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!