Operation Tubetop

Well, I am so ridiculously excited that my blog views reached 125,000 yesterday. I guess me writing about the microblading pushed it over the edge. I guess me doing something painful and cosmetic brings in the readers. Noted. Heh. I started this blog about 4 years ago and it started as a weight loss and fluffy blog and then slowly morphed into something more. It is therapeutic for me, hopefully funny for some of you and definitely one of my favourite things to do. If I could just sit and write all day, that would be a dream come true but unfortunately I's gots bills to pay. I am ecstatic that so many people read this blog! A lot of you are people I know but some of you are people who type in "Girl in a tubetop" and I am sorry whoever you are that your Google search brought you to this page because I am pretty sure that you were not expecting this. But you are still welcome, Frat boy! So again, a big thank you for reading when you can, for messages on Facebook and via

So the past couple of weeks, I have been researching (Google image search) the procedure called microblading. I first heard about this about a year ago but it wasn't until my fabulous make up artist (Eli Hair and Make Up: look her up, she is amazing!) mentioned it a little while ago that I started considering it. I was going to wait until I lost a little more weight and I wrote the place on Friday that "Eli" recommended, expecting it would take a couple of weeks to get an appointment. Well, they wrote back right away that they had an appointment the next day. I am nothing if not spontaneous so I took a deep breath and wrote back that I wanted the appointment. Then I dry heaved. Microblading is essentially superficial tattooing. You get little cuts along the eyebrows and then they add dye. It lasts for 6 months to a year. I have very tiny and light eyebrows and daily I have to colour them in. I know, first world problems. I told the Husband in the morning "I

Hello Friday! Ugh, longest week ever. This has been an insane week of meetings, later nights of working and yoga. I am pretty exhausted and I am looking forward to doing some yoga (day 12!), snuggling with the Kid and then crashing into bed. I feel like I have been going non-stop and haven't had a lot of down time. Last night I worked until 8 and then my friend and I decided that we deserved some wine and pizza and so we hopped on the ubahn and went to Fratelli's. We were shown to a table and the waiter passed us the menus and I practically barked "WE NEED WINE!" I scanned the wine list at warp speed, practically holding onto his arm to stop him from leaving and ordered a bottle of Chianti. It had been a long ass day. I ordered a margherita pizza because that is always my pizza of choice (and yes, I realize that I am unable to handle cheese but I can't so no). We drank wine and guffawed and talked. And at one point, two burly manly men walked in, accompanied b

Namaste motherlovers! Just completed day 11 of my 30 day challenge. I did an early morning Hot Yoga class and I feel pretty awesome. Last night I did a YouTube tutorial of Ali Kamenova and posted it on Instagram and she totally "hearted" it and that made my evening. A little self-promotion here: you can follow me on Instagram @Tmspatz. I post more pictures there then on Facebook (crazy, I know). Just throwing it out there. Anyway, I am definitely feeling more zen and more bendy and I think I am starting to "get" Yoga. I blasted it (internally) for many years. I knew it was considered a great exercise for emotional balance but for some reason, I didn't think it would be enough of a work out for me. And I also have the flexibility of a granite counter top. Vanity is usually the reason I don't like something. But after doing different types of yoga these past 11 days, I have a better appreciation that it can actually kick your ass. Did not expect that. Toda

So today was a meeting with an autism center in Vienna. It's a long story but thanks to Mike Lake's visit the other week, I got a completely unexpected e-mail. This e-mail asked if I would like to collaborate with them seeing as Autism in Vienna is the new kid on the block. I was incredibly excited because I believe that if we all work together, bringing our knowledge and experience to the table, we will be stronger and can start lobbying for financial support from the health services here, spread awareness and work towards a brighter future for the 86,000 people with autism in Austria. I guess I was wrong to believe that this was a common belief. I have hit some roadblocks along the way, received some bizarro messages... one woman asked me to set her up with a doctor who wouldn't give her (non-autistic) kids vaccines because they cause autism (don't ask me how I felt about that ) and have had to be pretty pushy. I have spent a lot of my own money to try and put toget

Namaste motherlovers! It's a new week, an impossibly warm Monday and I am ready for all the craziness. I feel like I have been going non-stop these past few weeks and I thank the heavens above that I haven't succumbed to sickness that so many people have been getting the past couple of weeks. Knock on wood. I am now booked for the next 2 weeks so if anybody wants to make plans, I am free mid-March. Not kidding. And that is also kind of awesome! Seeing friends invigorates me and gives me a few hours to just sit back and relax which is so rare for me. To sit back relax... not meet up with friends. I am blessed. After work today I have a meeting with an Autism center to talk about possible future collaborations. Fingers crossed I don't blurt out an inappropriate joke like "And then we can have all the children make fake GUCCI wallets!!!" Sigh. After that, I have to get a piece of jewelry fixed and then run home and make dinner. Tonight I will most likely spend th

