Sometimes I get the winning feeling. It is never for anything big, but as my friends from university could tell you, I am usually pretty spot on when I get it. I can walk into a convenience store, get a sensation, walk to the counter and point at a scratch ticket. Even if that wasn’t my intent to play the lottery that day, I’ll trust that intuition and get the ticket I know is a winner.
Back in 1997, living on Princess St in Kingston, I was fortunate enough to live next door to the 7/11 and their deadly addictive nachos. It was also the store that I would get that feeling from most of the time. In fact, over the course of about 2 months that year, I won 23 out of 25 tickets that I bought. That number is much to high to be dismissed as coincidence, no?
As I said above though, the winnings are never huge, normally anywhere between $5 and $50. Not enough to retire on, but usually good for a pint or two the next night at the bar.
I haven’t had that feeling in a couple of years until this past Tuesday. I walked into the store down the road from me here in Ottawa, and all of a sudden that distantly familiar sensation returned in a big way. Only this time, I knew it was not for a scratch ticket, but for the 6/49 machine. I looked at the prize of $10,000,000 and thought, what the hell. It is my buddy’s birthday on Wednesday, and what better way to celebrate than for me to win the lottery?
So I confidently walked up to the counter and bought a quick pick for the January 19th draw.
I had forgotten about that ticket in my wallet until about an hour ago. I gleefully pulled that ticket out and went online to check the numbers.
I did not hit ONE SINGLE NUMBER of the lucky 6.
However, much to my surprise, I matched the last 4 numbers on the Encore bonus game! That’s worth $100!
Sadly, my intuition was a little bit off. I had forgotten to play the Encore.
Happy Birthday, Steve-O.