Operation Tubetop

Where marriages go to die A couple of months ago I wrote about the experience of picking out an Ikea kitchen and how I almost went all Single White Female on the Husband with a stiletto. It was stressful, it was exhausting but in the end, we got a fabulous kitchen and all was well in the world again. I also mentioned that my plan for my clothes (my babies) was to have a walk-in closet concept with hanging racks so that I had easy access to them. Shortly after the move, I realized that I have a lot of clothes and 5 hanging racks were just not enough. I had also, luckily, purchased two super large freestanding shelves for my shoes and purses and pants. Our nanny's husband was able to hang them to the wall and I felt like we were almost done with the clothing fiasco of 2014. Before I go on, let me just preface this by saying I really did not know how heavy pants can be. IT IS NOT MY FAULT! So, anyway, yeah, lots and lots of pants weigh a lot. They weigh so much that one of yo...

So, it has been a crazy week and I didn't get a chance to write much. I have so far jalked 4 times this week. I was tired this morning when my bastard alarm went off but I figured I had to do it. And I did. And it felt good. After I completed it. Hopefully I will get one more jalk in tomorrow and I will have worked out 40 minutes times 5 times this week. Win! I am so much happier when I exercise and so I will continue. Even when it is cold and blustery. Da hell is wrong with you May? Anyway, back to the party. Last Saturday we had over 30 people drop by. The list was much smaller in my head but I guess people were sharing in my excitement about the new place and probably wanted to see the damn chandeliers I have been talking about ad nauseam. When hosting a party, I usually spend weeks planning most details and this was the case for this one as well. Then the panic will start to set in the day before. I don't freak out but my blood pressure does start to rise and I get a litt...

Well, if we are friends on Facebook and you haven't blocked me due to my inane posts about God knows what, you will have heard that we got some kind of awesome news from the downstairs daycare yesterday. If you don't know the background, here is the abridged version: Spring 2013 - Daycare starts to hassle us that the Kid is a pain in the tuckus. Most likely being caused by my selfish decision to work full time. I decide to seek out a therapist. Therapist says he seems like a stubborn, rambunctious, difficult but adorable little boy. Early Fall 2013 - The Kid continues to have tantrums and apparently this is not natural for a toddler so I seek out the therapist once again. After dropping off the Kid one morning, I receive a letter containing 3 paragraphs citing behaviour my child exhibits that points to an Aspergers diagnosis. WHAT?! I never knew my son was being analyzed so that ticked me off and of course, the best part was later finding out that the writer of the letter...

Oh boy oh boy! I love Thursdays! And the sun is shining and it is just a glorious morning! I jalked again this morning and it felt great. I'm still sore but it will be worth it. Right? Right. I am very much looking forward to this evening because I am going to two events. What am I, a socialite? No. But how I wish I was. I really do. I'm double eventing tonight because I am wild. First up is Kulturen bitten zu Tisch which is a multicultural event featuring food from around the world. Also, it is an event to bring attention to inter-cultural dialogue. I am totally not describing this event as well as I should be but I am tired. Just come. It's awesome. My friend helps organize it with her organization and I went last year and had a blast. I watched her give a speech and I felt like a stage mom. If you are in Vienna and you are looking for some awesome food and international performances, check it out. Here is the Facebook page www.facebook.com/events/553479451436874/ ...

I wrote this post a few days ago and debated about posting it. But what the hell! I'm an open book and that's O.K. What I have discovered in the last couple of years since I have been writing this blog, is that people I don't know have reached out to me and it has been amazing. I am proud that just based on my writing about my snobbish ways and my daily struggle with Spanx, that people have taken the time to write me. Don't ever change, interwebs. It was a tough year that 2013. We had the diagnoseseseses (several) from various sources concerning our son. We had threats from the daycare, freak outs, not knowing if I would get a fixed contract at work and just a constant buzz of nervous energy. In January of this year, I felt like we were on the right track with the diagnosis centre and with the promise of a new daycare. Please refer to posts from February to see how that turned out. Rebirthing, cough, cough. To distract myself, I decided that we had to move. I'm ...

The weather is finally back to what it should be. I never thought I was the type to be affected? effected? by the lack of sun - in fact, I love a good rain - but boy, I was starting to go a little stir crazy. On Saturday I was able to get the rest of the party table decorations so that was a win. Will post pictures when it is complete in a couple of days - I call it AWESOME. We had friends over for brunch Sunday morning and the Kid was on his best behavior. He likes Italians. He flirts a little. Sorry Kid, you're stuck with your ethnically non-diverse mother. Let's have some corn on the cob and Coke Zero to celebrate. Now where's my New Yorker ? I too have always had a crush on Italians. I love their passion, the language, the food, their cities, the shoes, their films, their music, their shoes, their shoes. Wait? What. Moving on. Anywho. Now that the weather is nice again and I have to shave, I have realized that a lot of my clothes are not going to be fitting me in the ...

Friday. Yay? It has been a long week. The Husband was on a business trip for three days and then yesterday I had a late shift at work. I got home around midnight and face planted into bed as soon as I got home. I had planned to spend the morning buying decorations for the party but it was pissing rain and I was just not.in.the.mood. I have to start work again at 2 today and I am so tired. I might even have a nap soon. Mommy's a morning person. So hopefully later today or on Saturday, I can complete my shopping list. Moving on. Usually when we host a partay, I make enough food to ensure that the morning after, I can just sit at the table and shovel the leftovers into mouth with the firm belief that cheesy cold food will release me from the hell that is my hangover. This is a temporary relief and then I crawl back to the sofa and watch bad TV. With a child at home, this is near impossible so the drinking is not as heavy as before... But the exhaustion does still lead to bad food ch...

