I bought a used dresser that has a laminate top on it. I am wondering if anyone knows can I just paint over that or do I have to try and remove it? I bought a high gloss paint to paint the dresser with...

Hello, I,m having a problem with staining a table. In order to prevent buying a new dining my wife's decorator has suggested we refinish a table we have. The table was stained a blonde color. I believe the wood is pine. It is soft wood. I sanded all existing finish and stain from the wood and got a beautiful light color. I purchased some wood conditioner so the soft wood would absorb the stain more evenly, however with all that I have going on I forgot to use the conditioner before I stained the table. I had previously restained the middle leave and had used the conditioner. It turned out very nice. I noticed a big difference in the non- conditioned wood as compared to the conditioned wood after I applied the stain. It had been easy to remove the original finish so I decided to resand the table back to the blonde wood. This took quite some time to remove the later coat of stain as it was much darker. After sanding back down to wood I noticed some of the table seemed to be different. some parts of the table apperared much smoother than others. I went ahead and put conditioner on the table and then stained it again. The areas I noticed to be different did not absorb the stain. Now I have a mess and a frustrated wife. I need to know if I can repair this table. I've thought about resanding the woood again but don't know if I've messed the table up and this will reoccur agian. I do not know much about staining and refinishing wood as this problem indicates. Can someone provide a recommendation.