Dear Mega-Millionaire Lottery,

So we all remember when the lottery was up to $640 MILLION... well I want to take a few moments to honor that incredible lottery amount and my chance at half a million. Actually my chance at half a million, split 6 ways because I went into a pool at work. We all felt really good about our chances of winning... but alas... we did not. And all we have now is 6 non-winning lottery tickets. Cute. But let me tell you the story of the day I planned on quitting my job once I called in my winning lotto ticket.

There is a lady at my work that was convinced she would win, and her confidence helped my confidence... and our confidence helped four other ladies confidence. Our only problem? The fact that Utah doesn't believe in having a lottery because gambling is against the law here. Well luck just had it that I was heading up to Idaho the day of the drawing. Tickets are only $1 each. So each lady gave me $10 and sent me on my way to the big city! And when I say big city... I mean Idaho Falls, Idaho, just so your imagination doesn't run too wild. Driving into town I passed Malad, the first town over the border, and the line at the gas station to buy lottery tickets was AN HOUR LONG! What the!? This isn't the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland people... but then again, $640 million could buy you a house and season tickets to Disneyland for life, so maybe waiting an hour for lotto tickets was a good idea. Anyway, I decided to wait until Idaho Falls for my tickets. On my way to the prelims of Miss Idaho's Outstanding Teen I stopped at a gas station, jumped out of the car in my cocktail dress, ran inside, got in the lotto line, and when I got up to the counter I said, "I need $60 worth of tickets!" And the man next to me said, "60?!?" To which I hurried out my story, "Yeah... I live in Utah... no lottery.... everyone at my work wants to win... they sent me with money... I am in Idaho!" He looked confused, but I know I made sense. Anyway, the machine spit out a bunch of random numbers, I had 60 lotto tickets in my hand, and I ran back to the car.

Me holding the 60 lottery tickets so I could send proof to my co-workers...

they wanted to make sure I didn't run away with all their dollars!

Come on people. Where is the trust there days!?

So there I am... Happy as a clam for those few hours with 60 possible winning tickets! After a night of watching pageants, I received a text message with the winning numbers from my co-worker. I scrambled through out tickets. Not a winner in sight. It was a good go though. And plus, my chances with a ticket were higher than my chances without a ticket!

Love,
Deidre