Altbau is the German word to describe a turn of the century apartment or building. In Vienna, there are pretty high chances that you can end up living in one because they are everywhere. The only downside is that they are usually pretty expensive because they are gorgeous. But I am biased. What you can expect with an Altbau is that there are incredibly high ceilings, wood floors, oversized doors and large windows. In total I have lived in Vienna for almost 14 years. When I moved here as a sullen 12 year old, we lived one year in an apartment. It was gorgeous but not altbau. I actually have no idea what its build date was but it was in a pretty area (Pötzleinsdorf). After one year of no elevator and lack of balcony (we had a weird courtyard that was useless in the summer unless you wanted to sweat and die), we moved to a house on Kahlenberg strasse. This was an interesting house from the 1920's that had its own quirks but was still not completely altbau. Years later I was back in ...

I feel like I need a weekend after this past weekend. It was filled with a lot of wine and champagne and exhaustion and relaxation and eating and floral arrangements and celebration and disappointment. It was kind of a day in the life of my brain stretched out over 2 days. On Saturday I got chair covers for our dining room table. My mom suggested these a while ago but everywhere I looked, they were overpriced and only for square backed chairs. I ended up buying them at Moebellix for 14.99 a pair. I figured, meh, I will make them fit. And fit they did, kind of. I love them. The Husband was not too impressed initially but once he saw them on, he kind of loved them, too. Win. Since we were having friends over that night for a "casual" dinner, I decided to set up the dining room table to look like an upscale garden party just because I could. The Kid was a little obsessed with the new vases that I bought and was initially pissed that I wanted to put roses in them. He kept tak...

Wowzers. Did I wake up in a bad mood. I could not get out of bed this morning and it annoyed me. I usually wake up in a decent mood. I might be tired but as soon as the alarm goes off, I am up and ready to drag myself to the kitchen to have a cup of coffee. I usually need about 15-20 minutes of silence and that is why I wake up at the ungodly hour of 5. This gives me time to drink my cup o' caffeine, sit on the sofa under a blanket and read about celebrities. If I don't get to do this ritual I am banshee-like. And since it took me 45 minutes to get out of bed, I missed my window and boy was I in a foul mood. It didn't help that our electric toothbrush was out of juice so I had to manually brush my teeth with it. I had thought I had charged it but someone had unplugged it. I blamed the Husband and he was all like "I didn't unplug it" and I was like "Well, I didn't either" and I was not happy. I also had planned to bike in to work but it was rainin...

Housewarming party coming up in about 2 weeks. Holla! I have never had a housewarming party and I am kind of pumped. I don't want stuff. No STUFF! I WILL NEVER WANT STUFF! CAPICHE? We have so much stuff. The move was eye-opening and I realized that I can be a bit of a pack rat (I totally just wrote "pat rack" and stared at it for 5 minutes in confusion). I am crafty at various times of the year so I keep a lot of crap for "just in case" projects. I discovered I had 15 bottles of glitter. Why? What have I glittered in recent years? I also had about 34 paint brushes. Am I a painter? No. No I am not. So I kept the essentials: glue and glue gun and paint. But tossed out bags upon bags of crap. There is still more craft stuff at the old apartment that I have to sift through but I am getting to the end. Slowly. So, if you are coming to the party, just bring your lovely selves. Maybe some booze. I will have booze but I'm not your mother and can't assess how muc...

What is ergotherapy? Hell if I know. I jest. Kind of. After our happy fun good time at the diagnosis center, our child psychologist strongly recommended ergotherapy for the Kid. So did our pediatrician. Apparently ergotherapy concentrates on fine motor skills and is somewhat equivalent to the "floor time" that is so popular for autistic children in the States. So, we finally found a place last month at the practical time of 11 a.m. on a Wednesday and booked 10 sessions. I missed the first two but yesterday I was able to finally attend a session. Now, since we have moved, the Kid has not had any freak outs. He has been much more agreeable and just seems to be in a happier place. I also have noticed that he is making a lot more eye contact with me on a regular basis (this is big). This week we started half days at the daycare as well and I think this, albeit a pain in the ass, will make a huge difference as well. So yesterday I put on my working mother but good mother outfit ...

And so it begins - half days for the Kid. Originally his daycare told us that they would be kicking him out at the end of May, but thanks to our child psychologist, we were able to negotiate that he stays until the end of August if we switched to half days. Today was the start of half days and it is going to be a veddy veddy long 4 months. Also, in July, the Nanny is gone for 3 weeks and then in August, the daycare is closed for 2 and a half weeks. There will be alot of juggling of schedules and I look forward to the time when we can actually get back to normal even if there is no such thing as normal. But it would be nice to drop the Kid off at daycare, have the Nanny pick him up and both the Husband and I arriving home at a reasonable hour. Big dreams. So today was my day to pick him up at noon. I work on the other side of the city so I say "bless you public transport of Vienna". This morning I took a walk around the park for 30 minutes to work off my angst, then left at ...

Well, it is the end of the week and the end our second week in our new place. I'm loving it and I am in such a happy place. We still have to bring more stuff over from the old place and once that is done, I will be officially at ease. This week was a good week and it didn't hurt to have a holiday yesterday. But now I am in that confused state of thinking that today is Monday. A good kind of confused - like low fat cheese. So here are the highlights from this week, starting from Monday. It's long because I didn't have much time after spending most of my evenings taking selfies of myself in our new apartment. Monday : On Monday, a dear friend invited me along as her plus one to a teaser/trailer premiere at the U4 nightclub. The U4 is apparently a Viennese establishment where several generations of Vienna folk have overpaid for Red bull and vodka. Since I am past the years of clubbing it, I thought it would be fun to go and not look like I was there trying to convert ...