Euromillions

 

On Friday Emilie and I bought some tickets for Euromillions, the pan-European lottery that's more or less equivalent to Super Lotto in California or PowerBall on the East Coast. The value was up to over 147 million Euros (about $200 million), so we figured why not.

I've only played the lottery a couple of times in my life, with zero success obviously. I'm well aware of the odds, so its not something that captures my interest very often (perhaps once a decade or so). Nonetheless, I've noticed that when you do play it provides a nice, albeit temporary, distraction from reality.

I vividly recall one time when I was a kid and my parents took part in a Lotto pool with some coworkers or friends. Leading up to the drawing, I daydreamed about all the things that I planned to buy with "my" winnings. I don't know how much I thought that we really had a chance to win, but it was nonetheless fun thinking about it in "what if" terms.

This time was no different. And since Emilie was gone for the weekend, I decided not to check to see if we had the winning numbers until she returned on Sunday night. While I knew that we hadn't won even without checking (unless a miracle truly did happen), the fact that there was even the slimmest of possibilities of winning was a nice feeling to have.

And given that I was at work today, you have your answer for whether we won. I don't even think we got more than two numbers. But it was still worth it for sheer possibility if nothing else.