Win the lottery

When I put “Win the Lottery” on my life list – I didn’t specify it had to be the big jackpot.

The first win came about in a group at work in May of 2003; I think there were 6 of us. It was pretty exciting to come to work to find out we’d won a little bit of money. It worked out to about $400 each. Not a jackpot by any means – but it did allow me to scratch “own a digital camera” off the list.

But the win I had in November of 2005 has to be (by far!) the most exciting and nerve wracking win of anything I’ve ever experienced. It gave me a glimpse into the emotions one might go through when you win “the big one”.

It was an Atlantic 6/49. The prize structure for this draw is defined with a top prize of one million dollars but I didn’t know exactly how it worked. What I did know is that in “regular” 6/49 – matching 5 numbers means you’ve probably won a nice little chunk of change.

I remember waking up and sitting at the computer with my ticket to check the numbers, what happened next probably went a little like this:

1st number: check.
2nd number: check.
3rd number: check.
4th number: check.
Holy jesus! What is going on?!
5th number: nope.
6th number: check.
Holy Mother! No. I gotta check those again.

2nd number: yup.
3rd number: yup.
4th number: yup.
*shaking begins*
5th number: nope.
6th number: yup.

I think that at this point, I ran out to the living room where Billy was probably playing on the Playstation and told him that “I’ve won some money. Holy mother Mary, I’ve just matched 5 out of 6 numbers on my lottery ticket. I don’t know what that means. But Oh My God what is going on!?” He probably told me to relax and check again. I looked up the payout table:

$649 bucks! Wow! Well – it’s not going to pay off my car – but I’m not complaining.

After this experience, I can only begin to imagine what sort of disbelief a person must go through when they match 6 for 6.

It’s certainly an experience I’d love to live through again!