So yeah, I mentioned my 30 day challenge the other day and I am happy to announce that I have completed 7 days in a row of yoga. Now, I am still unable to touch my toes but I have noticed that I am slightly improving. Like I am absolutely smugger than I was before so... win. I am not quite sure what the end game will be after the 30 days. I am pretty sure I won't be able to put my legs behind my head or not groan when I have to touch my toes, but if after 7 days I am already feeling a lot more zen, then AWESOME! Well, relatively more zen. For me. Anyway. Everyday for the past 7 days I have been keeping note of my different sessions. Some days were good, some weren't. The good news is that with the food diary that my friend and I started at the beginning of February, I have already dropped 5 kilos (10 pounds) and that is pretty good. And I definitely feel a lot less I HATE MYSELF AND ALL MY CLOTHES in the mornings. Again, win. So here is a breakdown of the last 7 days. Namas

Yesterday the Kid turned 5. FIVE! Unbelievable. I'd like to say I am still losing the baby weight which means for 60 months I have been on a diet. I haven't. But it feels like it. Heh. I cannot believe my little boy is 5 and how fast it has flown by. O.K. there are days that I have to scoop him off the dining room table before he throws himself off of it and those days definitely seem to drag.. but otherwise, holy crap. HE IS FIVE! I am incredibly proud of him and so excited to see how much he has developed this past year. Sure, he still isn't speaking (well, he has brought NEIN back but he is part Austrian) but his behaviour is pretty fantastic. He is definitely more emotive and he seems a lot happier. I cannot be more grateful for the kindergarten he is in and I wish he could attend that place forever because he loves it there. So as planned, at  6:30 in the morning, I walked in with a muffin and a candle and he didn't seem too impressed with the glare. I finally

Tomorrow is the Kid's birthday! I cannot believe he will be turning 5. The time..it has flown. We are surprising him with a chocolate muffin and a candle first thing in the morning.. just like my parents did when I was kid. We will see how he will react to seeing flame coming towards him while he is in his bed. Tonight I had to work later and the Husband is out watching a film so I am treating myself to a face mask and an episode of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It is one of the few nights I don't have plans and I am going to enjoy every minute of it. These next couple of weeks are going to be incredibly busy at work. And I have a few dates lined up already... including with an aunt I have never met before which is kind of exciting. Yesterday I met up with a friend to try the new Beaver Brewing Company pub located on Liechtensteinstrasse. It was actually pretty good and I tried three different beers (small ones, I have matured). I also had the vegan tomato soup as

Hello Monday! I am feeling a lot more energetic after a decent night's sleep. The Kid has been off in terms of his sleeping and last night we pretty much had an uninterrupted night of sleep Thank you Jeebus! Saturday he came to our room at least 5 times. He walks slowly towards out bed and he say "NO!" and then he goes running back to his room, yelling in his own language. It is kind of hilarious and also a little crazy making. I stayed strong this weekend and did not go to the IAEA ball. And I am SO SO SO glad I didn't. Instead, I wore pj's, watched TV and spent some quality time with the Kid. On Saturday morning I went to Bikram and got my ass kicked by the awesome Bine. She is pretty amazing and I like that she doesn't flinch when I show up. Most people seeing me do yoga give me a look that is mostly reserved for pigeons eating crap off the sidewalk; a mix of pity and disgust. On Saturday, during one move, she told me to grab the back of my heels. I sho

Apologies for not writing sooner. It has been a busy few days of celebrations and normal life. On Tuesday there was the amazing presentation by Mike Lake! On Wednesday I kvetched about being ignored by other organizations here and then miracle of miracles, one contacted me a couple of hours later. I have an idea of how that happened and it is pretty highlarious. Or tragic. Because I felt so spurned, I decided to go forward with my plans for the center and soon I will have some sessions in finance coaching with the Wirtschafts Agentur. Am I nervous? Yes. Math is just not my thing. Wednesday was shaping up to be pretty awesome and then I got an e-mail from my father that my uncle had passed. It was a shock and I decided to leave work early. My friend D.K. met me at Cafe Gitarre even though she was sick and snotty because she is good people. I cried and drank wine and over indulged. When the Kid was in the hospital last year and she visited, we said that we had to stop making hospital