Crazy For Ever and Fresco Blue

One of B's friends, S, sent us an email a few days ago to invite us to the Meadowlands Racetrack on Saturday. He said a band we really like, named Undisputed, was playing. Since we haven't seen S and his girlfriend, M, since February, and we really like Undisputed, and it was only a buck to get in, we went! I'm trying desperately to "have a life" right now. I think it's good for my mental health. All of this hurting and trouble moving around and stressing out over medical stuff and bills is weighing me down lately. I need to remind myself what the point in breathing is sometimes.

We left a bit later than we wanted, again, my fault. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it taking me twice as long to get out the door yet. On the way up, I tried snapping a picture of the NYC skyline while driving down the NJ Turnpike. The one to the right came out the best, despite it being so far away. I tried to zoom it a bit...didn't save right. :( It's still not the same without the towers, but you can maybe make out the Empire State Building in that shot.

We got to the racetrack and after minimal confusion, found our way in. This was my first time at the Meadowlands near the actual track. I have never seen a horse race before, unless you count the Belmont commercials on TV. The sound of the band led the way for us! Just follow the music!

We found our friends quickly and watched the show! It's been quite a while since we've seen Undisputed. They never cease to entertain. They play a good diversity of current music, a few classics, and they have good stage presence. Last year on my birthday, they played our favorite local bar/grill, High Velocity. During the show, one of the strings on the guitar broke. The musician, they call him "Gonzo," began fixing the string mid-song, came in for the solo with a string missing, and then finished fixing the string and jumped back in. We were thoroughly impressed.

I was amazed at how "family oriented" the track is. There were kids all over the place! They had a moon walk bounce house and carnival type stands (throw the bean bag to knock over the thingy, basketball hoops, etc). There were kids tossing a football, kids dancing in front of the stage, two little girls doing cartwheels and back hand springs - they were amazing! Those girls couldn't have been more than 7 years old.

Since S had never bet before, B walked him over to place his first ever bet. Our time there got more exciting after that. It's much more fun to watch the race when you're rooting for someone. By the 11th race, B put $2.00 on Crazy For Ever to win. He was a bit of a long shot, 10-1 odds, and guess what? Crazy For Ever came in 1st! B won back all the money we'd spent there so far! At that point I started trying to figure out how to read the program. I looked at B and said, "Put $2.00 on Fresco Blue to Show." The odds were 8-1, the commentary in the program said he's not the favorite, usually doesn't pull out first, but he shows up a lot. So I figured well, betting Show he can come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd and I'll still win something. The name caught my eye, the stats didn't turn me off, so we put $2 on #7 Fresco Blue.

We watched the next race intently. We watched #7 appear in first place half the race. Then he held second place through most of the rest. The we watched #7 fall into 4th. I half-pouted and said, "Well, for my first time betting, it was fun!" We walked back to where M was sitting with two of her friends. We said we were going to get going since the races were over. M said, "Didn't you bet on Race 13?" We said yeah, we all lost. She said they hadn't done race 13 yet. Huh? Apparently, we were watching race 12. Duh!

If that's not funny enough for you, let me add on. After we all thought we lost, S threw his ticket away. Now, after finding out that the race he bet on hadn't happened yet, he went searching the garbage can's for it. M and I stood back and let the boys enjoy their "dumpster diving" session. I was so glad I kept mine to scrapbook. I thought I was gonna scrapbook a "loser" as a momento. I have a literal second chance!

Race 13 got underway. Fresco Blue was riding 3rd place after the first quarter. By the half mark, our #7 was in second! Go Fresco Blue! At the 3/4 mark, Fresco Blue had taken 1st position! Along the final stretch it was neck and neck between four horses. The commentator was running away with who was where to the point we could barely keep up! Then, the race was over. We waited for the announcement of who the winner was...and waited...and waited. Then, "In first, it's Fresco Blue!" WooHoo! My first on a whim horse race bet and I won 1st place!

