It is Powerball fever once again. This morning’s trek took me to Meijer and as I entered the door I saw an unusually long line snaking around the customer service counter area. Based on the interviews with hopeful winner wannabes on WWJ early this morning, my brilliant deduction was folks were queued up to buy a Powerball ticket for the $317 million jackpot tonight.

I used to buy Lotto tickets on a regular basis but my luck was so abysmal with both the instant or with any of the other varieties that I just quit trying. Years ago, when the weekly Michigan Lotto first started, my mom and I ginned up a combo of numbers based on our respective birthdays and street address. We thought we’d give it a shot. I got the ticket and we won about $25.00 which was for a four-number match if I remember correctly. We were ecstatic, and of course vowed to become regular players going forward using our “magic numbers” … truth is – we never won again. I used to buy an occasional scratch-off ticket and put it inside a Mother’s Day card or my mom’s birthday card and the most she ever won was a free ticket. These lotteries cannot be “fixed” as you see the smiling faces of people holding up the large fake check … perhaps I should consult a numerologist.

But, while I am not so lucky with the lottery, I must share a winning-streak phenomenon that happened to me about 18 years ago. My current-boss Robb and I worked together at a law firm before going out on our own. But before Robb, I worked for a pair of attorneys named Ed and Howard. Howard had a degree in securities as well as his law degree and he left the Firm in 1995 to pursue a career at H&R Block as in-house counsel. I liked Howard alot and he asked me to join him at H&R which was a block away from our building, but I declined. I got a nice going-away card for him, however, and while at the cigar store in the Buhl Building purchasing a weekly lottery ticket for myself, I got an extra ticket for him and tucked it into the card for good luck. It was a Saturday night drawing and first thing Monday morning Howard called me to tell me he won $250.00. I had a dud ticket and had won nothing – so basically it was just a matter of which ticket I chose for myself and which I gave away. Some poor planning on my part, eh? Howard took me to lunch to celebrate his windfall and thank me.

About a month later, local radio station WJR had a contest for an all-expenses-paid ski trip to Vail Colorado for two people. All that was required was sending in a postcard with your name on it and you could enter as often as you wanted. I sent in two postcards with my boss Ed’s name on each. I don’t ski and I knew he did and he often lamented that with four teenagers, three of them triplets, he and his wife Chris had not taken any kind of vacation in years and would probably not do so until the kids were out on their own. I answered an incoming call for Ed a few weeks after entering the contest, and an excited WJR promotions manager asked to speak to him. Ed was on another line and instantly my radar went up. I never told him I entered his name. I inquired what it was regarding and she told me that he had won two prizes: first and second prize. She advised she had pulled one postcard for the Vail ski trip and the second postcard was in another barrel and he had won a $500.00 pair of Rossignol top-of-the-line skis. I was speechless … she asked to hold until he completed his call. He finished the call and I bolted into his office and told him what I had done, what he had won and to shut his mouth as it was catching flies. I told him to just act like he had entered the contest himself and this is what he did. They took the trip just before the holidays and he said it was the trip of a lifetime and he and his wife were treated like royalty and the new skis were an added bonus. For my efforts, I received a comfy, warm sweater with “Vail” on it and a snowflake earrings and pendant set.

After Christmas WJR had another contest, this time for “best boss”, and I really liked Ed so I thought “what the hey?” … this time they were picking about a half-dozen bosses and their spouses for an all-expenses-paid weekend in February to a resort in beautiful Garland, Michigan. On a lark, I once again sent in a postcard and did not tell Ed I was entering the contest as I figured they’d say he was exempt since he’d won other recent prizes. But, as luck would have it, Ed’s postcard was one of the chosen entries and he was not exempted and enjoyed a wonderful snowy weekend in Garland and the opportunity to use the new skis again. I received another piece of jewelry as a thank you.

Well, Ed was as Irish as they come and very big on his heritage. On the first floor of the Buhl Building, a brand-new bakery opened on St. Paddy’s Day. There was much fanfare the morning they opened, and they had alot of yummy samples and free coffee, along with a huge fishbowl to drop your business card in. There was to be a drawing at day’s end for an exquisite Irish gift. The gift was displayed in the bakery: a huge coffee-table book about Ireland and assorted teas, jams, jellies and fresh scones all wrapped in a shamrock-themed bag. Figuring I was on a real roll by now, I went upstairs and asked Ed for a business card and told him my motive and to keep his fingers crossed. We were not in the least surprised at 4:45 p.m. when the Buhl Bakery called for Ed to come and collect his prize!!! My mom and I enjoyed scones and jam for breakfast the next morning.

At that point, the talk around the water cooler at Wise & Marsac was that I possessed some type of magical powers and I was dubbed “Ms. Midas” by many. Alot of the young attorneys pooled their money and formed a lottery club awhile back and they decided going forward I would be the go-to person to take the pooled money downstairs to the Lotto agent and purchase the twenty weekly tickets. For my efforts, I would receive a percentage of the winnings. Being attorneys, they offered to draw up a contract for my “take” and me, always the pragmatist, suggested “we’ll wait and see how we prevail first”. I must have been prophetic because there were never any winnings, large or otherwise. I did my ticket purchases for about six months and they realized my luck had run out and I was never asked to buy a Lotto ticket again. It was not a win-win situation for the group and my moniker of “Ms. Midas” soon got very tarnished. To my knowledge, the internal Lotto group never won a dime on their own. Shortly thereafter, our Firm was acquired by another law firm, Ed left to work for the City of Detroit Law Department and I started working for Robb. We eventually formed our own firm and our former Firm went belly-up the following year.

“Luck never made a man wise.” – Seneca