I’m not sure if I was the only one doing it this morning. Perhaps I was joining hundreds or hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing at the same time. Nobody ever really talks about it, but we all do it. And if you deny it, everybody knows you are lying. So I’m pretty confident that, this morning, we were all a collective force in the universe wishing to win the lottery.

What did you think I was talking about?

I mean, I always wish that I never have to worry about money ever again. Sometimes, on a bad day, I wish for early retirement. But this morning, I caught myself in negotiations with the big mysterious spirit of the universe.

“You know, I’m not greedy. A hundred thousand dollars would be GREAT,” I said to nobody. I sipped my coffee. I looked straight ahead at the highway being sure to stay between the lines as my sleepy eyes tried to stay focused during my early morning commute into work.

“Oh what the hell,” I say, “I just want to be independently wealthy and never have to work again!” A cool million is what I really wish for. But then if I only get a million, I can’t share with my family and friends, and that’s really not a lot of money in today’s world. So now I need a couple million, or maybe something like 10 million dollars. Yes, 10 million dollars would do it.

And then I wonder how I went from a hundred thousand dollars to ten million in about 7 minutes. Apparently, I am greedy.

I am one of those people who have been off for two weeks for the holiday break. If schools are closed, I am home in my jammies. This irritates a lot of people, so when I was driving into work this morning feeling ever so sorry for my sad, pathetic self, I had nobody to call and ask for sympathy. People work every day, all day, all year round. That’s 365 days. School employees typically work about 180 days a year, unless you are a really important person, in which case you might work a grueling 220 days a year.

So as I sweep up the remaining tree needles from under the couch and begin to balance my checkbook from the holiday tsunami, I tell myself (in addition to buying more lottery tickets) to be grateful for the job I have. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for my job, but I’d be a lot more thankful with an extra ten million dollars in my back pocket!