Then I realized why it doesn't pay to play it safe and bet "Show." At least not for $2.00, anyway. I cashed out at the window and was handed $2.40. My horsey came in first place and I won a whomping 40 cents. What a bummer! Hehe, I'll come back and try again next time I have $2 to spare. Ya never know...I might get lucky!

Attack of the Raspberry?

Two weeks ago Dayna talked me into letting her dye her hair. Her father said it was okay when she asked him. Have you ever taken two 14 year old girls to buy hair dye? I have to give them credit...these kids were rather good about it all.

Dayna and her best friend, Maddi, narrowed their picks to three shades and Dayna came to me to help her choose the winner. She had medium ash blonde, medium golden blonde, and dark natural blonde. I talked her into the darker shade because I have seen and heard the horror stories of trying to go too light on the first shot...carrot tops! The LAST thing I needed was a 14 year old who already has self-confidence issues at times refusing to leave the house because she's got orange hair. I figured dark blonde was safer. (In the end it was, but there were bumps along the road getting there.)

If you've ever read a box of hair dye, you've seen the awful warnings they put on those boxes. You'd wonder why on Earth they let this stuff be sold over the counter. "May cause serious allergic reaction that may be fatal." "If product contacts eyes, may cause blindness." Huh?!?!?!? Now I'm glad I don't dye my hair...what did I get myself into telling her this is okay? Well, millions of people do it, so here we go! Directions read, allergy test explained, temper tantrum ensued! The following day and a half all I heard was, "Can me and Maddi dye my hair now? Why not? Maddi's never had a reaction! Why do I have to do that? Can I just do it for an hour? Okay, overnight but I want to dye it tomorrow!"

Allergy skin test complete, no reactions, a whole lot of, "I told you I'd be fine"'s and an ecstatic teenager later we sat at the kitchen table to commence Operation Dye Dayna's Hair. About a quarter of the way into it, I realize, her hair comes to her butt...I should have bought two boxes. Live and Learn. I actually had enough in the one bottle, but next time we're definitely buying two so we can saturate it better. Once the stuff is in her hair, I realize I need to figure out how to rinse this kid's head. I threw some towels in the bathroom and figured I'll stand in the tub while she leans over the side, and I'll hose her down with the shower head.

While rinsing her head, I realized I was having a bit of trouble bending over her. The shower head wasn't overly cooperative, the hose was shorter than I'd have liked. About halfway through, I sprayed myself in the face. All I could think was, "Oh no! Did that spray me directly from the shower head or was that a ricochet off her head with dye in it?" I finished rinsing her head praying it was not hair dye in my eye - especially after reading the side of the box. Ugh! I wrapped Dayna's head in a towel, jumped out of the shower (at this point, soaked from the knee down) and rinsed my eyes out. Then I got her head back in the shower for the conditioner.

By this time, it's 11:30pm. Her head is done, wrapped in a towel, she's got that from here. I'm left cleaning up, and over-reacting to my eye incident. Who do you call at 11:30 at night for a hair dye question? Kathy dyes her hair...she works nights...her husband Chris is usually up...text message off! Kathy's working. Chris assures me I'll be fine and won't go blind, but knows I'm overanalyzing so calls around to find someone who dyes their hair regularly to get me some advice. Word comes back that it would have hurt worse, and I'll be fine. I state, "But it's still bugging me!" Chris insists it's because I "blasted my eye with a bottle of saline." I deny it, I didn't "blast" my eye, I "flushed it." To this he responds, "I know you, and my mother was a nurse, face it. You blasted your eye."

