A serendipitous mistake

Who wants to go to the race track with me? Or buy a lotto ticket? Or go to Vegas?

I have made a recent discovery - I am (at least for the time being) very lucky. I went to the horse races yesterday with my friend, mother, and brother. I won at least 3 dollars or more on 5 out of 7 of the races we bet on. But best of all...on the second race I bet a Trifecta Box (picked 3 horses and they had to come in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in any order), which totaled to a $12 bet, on Oliver, Ginello, and Riviera Cocktail.

I was screaming at the end of the race when horses 1, 6 and 7 (the horses in my trifecta) were a good deal ahead of the rest. There was no question - I'd won that bet. But how much had I won?

The huge electronic board at the track said that with a $6 trifecta box bet, one would win $355. That was impossible. I couldn't have won that much.

My brother and friend accompanied me to the electronic betting both to see how much I had won. I put the slip into the machine which promptly spit it back out while telling me to report to an IRS table.

Now my hands were shaking with anticipation as I walked over to the nearest IRS booth and handed my ticket to the man behind the counter. "Oh boy" he said as he examined the ticket. I was anxious to find out how much I had won, but I had to fill out some paper work and fork over my drivers license before he finally ran my ticket through the machine.

My heart skipped a beat and $710.40 popped up on the screen.

I had just won back more than half of what I had recently spent on my new computer. I was so shocked that I almost walked away from the counter without my money.

This was unquestionably a fantastic day at the races for me.

What I find the most fascinating about this whole experience is that one could say I won that money by mistake. When I had placed my bet, I did a $2 Trifecta box. I thought I would only be spending two dollars on that bet - but I had no idea that a Trifecta box put $2 on each of the six possible outcomes of that bet (all the different orders those three horses had come in), causing me to spend $12 of my self-imposed $30 limit. Had I known ahead of time how much that bet was going to cost me, I would not have made that bet - meaning I would not have won that 700 dollars.
I was mentally kicking myself upon placing that bet, but after that race, I could not have been more excited.

Just goes to show that there is something to gain from making mistakes.

:)

New Computer!

So I haven't posted in a while because my laptop died...again. This was possibly the 6th time I have encountered a problem with my HP laptop and I am sick of putting more and more money into repairing it. Enough was enough. Time for a new computer!

My good friend Anna is in town visiting so today we went to the Apple store and I bought a MacBook! I've wanted a Mac for a long time and finally made the switch from a PC.

I absolutely love my new MacBook. Its so nice. But what is even nicer is that my laptop came with a free (after rebate) Ipod Touch. Oh my goodness, I had no idea how amusing those things are! I've been more fixated on finding apps and accessing the internet with that thing than actually using my new computer!

Lets see...what else is new in the world of Taylor?

My family has been hosting a few pool parties over the past few weeks - all have been very enjoyable.

I leave in less than two weeks for Siena, Italy! :)
I'm so excited! I wish I could say I've been vigorously studying Italian in preparation for my trip, but I've been so occupied with more immediate errands I must run before my departure.

I'll be heading off to the race tracks again this coming Wednesday - I hope to win even bigger than before! Tomorrow evening Anna, my brother and I are going to a performance of 39 Steps -  I'll have to let you know how it all goes!

Capisco!

I'm leaving for Italy in less than a month!

I'm so excited and can't wait. :)

So in preparation, I've finally begun to learn un po' (a little) Italian. I do so in hopes that I won't be completely helpless when I reach Siena. However, the best I can say yet is "parlo inglese, non capisco italiano" which translates to "I speak english, I don't understand Italian".

Being the linguist that I am, I can't help breaking apart and analyzing Italian as I learn it. For example, I can see that the majority of words have stress that falls on the penultimate (second to last syllable) and there appear to be very few different diphthongs.

I feel much more comfortable learning Italian than I ever did while learning German. I believe this is because Italian is so similar to French (which, after long years of studying it, has become quite easy for me to speak).

Needless to say, I do love learning and studying languages. But I do favor certain languages. For example, I do not care for German - it is harsh and (in my opinion) linguistically confusing. And while I think French is by far one of the most beautiful languages, the singing quality of Italian makes it the most fun to speak.

I am excited to get to Italy where I'll be entombed in this amusing language.

A day at the races

Yesterday I went to the horse races at the Del Mar Racetrack with two of my friends. I hardly ever bet, but I've been going to the races every year with my family since I was little. So I gave myself a 20 dollar limit, and didn't plan on leaving with much money - on the rare occasion I place a winning bet, I typically don't win more than 80 cents. This may be because I pay little attention to the odds of each horse and base all my bets on the horses with the coolest sounding names - yeah, I know...it's a foolproof system.

By the fifth race, I was down to 8 dollars. Imagine my surprise when I won on three different horses! I ended up winning 35 dollars off a 4 dollar bet. Now, I'm aware this isn't a huge winning, but for me, its the most money I've ever won off anything. Needless to say, my friend and I were jumping up and down while yelling with excitement. I do have to thank the following horses: Kiss the Cooke, Snow on Christmas, and Heavenly n' Free (the long shot).

Unfortunately, I did bet a bit more after that, but I did leave with 22 dollars...2 more than I had started with! In my opinion, it was an incredibly successful day at the races.

See fish...photograph fish...eat fish...

The other day my friends and I ventured to the San Diego Zoo as a birthday celebration for my friend. Its been years since I've been to the zoo, so I was eagerly taking pictures of every animal I saw. Here are just a few pictures of the awesome animals I saw while there.



The giraffes were more active than most of the other animals in the heat.



Cool display of butterflies found in the bug exhibit...I was none too happy to enter the exhibit though (I really do not like bugs). Believe me, this was the only part of it that didn't send shivers down my spine.



Some meerkats taking a snooze.



Turtles!



Polar bear lounging about in the sun.

Afterward, we met up with more of our friends at a new sushi bar in town called Zenbu. The dim lighting, cushy chairs, and aquarium full of interesting fish (like small sting rays) made for a very cool atmosphere. And the food was great (but expensive)!

I felt somewhat guilty eating fish right after I just saw and photographed a bunch of them at the zoo...but the shrimp tempura and tuna was so good, that I quickly got over it and dug in. :)