One For the Money

I'm not much of a gambler. Even when I had more discretionary cash, I hated watching it go down the drain in some casino. My mom, God bless her, can sit in front of one of those one-armed bandits forever. I know because I've had the difficult task of trying to pry her out of her chair on more than one occasion. Oh, I'll sit down and play for awhile, especially if I can find one of those interactive machines where you get a sporadic bonus giving you the chance to pick five jewelry boxes or Chinese take-away containers with various amounts of credits inside. If I pick the right ones, I've been known to make my twenty bucks last a couple of hours; if I don't, I'm reduced to wandering around the casino watching oxygen-deficient seniors gamble away their Social Security checks before it's time to pry my mom off that stool.

So, if I'm not much of a gambler and I hate throwing my money away, why did I take the time to purchase Powerball tickets along with my Big Gulp? Why did I deliberate so intently before filling in those six numbers with my black pen? I can only think of 500 million reasons.

Just saying that number is enough to make anyone get a little light-headed - 500 million dollars. What would you possibly do with 500 million dollars? The better question is, what couldn't you do? Everywhere I went today, I heard people talking about the options. Helping people, getting out of debt, paying off mortgages, buying the Chicago Bears - all good choices. Let's face it, with that kind of money you could do all of the above and still have enough left over to get Warren Buffett on the phone. All I know is that I'm not much of a gambler and I bought a few tickets. 175 million to one or not, even Suzi Orman couldn't have talked me out of taking a shot at that dream. And if I win, the first thing I want to do is charter a cruise ship and take all my friends and family on a trip of a lifetime. So, be nice - you might be getting a phone call.

And don't worry. There will be plenty of time to decide what to do with the rest of the money when I get back.