I am thankful for the lottery

Back in Connecticut for the holiday I decided to pick up some cashwords. I bought 12 dollars worth (4 tickets) one of them being a special snowball edition cashword. I love how the lottery comes up with ways to suck people in. Let's turn the cashword into a snowball and the gamblers will not be able to resist trying it out. This time the holiday edition did not upset- which is unusual because I feel like they are more for show and they are total lotto placebos.  Snowball won 10 bucks and one of the regular cashwords won 3 dollars.  In total, at this point, I was up by a dollar. Spent 12, went home with 13.

And by went home I mean I took a couple hours off and then went right back to the mobil station to spend my 13 dollars on more tickets. I use the holiday as an excuse to do everything in excess- mainly eat, drink wine, and gamble. After much contemplation and holding up the line at the mini mart I settled on a 10 dollar cashword (crazy...I didn't want to do it but the girl behind the counter made me) and a regular 3 dollar cashword.

This is the 10 dollar ticket. It is extra big making it extra tempting to buy. When it comes to lottery, size is everything. The bigger the ticket, the more chances to win and the higher the prizes. However, I ALWAYS seem to lose the 5 and 10 dollar cashwords. Clearly I have not learned my lesson.

These are the remains of my precious 12 dollars that I started with. Nothing to show for it. This obviously pissed me off and led me to rationalize spending another 5 dollars on some 1 dollar tickets. Fabulous Fives!

Fabulous Fives were somewhat fabulous. After spending 5 dollars on fabulous fives (I thought that by buying 5 I would have some weird cosmic luck) I left with 7 dollars. Now that brings me to a total of a 10 dollar loss this thanksgiving season- correct me if I fucked up the math but I'm pretty sure that's right. These fabulous five winners are sitting in my car right now as I am typing this. Will I resist buying more tickets with the 7 dollars? Probably not.

Lightning don't strike twice

Foolishly I picked up another cashword in the Bronx because I was riding the high from my last win. Lost two bucks on a cashword doubler. Today feels like a good day to pick up some tickets- it's been awhile. 

Stats

-25.00 (previous balance) - 5.00 (24 store trip 1) - 6.00 (24 store trip 2) = -36.00


-36.00 + 10.00 (also from 24 store trip 2) = -26.00 (current balance)


One good win would make it all worthwhile. 

Lotto In the Bronx

This here is the 24 Store. It is conveniently located right next to my bus stop at school where I am often lingering around waiting for the BxM10 bus which is chronically late. Lingering near a store that sells lotto is not great for my budget. On this day I bought 5 dollars worth of tickets. One powerball (lost), one megamillions (lost), and a one dollar scratcher (lost). So far, not good. I even had my friend John bless my tickets with his good luck and.. no dice.

                                                                        HOWEVER

The next time at the bus stop I bought $6.00 worth of scratchers and my Cashword doubler won $10.00! See below.

I got 5 words: Owe, Myth, Tilt, Hit, and Big
Sometimes Cashwords do win! In this case it helped with my lotto debt a bit. Made up for the impulsive bus stop purchases- for the most part. The candy you see in the background is from a different convenience store where I retrieved my 10 dollars and did not succumb to buying more tickets even though the bodega man was yelling at me to "gamble gamble gamble." Aggressive.

The Powerball

The stakes are high. Rumor has it that the POWERBALL jackpot will rise above 300 million for Saturday's drawing. I will be buying some tickets...will you? What would you do with 300 million? I can think of a few things I would like. First I would pay off all of my evil student loans. After that...I have no idea...some great real estate? A few homes in a few different locations, probably. Would have to give some (a lot) to charity. I don't think anyone NEEDS that much money. I would be happy with 200 million :)