  saturday i went to the track with beck and her man and some of his friends. we had a great time even though it was opressivly hot out. beck hadn't ever been to the track before and i taught her how to place bets. i can't say that i told her how to bet, because i really have no idea how to pick a horse, but i know how to place a bet (having learned from working as a mutual clerk at the track a couple of years ago).
she did well her first race (we got there at about the 5th race, but didn't place any bets until the 6th): she won $5.10 on a $2 bet (i think on a show, can't remember). the rest of the day wasn't so good until the 9th race when she went back to that first window she bet at and won $16.90 on a $2 to show on one of the longshots.
the odds on that horse were 55:1, so it was awesome that it came in. afterwards we went with the group to the ripe tomato for dinner. it was pretty good, but more expensive than i thought it'd be. i (thankfully) had enough money on me (because how embarrassing would that have been?). i had this pasta dish that was spaghetti tossed in olive oil and brocolli, mushrooms and whole roasted garlic ( yum ) which was hella good.
it was served with this rosemary olive bread that was divine. the place was packed and the dessert bus (really couldn't be called a tray because it was huge) kept rolling by and the stuff on it looked amazing but we did not partake. we went to the parting glass afterwards to play darts. the parting glass was also packed and that was not fun. a throng of dumbass downstaters was there and apparently none of them had ever been in a bart with a dartroom before because they kept strolling in front of the dart boards. it was really frustrating. this one really drunk guy was standing right by our board and he kept putting his arm on the shelf below it and beck hit him with a dart (well, it rebounded off the board) and he still didn't move.
he just stood there and wined about how it hurt. boo hoo. had to have been a downstate boy. suck it up, man. we played two games, but it was just heinously crowded with a ton of stupid people, so we left right after the second game. i dislike saratoga during the track season. or i guess i dislike the parting glass then. i like the parting glass in the fall/winter/spring. not crowded. good irish music playing. room to breathe/talk/play darts. i don't think i'm going back there until after track season.
saturday was a surprisingly good day. i didn't anticipate going to the track/saratoga and i ended up going and had a great time. so rock :) i love it when days are surprisingly good. today was surprisingly good at the end: i found out that my mom is willing to loan me money so i can go on my trip. rock. that's a huge weight off my shoulders. so now i have to really start getting my shit together for this trip: decide if i'm taking traveler's checks, figure out what to pack and what i'm packing it in, get more of a schedule set of how we want to spend our time in dublin (beck has a scotland schedule put together)... and we leave in 12 days from today. rock! very exciting... but very stressfull... 
