Operation Tubetop

Well hello there! Apologies for not writing for the last few weeks. It has been a wild few weeks with birthdays, conferences, work, events and so on and so forth. So really, business as usual. The big news is that in April I will be finally launching my new website which means that this blog will be slowly coming to an end. It's the next chapter and it's terrifying and exciting all at the same time. The website will be a great way for me to consolidate all of my projects and of course, to finally have something a little more professional (ha.ha). Operation Tubetop has been a lifeline these past... I think 6 years? If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you will have been through a wild ride with me. From raising an infant, to working full time again, from starting the Kid in kindergarten to being kicked out of kindergarten(s), from rebirthing to an autism diagnosis, from frustration to hope. It's been real. Really real. And I wouldn't trade my experiences for...

Hello and happy Saturday everybody! It was an absolutely nutso week. Work was busy, I was busy, and so on and so forth. On Wednesday I had to work later and as I was on my way home, a friend messaged me and said she needed black string. I said I had black string and since she lives in the neighbourhood, she came by to pick up the black string. And she brought a bottle of prosecco so we sat in the living room and chatted while the Kid ran around like the Tasmanian Devil. On Thursday I had to get to work super early and let me just tell you that Vienna during the school ski break at 7 in the morning is incredibly post-apocalyptic. In the afternoon, I finished work and headed to Cafe Eiles. I was meeting my friend N.P. there and he came a little later bearing some pretty fab shoes he had just purchased. We shared fries, I had deep friend cheese and for dessert we had Kaiserschmarren. I decided that afternoon that my birthday weekend was officially starting. We had some wine and then made ...

Well hello everybody! Apologies for not updating the blog recently. It was a very busy week last week and lots of exciting things happened! I also wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a 2 week break on the podcast. I have reached about 50 episodes and 1,800 downloads and have loved doing it, but I thought I would take a little time to regroup and get a line up of guests up and running. I have a lot to do this month and I really need to scale back on some of the things that I am currently doing. Speaking of things, one of the big things is planning a fundraiser night in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately this can't happen until I get something for this thing and I am currently and desperately waiting for the next step to get the things and I don't like not being in control of things. Deep breaths. It will all work out. As I mentioned above, last week was pretty amazing. The first thing was that the Kid took the Ubahn for the first time in years. I might have mentio...

You know what guilt is? You really want to know? It's thinking your kid just has a cold and it turns out to be bronchitis. Now usually I am an over protective mother, checking his breathing with a mirror at night... but this time, I decided I was just going to sit back and chill. In the past, when the Kid's been sick, I will pretty much consider hailing a damn ambulance on the street and attaching myself to it a la Terminator 2. This time, oh this time, I was not going to be a paranoid, freaking out mommy. And yes, now I feel terrible. To be fair, the Kid has been on the mend for the last few days. Sure, there was a little wheezing and it was like living with a little gremlin, but I honestly didn't think he was that sick. Well, I WAS WRONG! The doctor prescribed an inhaler and I am starting to think it is making his cough worse because last night, at bedtime, he had an incredible coughing fit which almost sent me into the streets to commandeer a doctor... but of course,...

Sup everybody. I have pink hair! I look like a chubby middle aged Anime character. Like Jem and the Holistic Practitioners. Yup. I do love it. I truly do. It's currently an apricot/pink mix so I have to do a couple more applications to get it the pink I want it to be. Why did I go pink? Why not? I love having dark hair but the greys coming in were driving me batty and dying my hair every couple of weeks is not something I enjoy... and let's not talk about the probable loss of brain cells with every application. Could I go grey? Sure. But not yet. It's too soon. I am kind of exited about having a new look and I was so excited about doing it that I was up until 1 a.m. bleaching my hair. I then woke up at 5:40 to put the pink in. I can barely stay awake now. But what other colours will I explore next? Who knows! Unless my hair falls out in clumps because of how badly I have treated it recently (and for many years). In other news, the Kid is super sick. I thought we were in...

