Operation Tubetop

Hello Wednesday! I was off work yesterday because the Kid has a cold. I dropped him off at Kindergarten on Monday and 40 minutes later, they called and said he was coughing and he had to be picked up. He was fine most of the day but at 3:30 in the morning on Tuesday, he was awake and ready to partay. Luckily around 8 a.m. he fell asleep for a couple of hours and I could snooze on the sofa. The Nanny came in the afternoon and I was able to meet a couple of friends for a late lunch at Cafe Wortner and then a quick drink with another friend at Cafe Gitarre and then onto the Beaver Brewing Company for an 80's tribute night. It was a fun fun evening and at one point, 2 friends pulled me to the front to sing Jesse's Girl with them and my real life nightmare came true. I am not a singer and I am not a performer. Ok, yes, there have been a couple of karaoke episodes but on both occasions I was pickled. My somewhat hazy memory seems to recall me saying "No no no. I do not do Karaok

So yesterday's post was "Rah! Rah! Opening the center in 4 months! ZOMG!". The last two nights... I have not slept well. I have woken up in a cold sweat, imagining bankruptcy.. or even worse. I have spent the last 48 hours whipping out my calculator and trying to sort out how I was going to raise enough money by April and it wasn't looking great. Now, I am an optimist and I believe things will work out... but raising the amount of money I need in 4 months, while definitely possible, is a little too ambitious even for me. I tossed and turned and this morning at 3, (just an hour before the Kid came tearing into our room screaming and kicking with a fever.. sigh.) I finally came to the conclusion that I need a later deadline. It was a hard decision for me and it broke my heart, but I have to do this right. Risks are good but not when we have to pay for rent, childcare and therapy. It's not just a situation of tightening our belts (is that the right idiom?) but ac

Sup sup Wednesday? I think you can gather from the title of this post that I am kind of freaking out just a little ittle bitty bit. OMG! YOU GUYS! The past year has been a labour of love. I have been slowly but surely building up the Autism in Vienna Facebook page, bombarding strangers with my concept of an autism center, and sobbing off and on. I am now officially a Verein thanks to a friend who helped with the statutes and I am now looking at a real life actual location. I saw it a few weeks ago for the first time and last night, I was back but this time, with my board members. We met with the couple who owns the location and it was all business. Yes, I can be business-y. We looked at two different floors and then discussed the rent. I laid out my plans for the center and how to raise funds and hopefully sounded business-like and shit. They made an offer which would be ridiculous to refuse and if all goes to plan (and I don't throw myself off a bridge) then we should be up an

Hello Sunday evening! I just got back from a great long walk with the Kid. It is slowly becoming our thing. Just the two of us walking around the neighbourhood, taking in the sights and me just talking to him about everything even though I know he doesn't really know what I am saying. He is awesome on the walks; his eyes light up and he makes a happy sound once in a while. He stops when I stop, he walks faster when I do, and he is just a joy. These walks give me a sense of normalcy and it is the one time of the day I don't feel like I am a mom of a special needs kid... I am just a normal mom, taking a walk with her little boy. My only wish is that one day he starts speaking and then he can finally say "Dammit, woman! Shut it! You are a neurotic ball of stress and angst. And by the way, he's just not that into you." Heh. Friday after work I headed home and we decided to try and take the Kid to a Christmas market. It has been a couple of years since we have been

I am feeling a bazillion times better. I think I actually  had a mini breakdown on Monday and I just needed to sleep it off. I told my friend the other day about it and she was like "You are very efficient. You have a day to fall apart and then you are fine again." and she is right. I internalize many many things (I know, that seems to be the complete opposite of who I am seeing as I pretty much talk about everything on this blog) and that isn't healthy. If I am upset or hurt, I don't really say much and I pull my hand from the fire and retreat, rather than face a situation straight on. Confrontation? No bueno. But sometimes I do hit my breaking point and I will get mad and then I have a very hard time verbalizing what is bothering me and come across as a raving squirrel: cute, but maybe has the rabies. For the most part I am easy going (I know, I know that may seem like a lie, but I can be), I take a lot of hits on the chin, but as I age (Why God why?!?!), I real

