Just Half An Hour

A couple of weeks ago, we had the largest lottery drawing amount in U.S. history. I don’t recall the exact dollar figure but it was solidly in the billions.

I didn’t win. I didn’t play.

I was quite tempted to play though because with all the hype that kept growing around it as each week passed with no winners, the pot kept growing… The temptation to throw my hat in was very real.

But alas, I didn’t.

However, if I had played and won, today’s writing prompt asks “What things would I start doing and what things would I stop doing?”

Start Doing:

• Pay friends to travel around the world with me and pay for our own private chartered tour guides
• • I’m a working gal, as are most of my friends, and getting time off work, especially to go on nice long international trips is challenging. What makes it even harder, is trying to all get time off simultaneously so we can travel together. So, if I could pay my friends to travel with me, even if some ended up taking time off without pay (because I’d cover the time they took off with my lottery earnings), that’s one of the things I’d do with my lottery loot.
• • They could all save up their PTO and instead use IPTO (that’s Ijeoma-PTO) instead 🙂
• I would also attempt to do something noble, like start a school in a village in a developing country like Oprah did way back when. The truth is though, I just don’t have Oprah-level connections (even if I had Oprah-level money from my lottery winnings), so I’ll scale this one back a little…
• • Because I’m a scientist with an artist’s heart and mind, I would set up a program or school (that could be franchised around the country and world), for kids like me, who are creative but also want to pursue a career in the sciences. I don’t know what it would look like specifically when it comes to the curriculum and whatnot, but I know that we are a different breed and need something in the educational system that’s better tailored to how we think and operate.

Stop Doing:

• Paying rent/mortgage… I would outright buy a home, cash down and not have to owe anyone any type of monthly (or other) payment, other than property taxes, utilities, etc.
• Making do… When “money is a factor” we tend to make do with things and make do with situations.
• • If my car needed a new engine, I’d buy a new engine and not a refurbished one
• • If the car itself needed to go, then and only then would I buy a new car rather than fixing the old one up
• • I would upgrade to more comfortable seats or cabins i.e. first class or business class on airplanes instead of making do in coach/economy

That’s all I can think of for now about what I’d do if I won the lottery. Not very exciting answers I think, because it’s not really something I ever really dream about.

In Other News…

Should Slavery Be Prohibited? – I Got To Vote On This Today… For Real!

There was a measure on the election ballot that I found rather disturbing but no one seemed to be talking about at all.

Everyone seemed to be more concerned with re-zoning issues, fracking, who gets what seats in the House and Senate, etc. But unless you actually read the ballot book and looked at the voting form, you would have missed this.

Slavery!!

Yes… 

It’s 2018, and there was a measure on the ballot about whether or not to “Prohibit Slavery and Involuntary Servitude in All Circumstances”.

When I saw this on the ballot, it shook me. I was stunned to see that in 2018, I’d be voting on whether or not to prohibit slavery in any circumstance.

How in the world has this issue not already been put to bed by now???

Upon closer examination, the Amendment states that under the Constitution of the state:

Slavery and involuntary servitude is prohibited except as a punishment for a crime.

This Amendment would remove this exception, thus prohibiting slavery and involuntary
servitude in all circumstances.

I didn’t even know what to make of this… Should I be okay with the fact that only criminals could be subject to slavery and involuntary servitude?

Let’s not even talk about people who might be innocent and wrongfully convicted… That’s like quadruple punishment for them!!

Anyway, I said all that to say that I was just surprised that no one seemed to bat an eyelid about this (and by “no one” I mean all the people whose voices we heard about everything else concerning these elections).

I’m not as concerned if my neighbor doesn’t say anything to me about it because we don’t talk about politics anyway, but when the political pundits decide to pick and choose what issues they want to talk about and which ones they want to ignore, then it does make me go “hmmm…”

Catch up on my previous posts for this challenge:

• Day 1 – Why I’m doing this challenge

• Day 2 – 10 random facts about me

• Day 3 – The story behind the name of this blog

• Day 4 – Quotable Quote… Why it speaks to me right now

• Day 5 – Recent random act of kindness

• Day 6 – Three current guilty pleasures

• Day 7 – Collections… What I collect and why

• Day 8 – Throwback Picture

• Day 9 – Recently read book recommendation

• Day 10 – Three Favorite Blogs

====================

To see the complete list of writing prompts, go here.