At some point or another, we’ve all wished that we would win the lottery and with the current 500 million dollar jackpot lotto fever is taking over the country. Myself included. 

Living in a city that is ranked #1 most expensive city to live in year after year, money is always at the tip of people’s tongues. How much money some have.. how much things cost.. and how to save it. I like to think I haven’t gotten too sucked into the egotistical side of NYC. Money, money, money. It makes the world go around, and it definitely rules this city.

So how would this self-proclaimed down-to-earth country grown girl use the winnings of a 500 million dollar jackpot if I won? Obviously things would be a litttleeee bit about money if I won so here is what I’m thinking if I win tomorrow night.

1. Pay off my student loans. Luckily, my debt sounds really small next to 500 million!
2. Pay off my parents’ houses, car loans, etc.
3. Donate money to the Enumclaw School District, Save the Music Foundation, Invisible Children Foundation, Save the Internet, Literary Arts, and Big Brothers Big Sisters Club to name a few 
4. Buy my mom a Corvette. I have always told her I’d buy her one if I ever make it big
5. Fly my whole family out to NYC
6. I would buy a two bedroom apartment in the city: What a relief it would be to not have to pay rent each month! I don’t need anything SUPER fancy.. but fancy in NYC is having a dishwasher and in a 2 bdr around 1.2 million I could probably score a washer and dryer. Plus, guest room for visits! I would really like a building with a rooftop and view… because I love views from rooftop bars so having it in my apt wouldn’t be so bad right?
7. Buy a condo in Seattle. 
8. Buy my mom a vaca house in Sag Harbor, NY
9. Travel: This would be the biggest thing I would be excited about. I thought about getting my own plane, but if I had that much money.. ticket prices wouldn’t be a big concern. Decide to go home on a whim on a Saturday afternoon? No problem.
10. Take Faithidoo on a Disney cruise. She’s always wanted to go on one!
11. Go to Italy with Chris and eat, eat, eatttttt!
12. Visit Angie in New Zealand!

What would you do if you won..?

There are good and bad things about public transportation in the city. The good thing is it is generally a reliable service that gets you pretty much wherever you would like to go in NYC. Plus, for $104 (up from $89 last year) you do end up saving money than if you owned a car in the city. 

The bad thing is, the MTA is a huge corporation that is basically a monopoly and truthfully doesn’t realllllyyyyy care too much about customer service. I’m sure their PR team might tell a different story, but let’s just say it doesn’t entirely have the best reputation.

Many stations are run down, stinky, and rat-infested. I’ll give them a little credit, because some of these issues are difficult to combat with over 5 million riders each day. What I do find very interesting though is the terrible financial situation it has found itself in. I wasn’t a finance major, and I’m sure it’s a little more complicated, but how does an agency that provides transportation for at least 5 out of the 8 million people in the city have such poor finances? With most of those riders buying the $104 passes each month? Especially because the system is old and while they are always doing renovations, I haven’t seen much improvement of the system while living here.

More so, when you have issues with the system being 1 out of 5 million doesn’t really help you. In the month of March I ended up having to purchase 3 unlimited cards because of errors. Plus, even though it is the year 2012 apparently the agency has not figured out to do refunds electronically, but instead you have to mail in your metrocard and hope 4-6 weeks later that you will receive a refund. I’ve been lucky in that this was my first problems I encountered with my cards while living here, but 3 in one month? Can I catch a break! For a city-dweller though, it is a necessary evil for the people who rely on its services. 

It turns out I’m not the only one that became frustrated with the system this month. I just read an article about a rider that left the emergency exit doors open at a station and posted this sign that mimics the MTA announcements. I’m not going to lie.. I thought it was pretty brilliant. 

I am happy to announce that there ARE country fans in the tri-state area! While there may not be many in the actual NYC area.. they are still close by. This weekend my friend and I headed one state over to New Jersey to catch the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert. Chris got me tickets to the concert for my Birthday present so I’ve been anticipating it for the last few months. Unfortunately for me, Chris is not one of the country fans in the area, but convenient for him he had planned a trip to Vegas for the same weekend so he was off the hook. And, lucky for me he got in touch with my friend that likes country and planned for us to go to the concert. 

New Jersey is to New York like Vancouver is to Oregon, right across the river. So it worked out really well because we just had to hop on a short train ride and then catch a shuttle bus to the IZOD Center. Even better, I found out that two of Chris’ brothers and their girlfriends and friends were also heading to the concert too so we ended up meeting up with them before and tailgating. YES, we even tail-gated out here! The parking lots were packed with trucks and people decked out in cowboy hats. I must say, it was amazing. You would have never known that we were 15 minutes outside of NYC.

We had such a great time, and the concert was INCREDIBLE! The boys are two of my favorite country artists right now and they were a good pair in concert too. They even did a couple of songs together, which was pretty awesome. 

Big thanks to Chris for the thoughtful gift! Meg for coming with me! and the other Felicetta boys for inviting us to tailgate with them! Such a great night :)