By 2am I'm still bugged by this. I'm checking the websites of the local hospitals to see if one of them happens to have telephone triage so I can call and just have a medical professional tell me I'm fine. I don't want to go to the ER for something stupid, but I don't want to be blind tomorrow morning either. No luck finding a number...don't these places do this stuff? They should! Ah! Poison Control is 24 hours! I grabbed the phone. According to the "Poison Specialist" (what does one have to do to become a "poison specialist"? Is that a specific course you can take in school? What are the prerequisites? Who else thinks of this stuff?) it would have hurt a lot worse than I described had I actually gotten the dye in my eye, and since it was just a box of regular over the counter hair dye and not a chemical relaxer, I didn't have much to worry about, but if I still couldn't sleep, they would be there all night and I was free to call back for reassurance if I needed to. Now I could go to sleep.

The following morning, Dayna informed me that she felt like her head had been attacked by a raspberry. She was not the dark natural blonde the box professed she'd be, but a slightly lighter brown with all of her natural red highlights brought to the surface! I thought it looked nice. I know it was not the color she was aiming for. And so I called mom and asked her to set up a hair appointment for us so the beautician could see how her hair turned out and let us know the best course to take to get it near the color Dayna wanted...but that story's for another blog :-)

And now you can all laugh at me as much as everyone else who knows about this for needing to call Poison Control over something "stupid," but I got to sleep after that phone call, so it was worth it! I'm glad they're there!

The Nerdly Pre-Sale

So today as I was reading through the newspaper, I came across the circular for Kmart. I don't do much shopping, I don't have the money to, but when there are things I have been needing and they happen to be on great sales, I take that as a sign that I'm supposed to go get it now before it's regular price again. Yesterday while I was reading the paper I saw an article about the Freehold Free Concert and Movie in the park. The band they had playing happened to be the Nerds, a band I have followed since before Dayna was born. I thought hey great, we'll hit Kmart, then go see the Nerds play, and they're having fireworks! I missed out on fireworks 4th of July because of all the tourists at Seaside we couldn't get into town TO see them. I thought this would be a great way to spend time with Dayna while she's home, the park thing is free, how can you beat that? Boy, was I wrong and shows how much I know!

Dayna actually got dressed without much fuss...6 outfits later, but she was dressed and willing, and out the door we went! Turns out, she did NOT want to go to the park thing, she was only going because she thought we might be able to pick up her friend Kristin to go shopping with. No Kristin. Family time. That deflated the good mood. Kmart went okay. No major problems, goofed a bit, got a bit, all good.

As we're walking around Kmart I realize, none of what I saw in the circular is tagged as on sale. We saw a price check machine on one of the poles and I had Bret scan an item...$34.99...the circular said it was on sale for $19.99? I proceeded to the front of the store to see if they had a display of circulars. They did! Last weeks! Ugh! So I stopped at the customer service desk to ask. The girl was very nice and promptly asked me, "Did you get the circular out of yesterday or today's paper?" I replied that I had gotten it out of yesterday's paper. "That sale starts tomorrow." Ugh! Dopey me! Luckily, I remembered from my old Sears days that we used to do "Sales Adjusts," where customers who recently purchased an item that has now gone on sale can come in with their receipt and get credited the refund to the sale price. They still do it! Yay for us! We bought the stuff since we were there, and I'll go back on Monday and get the refund. If my calculations are correct, I think I've potentially saved us about $75. I love getting those "You saved..." receipts! I'm such a dork. I need a life.

So after Kmart we headed off to Michael J. Tighe Park in Freehold for the free concert and movie in the park thing. You could tell it was free admission. We were parked in the boonies in the WAY back of the park, not even in the lot, but in the auxiliary grass section that's usually blocked off. Needless to say, we had a good walk. Of course by this point we were all ready for the restrooms. After standing in an obnoxiously long line, Dayna and I emerge to find Bret playing Guitar Hero at one of the stands. Dayna did not want to wait around for him to finish. The band was doing a sound check. Dayna and I walked over near the stage and I chose a spot I could see the band and if I looked over, could see Bret's head! Perfect!

