newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Happy New Year.

That's all there is left to say after they pulled two winning tickets in that $380 million Mega million jackpot just after New Year's Day.

So how's your new year working out so far? Well, aside from the shattered dreams, the broken hopes, and the dreams of supreme megalomania and omnipotence being dashed a little earlier than usual, just great.

Many people look at January first of each calendar year as a new beginning. It's a fresh start, the slate is clean, and unless you've been hung over since Christmas, you haven't screwed your year up yet.

But boy, $380 million sure would have looked nice as opening investment capital for the 2011 business (and pleasure) plan.

Anyone can make New Year's resolutions. Most of us vow to lose ten or twenty pounds every year. And every gym in South Jersey sees its parking lots overflowing for January and February.

Meanwhile, the people who go to the gym all year are completely exhausted by the time they enter the place due to the three mile walk from the nearest parking spot they find.

The rest of the resolutions are standard. This year I'll stop smoking, stop drinking, take a trip, manage my stress better, or get a better job. You'll still be stressed if you stop smoking and drinking, so it would be advisable to combine the other three.

You can take a trip to India to get a better job because that's the only place you'll find them today, thereby reducing your stress level. You're welcome, Robert Gibbs.

Anyway, about two weeks before the winning numbers were drawn for the big one, I bought some Mega millions tickets for the first time in about six months. I bought for the same reason other people do; the jackpot had gone over $100 million.

You know, who can be bothered with a paltry $12 million? Pocket change. Peanuts.

I managed to match four of the numbers that night and just miss the mega ball by four numbers.

$150 as consolation is not so hard to accept, but lottery rules say matching the fifth number would have netted me a tad more. Like $10,000. Four more numbers on the mega ball would have been acceptable also. $250,000.

My smarter friends tell me to keep the damn $150 and talk to them when I can get the numbers right.

But things would change immediately if you actually won the lottery. Half the fun of playing for these kind of humungous jackpots is talking and fantasizing with your friends about everything you would do with your winnings. We all have the same and equal chance of becoming mega millionaires in that time before the next drawing.

Eventually, even after this many drawings without a winner, somebody finally collects the pot. And sometimes worry can turn all of their pleasant dreams into nightmares. If that person steps back and use reasonable judgment, they'll know what to do with the money.

But as far as the rest of us, what we need to do in terms of making resolutions for 2011 is to begin being nicer to people. Be kind to our fellow man or woman.

And what better place to start than to offer congratulations to someone who may have just been the beneficiary of some good fortune. Like...ohh...the two mega millions winners, for instance.

It's okay. No one will be deducting points for insincerity in our resolutions again this year.

There are people in the Idaho and Washington area who may be so busy right now that they are not even aware of the new best friend that they have who they haven't actually met yet. But you can be kind enough to fill them in, because you're just that swell of a person.

I mean, would you really be happier if you had won all that money? Would it make you a better individual?

Maybe not, but I'd be more than willing to be crying about my failed New Year's resolutions inside a new Ferrari with plastic covering on the seats.