Hello Sunday morning! The Kid was on the mend yesterday but this morning he woke up with a fever and a cough. Wednesday he had his shots and by Thursday morning, he had the fever. We kept him home Friday as well and yesterday he was running around and happy. Blergh. Poor kiddo. He usually has a ton of energy and I can see he is pretty ticked that he can't run around as usual. I hear you buddy. At 11 I have my last spin class of the week at SuperCycle. That will bring me to 5 classes this week which yes, I know, is overkill. I guess I wanted to push myself this week and I did. 5 spin classes is a little too much and next week I can only get a couple in. But I have to say, I've enjoyed myself immensely... even if I can't feel my butt at this time. It was a pretty inspiring week, actually. On Thursday I finished work and then stopped at a small restaurant called Enwok. I ordered cucumber maki and some tofu and veg dumplings. It was pretty nice to spend some time reading a ...

Hello! Well, we are back from the hospital! The Kid got a lovely cocktail of Polio booster, a meningitis booster and a tick booster. Fun, fun! We're currently bracing ourselves for the inevitable fever that should be hitting this evening. This time the shots were in the morning and we decided to take a taxi. The Kid's an absolute pro in them, sitting happily in the back and looking out the window. We showed up about 15 minutes before his appointment and he knew exactly where we were going. He walked up the steps bravely and when we walked into the hallway, he gave the rooms a wide berth on his way to the waiting room. There were a couple of other kids and there was a jar of pee on the table. I played linebacker for a good 10 minutes. We were soon called in and I carried the Kid in and he grabbed the door jamb in one last bid for freedom but he wasn't putting all of his heart into it.  He saw the nurse he likes and crawled into her lap, facing her, well, ample bosom. He...

Well, hello Friday! Almost the weekend! It's been busy at work and busy with other things. I had a lot of emails to respond to and a lot to send. The next couple of weeks involve quite a few appointments: some fun and some involving getting the Kid some shots at the hospital. Hey-o! But let me just say that 2018 has been pretty decent so far. As I talked about on the podcast on Monday, you can find the link  here I have been following a vegan diet since January 1st. I was having stomach issues again and I think a lot of it had to do with my very high consumption of cheese. I've done veganism in the past and I have always felt amazing and yet that cheese kept calling me: Hello, this is cheese. I don't think I can be always vegan but I am trying to give it a shot for the longer term. Sure, once in a while I might accidentally fall into a pizza or cheeseburger but for the most part, there is something to be said about lots of fruit and some veg. I haven't completely chan...

Sup Wednesday! I just got back from an epic run and I will be heading to work in about an hour. I truly love a morning where I have a little bit of time to have a little bit of me time. Yesterday evening I met a friend for beer and it was lovely. I headed home around 7:30 and made a little dinner... in the toaster. The damn stove and oven is still dead. The Husband asked me on Monday night if I would call the electrician and I was like "Bitch, please". I don't even really know how electricity works so the conversation would go something like: Me: The flippy thing flipped and poof no stove. Electrician: The flippy thing? Me: (exasperated) You know, the flip thing that makes the zoom zoom and then the stove was kapow poof! Listen, I have other strengths. Kind of. Today I will be working a little later and then I plan to spend an evening doing as little as possible. I'm trying to get up earlier in the mornings so that I can get stuff done and then don't have to...

Hi Friday! So happy to see you! I started work again on Tuesday and while it hasn't been too crazy, it has definitely been a challenge to get back into the swing of things. Sofa living over the holidays was bliss and now I have to adult. The Kid and the Husband have been home this week and the Kid had a couple of therapy sessions. Yesterday one of his aides came by but for some reason he didn't really want to do a session. I guess he too has become accustomed to being a lady who lunches on the sofa. He has been a total star this holiday save for one teeny tiny issue. I remember last Christmas when he was having many many freak outs so in the grand scheme of things, I am incredibly grateful that we got through these two weeks without one. Saying that, the one teeny tiny issue is his sleeping. For the past year he has loved going to bed. Sure, he wouldn't fall asleep for a while but he would stay in his room and happily "talk" to himself. These past few nights, ...

Hello 2018! Boy, am I happy to see you. 2017, you were o.k., but you were kind of a starter wife, the year that puts me through medical school and then when I am successful, leaves you, 2017, for a younger model...so 2018 and I are about to get serious. Again, I have to be cryptic, but me thinks that this year is truly going to rock. I am currently working on a fun little project and when I told Office Twin about it today, he was excited for me and then I went off on a tangent about what this could lead to and he was like "You may or may not sometimes get a little too excited about things." and I was like "Have we met?". I know that it is a bad habit because inevitably I end up disappointed but at the same time, this is what fuels me and yes, I am a pretty positive person. Peppy? No. Naive? Sometimes. A dreamer? Always. Monday I posted a podcast about resolutions that you can find here . Yesterday evening I posted the interview with the co-founder of SuperCycle ...