After 2 songs I couldn't see Bret's head anymore. I walked back towards the restroom to find him wandering in and out looking around for us. He was totally oblivious to us walking right past him before and had no idea where we were, thought we were still in the bathroom line. Once we got back to where I left Dayna, I asked her where she wanted to sit/stand. She gave me a look and said, "I don't want to be here." So I asked her what she'd like to eat, they had a pizza stand, sausage/peppers/onions, london broil sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers... She's no longer hungry. Wonderful. Here we go again...the Crankies!

Considering her schedule has been screwed up this past week or so, I went really (really) easy on her. She's flipped her schedule enough so that she's waking up between 3-5am and falling asleep late afternoon, early evening. This is part of why I wanted to get her out of the house today. I had the plan that if I could get her out, I could keep her awake until a normal bedtime, and *maybe* we can flip her back to a normal schedule. I always forget this plan never comes without at least one episode of the Crankies (and yes, I meant to capitalize that. If you've seen my kid cranky, you know why). I'm not sure if it's just "school's out for the summer syndrome," if it's just she's happy to be here and not at her dad's, or if it might have something to do with the medication schedule change (that I did not like the idea of to begin with). I'm sure when she goes back to her father's she'll be "Fine. We have no problems with her. Everything's good." Some days I think they're delusional...and if they're not I'm incredibly overprotective and paranoid.

Anyways, to prevent a huge scene, we started walking back to the car. I stopped to take a few pictures, just to prove I was there. I need something to scrapbook.


Did I mention the event was sponsored by the Veteran's Alliance? Hence the American flags being waved in the picture. They were doing 50/50's and taking donations for a Marine who came back from Iraq paralyzed. I always like to show support for those things.

On the way back to the car, and once we were back and IN the car, I asked Dayna numerous times where she wanted to go to eat. Silent treatment. I hate that. I find it incredibly rude. So I asked for the hundred millionth time, and get a grunt in response. Which I might hate more than the silent treatment, the jury's still out on that one, I haven't fully decided...I *might* prefer the grunts because at least then my existence is acknowledged. After several minutes of sitting there waiting for some sort of English response, and watching people walk by with their dogs on leashes, and noticing the cats in the grass, Dayna tells me, "I sent you a text message!"

My cell phone has a mind of it's own lately. It has a habit of spontaneously turning itself off. The Sprint store has told me there's been "issues" with this phone (LG Rumor) and they were doing buy-backs for a while. I just might go do that. At the time the tech tried uploading an upgrade package onto the phone and a battery prong cleaning was also suggested to see if it helped. It does it about half as often now. Of course, it's done it again! So I have to turn the phone on and wait for this text message to come through because my darling daughter has decided she is not speaking...despite Bret and I telling her we don't have ESP or telepathy powers yet. After several deep breaths and realizing I have been blessed finding a man with near the patience of a saint, finally the Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep! She doesn't care where we go or what we do and she's not hungry anymore. We waited ten minutes for that?!?!?!?

Several times during the 45 minute drive home, we asked what she wanted for dinner. She reiterated numerous times that she wasn't hungry, she didn't care. Bret asked her if she was awake enough for the China Buffet she loves, she refused to answer him, I asked, no answer, he said again, "Do you want sushi tonight?" Sushi is her FAVORITE. Ugh! She yelled back that she didn't care! Fine, we hit White Castle. Once there, she hollered up to us that we were wasting our money, she wasn't going to eat it, last time she got a stomach ache from this place. I told her fine, then don't eat, you're not hungry anyway. Bret reminded her that we asked her the whole ride home, gave suggestions, and she said she didn't care. She said she responded to us. I reiterated yes, you responded with "you don't care" so you should not care that this is where we chose, you heard us talking about it, you had an opportunity before we got here to veto it. The rest of the ride home was silent. Sigh.


She did end up eating, refused her meds, and posted that sign prior to putting herself to bed. At least the kid's got a sense of humor...and the kindness to consider discussing her "additude" on Tuesday. And we've reached the end of another beautiful day!

Hugs to all and hope you had a great day!