Like winning the lottery.

 I'm not one to gamble, I have enjoyed myself at a few casinos but to be honest, it's usually at the dessert buffet where you find me enjoying myself. I go in with a spending limit in mind so there is no pressure to try and win. I haven't gone in about nine years, I also quit playing any lotteries long ago. There were some good ones for only a dollar so I felt it didn't hurt to try, I considered it part of my entertainment dollars.

 The odds of winning are staggering, you have a greater chance of enjoying a Grey's Anatomy episode than winning the lottery. I began to take note of these odds when the price of lottery tickets started to rise. I also noticed the odds, when I ran a group at work for five years. There were about thirty of us and the most we ever won was $40. All winnings went back into buying extra tickets and it never helped. Lottery tickets went from $1 to $2 and then to $5, that's crazy, I slammed the door shut regarding buying anymore tickets. I know politicians giggle and call lotteries a tax on stupid people, or a tax on the poor so they are not getting a penny more out of me. People at work try to get me to join their groups, one person said, "you never know what tomorrow will bring". I said, "yes I do, tomorrow you will be back here at work and I will still have my five dollars".

 Never has my way of thinking become more clear to me as on the weekends. Each week when curling is finished, everyone gathers in the arena bar. We talk about missed shots, perfect shots, never reaching our Olympic dreams (lol) and compare stats. During this time they hold a 50/50 draw to raise funds for the arena upkeep. I always buy tickets, they are $5 but I get an afternoon out and so it's only fair to support the building needs. This is my second year and I have never won which is not unusual; however I sometimes feel that the lottery gods are taunting me!

 Last year for example, one week Margaret won the draw, then the next week she won again to everyone's laughter, the following week as they announced the winning number, we heard Margaret say.. "Oh no". All everyone could do was laugh, Margaret was embarrassed and called for another ticket to be pulled. However we all agreed that the way the numbers are picked, are completely transparent and she won fair and square, so she deserved the money. The following week when the numbers were pulled, nobody seemed to have the winning ticket, we all looked at Margaret who then nervously checked her ticket, with a huge sigh of relief she said it wasn't her and everyone burst out laughing. When it quieted down, from the end of the tables we heard, "it's me, I have the winning ticket". We all starred in disbelief as Mike... Margaret's husband held up the winning ticket!

 The odds of that happening are unbelievable and yet it happened. There are only around thirty people each week that play, so I should have a shot at winning but I never will, I'm not lucky, nobody in my family ever wins something like this. The Margaret story is not the only oddity, each week last year and this year the freak show continues. One week a woman will win, the following week her adult daughter will win, followed by either a husband winning or son in-law. Many people will win twice in a row. Last week and this week, they had guest players, people that are trying curling for the first time, to see if they would like to join. Both the person last week and the person this week on their first day playing won. Each person gets three tickets for $5, some people buy $10 worth and still don't win. It shows me that it's all a matter of bizarre luck, mostly however it shows me that if I can't win out of thirty people, what chance of winning out of 30 million  people do I have!