got out.  What??  This was not a parking lane, this was the only lane way that was open for cars to drive in and out of the gas station and she just blocked me in.  I yelled out my car window to Mr. B. as he was walking in, "That was a really good idea!"  He turned around and looked at the parked truck and the crazy woman walking quickly behind him and yelled back, "Yeah, I know!"  Now I can't move my car unless I back up four car lengths and swing it around to get out of the non parking lane.  I backed up and got myself into a parking spot just as I saw the belligerent truck driver get back into her truck with her brown bag.  Mr. B. came out shortly after and told me the woman was in a big hurry.  She bought her beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  Yep, nothing was going to get in her way.  We were guessing all the way home which one was more important to her; the beer, cigarettes, or lottery.  Mr. B. said the beer because she could drown her sorrows when she lost the lottery or celebrate when she wins the lottery.  Beer is like that; it's a multifunctional drink, depending on the situation at hand.  I said the truck, because without the truck she couldn't get any of the above.

Before this lottery craze gets worse I have a suggestion.  Wouldn't it be nice when the lottery reaches such outrageous amounts that there is more than one winning number?  The winnings would be divided up so instead of one person winning it all, the jackpot would be spread out so 300 people could become millionaires....The odds of winning this jackpot are estimated at nearly one in 176 million.  Hard times are here and with that amount of money we need more winners.  Good luck on Friday, March 30th and no more fighting in the lottery lines!

Ah-h-h to live the good life.  Cosmo looks like he already won the jackpot.