Last night, I dreamed that I bought a scratch ticket from the gas station. I rubbed off all the rub-offs to find three matching numbers, which meant I won. Unfortunately, the matching numbers said -$50,000. I owed the lottery people $50,000. Bewildered, I read the small print on the back, which said I could pay off my debt by writing a new dictionary of financial terms.
Frightening enough by itself.
This morning at the coffeeshop, a homeless man came in and, after asking me if he could borrow my pick (which I sadly informed him I didn't have on me), asked me, "Sir, can you tell me how the dictionary got wrote?"
I will be buying no scratch tickets. Or picks.
Posted by ghetto monk at January 6, 2006 09:39 AM | TrackBackThat is bizarre.
Posted by: Dig at January 6, 2006 10:42 AMvery bizarre. i have never bought a lottery ticket but in the past two weeks i've become obsessed by the idea. i haven't done it. partly because i'm embarrassed to ask the gas station lady how it works, which i should buy, etc. partly because i keep telling myself that i DON'T believe a lot of money would be good for me spiritually and that i am already a spoiled brat. but i think i'm just telling myself that. now i can add to my arguments against the lottery ticket that I might win a "minus" like you. that would suck.
Posted by: emily at January 6, 2006 11:38 AMemily, i've never bought a lottery ticket either, mostly for the embarrassment of having to ask. this was a dream about scratch tickets, though, which are pretty easy to figure out.
Posted by: jeremy at January 6, 2006 11:51 AMnow i am aware that there is a difference between regular(?) lotto tickets and scratch tickets. shows you just how many questions I'd have to ask before buying one.
Posted by: emily at January 6, 2006 03:19 PMthe universe must be on some sort of dictionary-wave today...this morning on the way to work i heard a song which included a line about mr. webster and how he wouldn't have been able to come up with a word for this singer's feeling. i mean, it's just weird and good to have heard the song this morning and then to read this post.
having that dream and then being asked that question in the coffee-shop would have blown my little mind.
Posted by: judah at January 6, 2006 08:03 PMI just had this conversation a couple days ago. Ashley and a friend and I were discussing the lottery and I said I'd always wanted to play but didn't know how. Friend said, "What's to know? You just pick six numbers." Then I was mocked slightly and now I'm even more determined NOT to learn how to play the lottery.
Posted by: Rebecca Jane at January 7, 2006 02:03 PMJeremy, I've had the same obsession recently (perhaps due to my impending PhD studies, and the thought of being penniless and cold in NYC). I figure that someone has to win...why not me?
So today, in honor of my birthday (yesterday), I played a $2 scratcher, with odds of winning one in four-point-something.
I guess I got the wrong one, caus I didn't win. And something inside me said, "Try again--you'll probably win that one!" It was very odd--not that I expected to win, I guess, but maybe I did.
A once a year lottery ticket won't break the bank, and the gas station attendant didn't embarrass me. But I definitely won't make it a habit!
Posted by: ck at January 7, 2006 06:53 PM