I
have been playing the Florida lotto since it started on April 29, 1988.
People will ask me how much I have spent in the past 23 years just as
they use to ask me how much I spent on cigarettes when I smoked. My
answer was the same in both cases, "I would have spent it on something
else."  The bottom line being that after smoking 61 years, mainly 2
packs a day, I gave it up 2 and a half years ago and I still don't know
where all the money I should have saved has gone. I don't do anything
different today than I did then. I also stopped drinking in 1981 and
haven't the slightest idea where all the money I stopped spending the
past 30 years on booze has gone.

Here
it is 23 years later and I am still waiting to win the jackpot and I
know I will--hey, it might be on my death bed but at least my heirs will
get something! What did I get from the lottery that I didn't get from
smoking and drinking? Twenty-three years of fantasies, dreams and
possibilities. When I win--maybe THIS Wednesday--I know exactly how I
will spend the money ranging from frivolous to the serious.

In no particular order of importance:

I
definitely will donate to ALL the Arts organizations in South Florida,
giving enough so that my name will be on a chair or wall or brick.

One
of my dreams is to open an Arts complex consisting of a movie theatre
showing all MY favorite movies, a theatre presenting a history of gay
themed plays, an art gallery and coffee shop plus a cabaret where the
best performers of Broadway will appear for a week at a time.

Continuing the Arts theme I will also hold writing contests so that new authors will be published.

There
will definitely be sizable donations to the Pride Center and AIDS
organizations. Plus I will give a very big donation to the Gateway
Resident's Association.

And let's not forget a 'donation' to the IRS so I can share the money with the Republicans, who, of course, will refuse it.

I will definitely have an aviary and start a wild life sanctuary beginning with a couple of Pandas, kangaroos and kolas!

The
friends who have been there for me in the past, and now, certainly
deserve a sum so they don't have to worry about now or the future. (Told
you that you should have lent me your car! LOL) And, of course, I will
get either a white 1971 Cadillac or 1972 red Chevrolet convertible.

Between
the Arts complex, aviary and sanctuary I will be pretty busy so as that
is all being set up I will rent a yacht and crew--I will personally
interview the latter!--invite a few friends (I heard when you win a
lottery you get an amazing number of friends) to come as you are, we
will pick up things as we go along, and take a leisurely trip to
Auckland, New Zealand at which point we will rent  cars and drive along
the coast to Christchurch stopping when and where we want.

Obviously
I will have to win one of the big jackpots but at the same time I won't
give up my apartment here at Gateway because knowing me I will probably
be one of those winners who go broke. I mean I haven't mentioned half
of the things I will need/want besides being a sucker for a sob story I
know a lot will be 'given' away.

All a
dream? Maybe but I don't think so. I know it will happen. At the same
time playing the lotto gives me a few minutes each time they spin the
cage, to pick the winning numbers, dreams and fantasies and I never got
that from smoking and drinking!

And don't forget with each ticket I buy I am helping education--and I can say that with a straight face!

*************************************************

"All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze

of a Spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening.

Some of us let great dreams die, but others nourish and

protect them through bad days til they bring them

to the sunshine and light which comes always to those

who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."

Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924, President of the United States of America.