Well hello everybody! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I definitely did but if you heard wailing coming from the 4th district this morning, that was me, getting on the scale. I don't really beat myself up for putting weight on over Christmas but I seem to treat Christmas eating as an Olympic sport... and yes, the games last over 2 weeks. As of yesterday, I am back to the grind in terms of working out and I am definitely not throwing my face into a bag of chocolate or melting cheese on everything... right now. I figured I had my time of nutso eating and now I need to focus on making better life choices. Also, in exactly a month I will be heading to the Science Ball and I do not want to look like I ate me in the pictures. Speaking of the ball, my dress arrived and it does seem to fit but I would like it to make me look fit so there's a goal. Or I think about Spanx... full body Spanx. Christmas was definitely lovely this year. On the 21st was my last day of work. The p...

Well hello Friday! FINALLY! It's been a bit of a busy week and we are coming up to the last weekend before Christmas. CRAZY! I still have a little bit of shopping to do but otherwise I am done! Hurray! Of course, I am nervously awaiting some gifts being mailed but I have faith in ye olde postal service. I am also incredibly naive. This weekend is going to be another crazy one filled with Christmas joy. Tonight I am going to a Bulgarian restaurant for a friend's birthday. I don't think I have ever had Bulgarian food but based on the menu online, there seems to be a lot of meat and I will be fine. Tomorrow morning is the Santa event at Hard Rock Cafe for kids with special needs. It should be pretty amazing and I am so happy that we could do this again this year. I did, however, on Wednesday night have had a bit of break down due to a last minute cancellation. I cannot go into details but I did not sleep most of the night and the word "vengeance" may or may not have ...

Well I had a whole thing written out about politics but we just had a talk at work about avoiding politics so I decided to delete my paragraphs. But... I think it is pretty clear about how I feel about a certain vote that happened somewhere yesterday. I think that a marginalized group of people should receive incredible praise for doing what they are doing and for dealing with so much crap and so, here is a gif to sum it all up. Thank you. You will be changing the world. And I will do my best to support you. So... what's new? Well you can hear all about my cray cray weekend of yore on the latest podcast episode which you can find  here . A huge huge thank you to C.B. for one of the biggest surprises of my life. Here is the picture of the card (if you didn't see it online) and as I said, I totally cried. It was amazing. I have decided that in the new year I will try and set it up and kind of put everything that I do together on one site: my blog, my merch, my adventures ...

Well hello Wednesday! If you listened to last week's podcast, you would have heard about my 24 day challenge. I am happy to say that I have already completed a couple of them and tonight I will be checking off Bridget Jones off my list. I am trying my darndest to get into the holiday spirit and it is kind of working. Below is the list and if you want more of an explanation of each challenge, you are going to have to check out my podcast. Sorrryyyy... There is still a lot to do and I have more presents to buy. I am about to ship a big old box off to Canada for my family. I did decide to not ship a bazillion books as I usually do at Christmas time. Books are heavy, mail is expensive so it is not a good idea, Tova. In other news, we had a parent teacher conference on Monday night and it wasn't great but it wasn't bad. Let's just say that one of his after school providers showed up with a bandaged arm. Our hearts broke a little. You can hear all about it tomorrow on th...

Hello hello! I am sick again but hopefully on the mend. It's frustrating but at least this is just a cold and nothing worse. It started last week on Friday and I am so glad it held off for the craziest week of the year and now I can kind of take it easy for the next little while. You probably heard on Facebook (because I wouldn't stop posting about it) that I gave a talk for the American Women's Association on Tuesday night. I talked about it on the podcast which you can listen to  here . But if you didn't hear about it, let's just say it was a pretty amazing moment. I was absolutely terrified and I still am not sure what I actually said but I know that I talked for about 20 minutes and nobody rolled their eyes so all is good in the hood. I also think that I would totally do it again and if are looking for a speaker, I'm available. My rate (until it changes) is a glass or two of bubbly and praise... always praise. Before the talk I did a half day at work and...