feeling lucky?

Have I mentioned how much I love my coworkers?

Tonight's close was going awful. We were short a closer, and kept getting slammed in the cafe and drivethru and things were going very slowly. We were all in poor spirits and could see no end in sight. Our shift supervisor Elliott (who's barely a year older than me) was giving us instructions, when Amber, a new barista sarcastically remarked, "Oh, you want me to make mochas and whip creams at the same time? Ok, I'll pick the winning lotto numbers too." Something sparked in mine and Elliott's heads. "Wouldn't it be fun if we bought lotto tickets? What if we won? We'd split it four ways and then just leave the store!" We decided to give it a shot, each pitch in a dollar, and buy four sets of numbers. Immediately, our morale improved and the former heaviness of the air lifted. We each chimed in with out lucky numbers, then picked numbers from our partners numbers. We then used numbers from our evening's milk count and put together four combinations. "If we actually win," Amber commented as she stirred the mochas, "I'm going to dump this stuff all of the floor!" Having already eaten before coming to work and never having bought a lotto ticket before, I volunteered to head to the gas station during my lunch break and try our luck.

I felt like I was in a movie scene. Driving through the rain, listening to Muse, my heart pattered with excitement. Fear crept into my mind. There was a little bit of danger to this. What if we actually won something? Aren't most lotto winners bankrupt within a year or two of their winnings? And what about the cursed numbers from LOST that Hurley picked for his winning lotto ticket? Rain beating down, bass thumping, guitars soaring, I pressed on. While filling out our numbers, I noticed a sign something to the effect of "7-11 number blah blah blah sold a winning ticket for the amount of '1,918'" Wow, so someone had won something from this same spot, picking 3 or 4 of the lucky numbers.

I returned with the ticket, and renewed vigor. As I told Elliott, "This was more energizing than a shot of espresso!" Even after we checked the numbers and discovered no winnings, I still felt ten times better the second half of the shift. We decided we'd try some scratch off tickets next time. We worked hard, we laughed, we told stories, and even sang a little. We got everything done and didn't get out too late.

I keeping our losing lotto ticket to remember the connection myself and my fellow partners had this night, and many nights past and future. No large amounts of cash to show for it, but tonight I did get lucky.