Will wonders never cease?

So a couple of amazing things have happened around here lately. The first thing, I thought I had no chance in hell of having it happen, and the second thing, well, I thought there was no chance in hell of having that happen either.

About a month ago, I got an email from K102, the country radio station that I listen to out of Minneapolis. It was an email letting me know that there was a concert coming up that I was eligible to get tickets for-- earlier than the general public, because I'm a member of the K102 Country Club. WooHoo--it was one of my very favorite singers, Chris Cagle!!! He was going to be Kenny Rogers' opening act at Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN. I love love love Chris Cagle, and even Jason says he puts on an awesome live show, even though he (Jason) could take or leave country music. So the tickets were going to be available at 10am on this particular day. So, here I am, at work on that day, 9:58am, and I'm checking my Ticketmaster account to make sure they have my updated address and my correct credit card number, and I'm just ready to spring into action, with my fingers poised over the keyboard, just waiting to be the first one to get the best seats in the house. So the time comes and I enter that I want 2 of the best seats available. They offer me a couple, and they're pretty good. But it's 10am on the 1st day of the presale--I can do better than that! So I declined those seats and tried for 2 more. Crap! Those seats were worse than the ones they just offered me! I shouldn't have been so greedy, and just taken the first ones! So I try a few more times, and I come up with what I realize are the best seats that I'm gonna get, so I take them. They were in the 15th row of the center section. This is an outdoor concert that will go on rain or shine, and my seats are in a covered area. Works for me. The tickets were $35 each, which I didn't think was too bad. So I'm all excited that I've got my tickets and that it's a done deal. It's on my calendar, and I can't wait to see him again! Then about 2 weeks ago, I was listening to the radio, and I just happened to catch the tail end of the DJ talking about some concert tickets going on sale the coming weekend. I didn't catch what concert it was though, so I went to the K102 website to check out the upcoming concerts to see who it was. It was Brooks & Dunn coming to the Minnesota State Fair, but that's neither here nor there. What caught my attention was the entry on the website that said "Grand Casino-Hinckley presents Kenny Rogers with special guest Crystal Gayle." What? Huh? What the hell? So I checked the Grand Casino website, and that confirmed the change as well. So I called Grand Casino, hoping that it was all just a horrible misunderstanding. At that point, I was also thinking about the almost $90 that I paid for the tickets to this show that I no longer wanted to see. (Yes, the tickets were only $35 each, but Ticketmaster charges all sorts of "convenience fees," and my total ended up at like $89.75!) So the lady I talked to at Grand Casino said that, yes, Chris Cagle had to cancel for some medical reason and that the show was now going to include Crystal Gayle. CRAP!!! Now don't get me wrong, I like Crystal Gayle, and I remember many of her songs from when I was a kid. If I had brown eyes, they would have most definitely been blue at this point! (They are already blue, by the way.) The lady told me that I would have to take this up with Ticketmaster because that's who I actually purchased the tickets through.

Immediately, I thought that I might as well kiss my 90 bucks goodbye! There's no way that Ticketmaster will refund my money, just because an opening act changed. It's not even like the show was postponed or cancelled--just a change in the measly opening act. I called and talked to a very nice customer service representative who said she would have to check with her supervisor to see if my money could be refunded. After being on hold for what seemed like an eternity, she came back and said that since there were still tickets available for this concert, yes, they could give me a refund. Hallelujah!!! She kept me on the line while she went through the process of crediting my credit card. "Hmmm...it's not letting me do it," she said. That didn't sound good. Back on hold I went, as she checked with her supervisor once again. When she came back, she said that they needed to check the refund policy of the promotion company that booked the show. This is the point at which I felt that I was totally screwed. Now Ticketmaster has a scapegoat. "It's not US that can't give you your money back, it's THEM!" She told me that they couldn't reach this promotion company by phone, so they had to email them, and that they (Ticketmaster) would call me back within 48 to 72 hours. Feeling no confidence whatsoever, I thanked the lady and hung up.

About a week later, I thought, "Hmm...Ticketmaster never called me back--that's probably not a good sign." It was up to me to make the call. I pretty much got the same response...had to check with supervisor...yes, you'll get your money back...need to contact the promotion company...couldn't reach them by phone, had to send them an email...will call you back with an answer by the end of the day. This time they actually did call back, and miracle of miracles, they got the go-ahead to refund my money!!! Well, almost all of the money. Of course, they were not able to refund all the "convenience and processing fees" which came to about $7. At this point, I did not care in the least! I was just so grateful that they were going to give me most of the money, and not make me sit through Kenny Rogers and Crystal Gayle, as good as they may be. Turns out that Ticketmaster is not as evil as I always thought! Whew!

Wow, that took a lot longer to explain than I thought it would. On to the 2nd miracle that has taken place recently. Lauren is officially potty trained!!! Hooray for her and for us! Now we can take the fortune that we used to spend on diapers and Pull-Ups and buy, oh I don't know, groceries or something! She's been wearing Pull-Ups for quite a while now, and would tell me everyday, "Today I'm going to stay dry for you!" Yeah, right. Two minutes later, she would be wet. It is very frustrating, but the key is to not make a big deal out of it. That is really hard sometimes. So I'd had enough screwing around with the Pull-Ups, and went to Target to buy some "training pants." Basically, they are "big girl" underpants with a little extra absorbency so the "accidents" don't completely run down her legs. She did really well, and when she did pee in the underpants a little bit, she absolutely hated the feel of it and would cry and walk all stiff-legged to the bathroom. That part was kind of funny, and that's also how I knew that it was working. She did poop in the underpants on Saturday and Sunday, but was doing pretty good with the peeing.

All weekend, she kind of got treated like a dog, which, I think was kind of funny, and she really didn't seem to mind it. We got new furniture and a new rug in the living room last October, so I really didn't want her sitting on either of them with just her underpants on. It was too early to trust that she'd use the potty when she needed to. So if she was going to watch anything on TV, I laid out an old towel on the rug that I made her sit on, just in case. I can't believe that she actually stayed on it.

Monday morning when I brought her to daycare, all the teachers made a big deal out of the whole thing, and she was very excited, but she had yet to poop on the potty. I sent like 3 extra pair of underpants and regular pants, just in case. When I got there to pick her up, I wondered how many of the extras she had gone through during the day. Much to my surprise, she had on the originals! Yea!!! She has not had one accident since Sunday, and finally today, after holding it for two days, she pooped in the potty at daycare! Woohoo! People who don't have kids have no way to comprehend just how exciting this is. If only everyone could experience this kind of joy. I fully expect there to be accidents here and there, and we'll still keep her in a Pull-Up at night, but man, what a great, freeing feeling to be at this point with Lauren!

By the way, I realize that I started no less than 10 sentences with the word "so." So what? Make that 11.