I woke up with a sore throat on Monday morning. I could barely shuffle down the hallway and I decided I would call in sick. I ended up sleeping most of the day which if you know me is not a normal thing for me. I was congested and took some Life brand cold and flu pills which ended up giving me the wackiest dreams ever. I don't want to talk about them but if I see you and I avert my gaze and blush, ignore me. For the love of God, ignore me! The Kid finishes kindergarten at 1 so if I am at home sick, I literally have to barricade myself in the bedroom. I set up the laptop, crawled under the covers and fell asleep again in the afternoon. I was in and out of consciousness and was able to watch A Plum Pudding Murder  (a Hallmark Christmas movie) off and on. GAH! It was awful! And I will be writing a recap in a day or two. You are welcome. I am not sure where and how I got sick. Part of me thinks it is just that I am a little rundown after all of the craziness of the past few months

What a week! While there was sadness, there was also joy. One of those joyous moments was the Kid's Laternenfest. Laternenfest usually involves small combustible paper lantern death traps with small tealights lit on fire. The fact that there haven't been more toddlers turned into human torches defies all logic. The new trend is to use those electric tealights and I think this makes perfect sense. As I wrote in an earlier post, this year the kindergarten was hosting it at a palace. The Belvedere palace is about a 25 minute walk from our place and even though the Kid is rocking the walking, we were a little apprehensive about how he would react once we got to the location. We have never had a real Laternenfest and I was hoping this one would finally be the one! When he was about 20 months old, we attended our first one at the old kindergarten. Of course he was the one kid who got a faulty tealight and he lost it. I had to take him out of the classroom while he melted down. We

Today is Remembrance Day. Wear your poppy and thank a veteran. I am a pacifist, I don't understand war, but I am also a supporter of troops. Today we remember past conflicts and ongoing conflicts and thank all those who sacrificed their lives. The state of the world today scares me, I am not going to lie, but we also need to remember that there is so much good in it... however bleak it may seem right now. To quote the good old Mr. Rogers: Since it is Remembrance Day, I need to think about my grandfather: Gerald Fry (his Anglicized name). He passed away a couple of years ago and was an inspiring man. Born to an established German Jewish family in Hamburg, his father fought for Germany in World War I. As the tides were changing, and anti-semitism in Europe was on the rise, my great grandfather started making plans to move his family out of Germany. Unfortunately he passed before this could happen and he was survived by his wife and two sons. As World War II started, my great gran

I said my piece on Facebook, I'm not happy, but what is done is done and I am not going to linger on it anymore. NO MORE! We can't change things today but we can move forward, work together and make sure that we fight for people's rights and freedoms. There is a lot of good in this world, we just need to make sure we find it again. Might be under my couch? I don't want to harp on the news of today so this will be a post about the last couple of days and a perfect place to not talk about the thing that just happened. Ugggghhh. Anyway, I have been up since 4, I am onto my third glass of wine, I have consumed a lot of cheese today. This morning we had a meeting with the director of special needs for schools for our district. We met with him a few months ago and he is lovely. He once again told us what could happen with the Kid next year in terms of schooling and while it is nice to hear options, it is hard to hear options. He took down more information and again, like alwa

ZOMG! What a week. I am absolutely emotionally exhausted. It is Sunday midday and I just finished up a short run and I am showered and in flannel. I love cozy Sunday mornings but yesterday was not a good day. In the morning the Kid was a bit of a hot mess; crying and kvetching for an hour. I jinxed it by posting earlier about how perfect the morning was: in pj's, on Pinterest, getting into the Christmas mood. His bad mood eventually passed and then in the afternoon, when the Husband went to the gym, all hell broke lose... another fit. I know what caused it but it was still terrible. It's heart breaking when it happens and it is very hard to stay calm while he tries to attack me. There is a fine line between disciplining and riding it out and it never gets that much easier. I hope this is just a shitty phase and I will need to have better coping mechanisms in the future. Lying on the couch in fetal position is not the best option. The rest of the evening the Kid was good and I m

Another Halloween season is over! I am dealing alright with the loss. I think I went a little overboard with the Halloween celebrations this year so it probably is a good thing it is over. As I mentioned earlier, the party was a complete success! I had fully recovered by Monday - just in time for actual Halloween. I stayed home with the Kid on Monday morning and of course he had a freak out. I stayed calm, he didn't, but it only lasted for about 10 minutes. When the Nanny arrived, I kissed him good bye and ran out the door. I first headed to a friend's place with some groceries. She had a baby a couple of weeks ago so I was excited to check out the newest addition: adorable! Another friend was visiting with her baby as well and it was great to chat and catch up. Around 4, I made my way to another friend's place but first I had to stop and look at something. I really really want to tell you all what I looked at but I can't: not until I have more details. But if it works