Betting Birthday Bonanza!

Goal: Random Fun #10: Horse Racing!

Weds was my birthday and it was such a great day! thus far 31 is pretty good. my friends all came out (even tho it was a school night ha) and we went to Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs to have dinner, bet on the ponies (still on a high from the Kentucky Derby, i want to watch horse races ALL the time now, i half considered wearing a hat to the races. good thing i didn’t.) and then gamble a bit in the casino. the crew:

we started at Rustic Kitchen, which i really like, in the casino.  it has a Italian- Mediterranean menu and some awesome light fixtures.  seriously, go check them out.  i got a Bolognese pasta which was incredible.  so good. my friend wrinkled her nose at it because she thought it meant it was made with bologna…. possibly my favorite line of the night. meat, yes. bologna, no.  also of note: the caesar salad comes in a parmesan bowl.  whoa.

After that we headed to Pocono Downs (kind of behind the casino) track to watch some horse racing! it’s harness racing so the jockey (driver?) is in a little cart behind the horse, not on top.

OMG. so fun! we sat outside and watched until we got too cold, but i fully plan on doing this all the time in the summer.  we mostly bet on one horse per race, $2 bet, for 5 races.  so for $10, we were super entertained for like 2 hours!  and i think almost everyone won something! i walked out with a sweet $9.80 profit.  and i picked the first place horse in two races. one horse a bunch of us won on? #5: I’m Fabulous. how could i not pick him?

clearly $2 bets don’t really pay out big….  equally as fun was the people watching.  there are some interesting people at the track.  i think i’ll just leave it at that cause otherwise i’m sure to offend someone 😉

After we collected all our winnings, we headed to the casino floor to lose them again.  and we also may have hit the ATM machine :).  we started off with roulette (my fave) and i showed the girlies how to play.  pick some numbers, put money on them, cross your fingers.  thats basically it.  and don’t switch up your numbers, cause thats when whatever number you stopped betting on will hit.  loved the $5 table! took me way longer to lose my money than usual.  also i hit on 31 (my new age) so clearly this is going to be a fab year. then of course we headed to Blackjack, where i think for once in my life i actually walked away before i lost all my money! less because of my good sense, and more because we had to leave since everyone worked the next morning, but still, it’s a victory.

plus i have even more exciting news! LB and i signed up for the warrior race in june! it’s like the dirty girl, but with barbed wire, fire, and boys! and we got like the last two spots on saturday. we might even train for this bad boy.

oh yeah, and you run over junk cars.  can’t wait.

Dirty Girl Mud Run

Quite the weekend!

Friday: The Avengers!

the excitement began on friday night with THE AVENGERS!!! so happy we went opening night, and i already want to see it again.  i was so afraid it wouldn’t live up to my expectations, but i’m pretty sure it surpassed them.  The Avengers was very action packed, gave each hero a chance to shine, and was SO FUNNY.  my friend actually said “i laughed so hard at one point, i almost blacked out”.  i almost have to go again because i missed some dialogue because after funny lines the audience was laughing so loud. true story.   if you want to see a mini scene with the villain from the next one, stay.  if you want to see a very mini scene with the heroes, stay till the verrrrry end. try not to drink a lot so you aren’t in pain waiting like my group was…. L.o.v.e.d. it.  Although clearly I loved it a little too much because i must have been trying to Hulk out in my sleep and woke up with a jacked up neck on saturday for the race! bummer.

Saturday: The Dirty Girl Mud Run!

2 goals in one: Run a 5k and do an obstacle run!!

My very first obstacle race! and it was awesome! minus the jacked up neck… had to have linds run on the right of me the whole race cause i couldn’t turn to the left.  blerg.

before the race: nice and clean!

The obstacles were the following:

climb hay bales- itchy, but not hard

run through water/mud pit- wet mud in the sneaks, yum.

wall climb- maybe 8 or 10 feet, fairly easy with 2×4’s nailed on skinny side.  saw one girl kick another girl in the head as she swung her leg over. don’t do that.

run thru tires- high knees

wade through water/mud pit- we made an unfortunate decision here.

Rappel down muddy incline

crawl through tubes with water/mud in them-  easier to crabwalk

army crawl under net-  easy but hurt cause they had rocks in the mud… also saw a lot of headbands in this section.

hanging tires-  step in tires and swing to next one till you’re through

cargo net-  climb up 20 feet go over then climb down, fun

tubes again- still crabwalk

final mud pit- then finish line!

also with a 5K of “running” throughout.  i put that in quotes cause they had us on the side of road, and through woods with so many rocks and tree roots and uneven ground that you had to walk alot to avoid breaking an ankle.  my favorite was the cargo net.  i also really liked the hanging tires cause everyone else gave up and walked thru and we persevered and figured out how to swing through.  although the ropes sucked cause they were hemp and ate our hands.  the unfortunate decision was made at a water obstacle where you had to run through like a foot of water and there was a back up so we opted to go to the left, where there was another route through water.  hopped in, and GOOOSH. up to our waists with water.  oops. it was a great feeling though to breeze through the obstacles.  i always figured i would be good at obstacle stuff, and guess what? i am. even with a jacked up neck! (although admitadley the obstacles were not super hard ones).  another thing we did WAY right? glaring neon tank tops.  made us SO easy to find amongst the sea of black and pink.  plus we figured if there was a major back up we could just direct traffic along the way. haha.  and we even saved our gross muddy sneakers for our next potential accomplishment: the Warrior Dash! like the dirty girl, but with fire, and barbed wire. and boys 🙂

Post-Race, muddy for sure

muddy and cheesy 🙂

after the race we “cleaned up” at the hoses they had there and put non-wet clothes on. over a fair amount of mud because that stuff was toxic grade, didn’t really come off with water….  and of course, we continued our neon theme.  🙂

with our photog and cheering section

Cinco de Mayo!

we got our free beer, and headed out to Pancheros to celebrate Cinco De Mayo!  we hadn’t really eaten all day, so we housed some mexican.  i ate a burrito the size of my head in like 5 minutes.  and it was delicious.

Kentucky Derby!

after we went home and showered off the mud, we headed to my parents for the Kentucky Derby party!  lots of the ladies were in stylish hats, we drank mint juleps, and of course bet on the race! My pick, Gemologist, didn’t win, but it was still a fantastic race. and the jockey that did win, it was his first time in the derby! crazypants!  hopefully my luck will be better on my b-day when we go to Pocono Downs 🙂

other party highlights include:

seeing the bear! there is a bear that has been living by my parents, he even tried to break into my uncles screened in porch.  linds and i saw him loping across the field in my parents backyard and in our excitement of screaming “the bear! the bear! we see the bear! he’s right there!” we may have scared him off.

the super moon! it was indeed super. and a moon.

and then i was so tired i was in bed by 10pm on a saturday 🙂