Spring (break)!

April 7, 2013 9 Comments

With the change in weather comes a change in my mindset. This past week off allowed me to really recuperate, have a couple cavities filled, and even party a little with the beginning of Mike’s 30th birthday extravaganza.

Our house will sell soon and we found what justmightbe our forever home (please don’t jinx me Universe by writing that here!). This caused some happy and frustrated tears as we work out finances on a rushed time-table. But thankfully we have wonderful family who supports us and once we move in all will be well, because new house ahhhh!

Also can I get a cat call for the amazing new blog design? If you don’t know Becca of Jumping Jax Designs, then run on over there! This design project took about 8 months, by no fault of Becca at all. Becca listened to what I wanted and created designs with short turn-around time. After BlogHer ’12 I wanted a fresh look to “relaunch” this here blog. And then I got distracted by life and well… I’m so glad it’s live now, because I feel like this is a wonderful time to start new, in so many ways. Special thanks to my girl, Ali, who took care of all that coding ish and made Becca’s work appear here! (I’m so lucky to know talented people who take my abuse)

huge exhale

Things are coming together in ways I never thought possible.

I’m smiling more and questioning less.

I can say with understanding, “things work out as they should,” even though I still hate cliches.

All in all I had a typical spring break complete with reading, resting, tattooing (more later), and a little inebriation. I’m not totally ready to go back to work tomorrow, but when the weather feels like this who is?

Filed Under: awesomeness, BlogHer, dorklove, eat your heart out

NaBloPoMo

November 1, 2012 Leave a Comment

No, I didn’t sneeze. NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month.

I’m joining the cool kids. Since returning from ye ol’ BlogHer2012 conference I allowed a massive writer’s block to take over. In fact I don’t lack writing material. Huge confession: I’m simply scared. Instead of inspiring me that large, overwhelming blogging conference filled with amazing, inspiring writers pinned me into a hole like a bad game of Whack-a-Mole. I allow myself to feel defeated.

Instead of dwelling on what a scardey-cat I became, what a better time to resurface than through forced, daily writing?

I promise myself that I will try to write and post every day.

I will allow myself Wordless Wednesday Posts, even Throwback Thursdays and InstaFridays, when (and only when) I feel cornered, or have a few good pics which must be shared. I still love my camera, here.

And so, won’t you support me and maybe write a bit yourself?

I’m blogging for blogging’s sake.

Filed Under: BlogHer, NaBloPoMo, write on

BlogHer12 – The Good, The Bad, and the Glitter

August 22, 2012 14 Comments

Well this is one majorly delayed post… blame my brain, or time, or something.

Alas, I bring you my review of BlogHer’12, which in name alone should allude to massive hoards of women everywhere.

The Good

I met PEOPLE.
I met WOMEN who WRITE.
I met amazing souls. Ahem, I’m speaking about this lovely group of ladies with whom I found myself in bed with at CheeseBurgHer (not like THAT. geeze).

I love EVERYTHING about this Instagram pic! (This shot officially belongs to Faith)

I stumbled upon Sarah when we randomly sat down next to each other before Pres Obama’s video address to all us ladies, Thursday night. Turned out her roommate, Jacki, was also attending Social Luxe and nominated for a BlogLuxe award like me! We became cab buddies and the rest is ~~champagne with gold flecks~~ history. Losers FOREVER! Jacki and I met Faith that same night as well. And if you search hard enough, you might find some karaoke videos of the two of us (thankful for such expert quality and lack of focus on my red pants). We can’t forget Laura, who found my blog months before BlogHer and whom I just had to meet. Turns out she already knew many of these other ladies.

Birds of a feather? I think so.

And my roommates! Talk about quality ladies, right there. It doesn’t get much better than this when you’ve never met each other and decide to share a room for 4 days! Nicci, my bloggy bestie, turned out to be totally normal (hooray for no serial killers!) and we clicked from the moment I fell through the door. I said it before, but it’s a good thing she was preggo at this event, or else I can only imagine the trouble we might have gotten into together…

A HUGE shout out of thank you for putting up with me goes out to the Playdate Crashers, Jamie and Krista. I promise to not get your names mixed up again, anymore, too often. Awesome roommates, for sure.

Without listing everyone in my twitter feed, I must acknowledge the awesomeness of meeting Lyz, Katie, Tricia, Savannah, Jayme, Jen, Brandee, Miranda, Megan, John, & Duffy. Those are some good, quality people right there. And they were nice to me. Bonus.

The Bad

I don’t want to go all sour-puss on you or make you think that I hated my time at this conference, but I don’t see myself going back to another BlogHer. For all the good, the fun, the partying, the swag… I felt way too conscious of everyone else. In my efforts to network I realized how puny my blog, and myself, were/are – in the grand scheme of blogging things. I felt very insecure, very sucktastic, and extremely bad about myself and this blog. And HELLO?! That’s just the opposite of what BlogHer is supposed to, and can do, for you and your blog! I feel like BlogHer might not be for me. After all, I only went to 2 sessions since everything was just so jam packed full of people!

Also, if awards are going to be popularity contest, someone needs to let the losers know this ahead of time. coughSocialLuxecough

But the people. I luff those people who I only see in my computer and on my phone…

The Glitter

Take a few DJs, some cheeseburgers, sequins, craft supplies, strobe lights, cake, glow sticks, beds, a dance floor, and a whole mess of liquor and you have yourself some amahzing BlogHer parties. Both the private parties and the BlogHer hosted ones lead to some serious fun times and major memories.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Social Luxe, Jacki, Faith and I might not have found each other! Or the Pioneer Woman! or that other lady (Housewife?) from that other TV show (I’m so bad with names)…

And Hasbro knows how to throw a fun party!

Make it RAIN (monopoly money)!

And the swag was great…

But when it comes down to it, was it worth the time, money, and emotional investment? Sure I’m glad I went and met all these wonderful people. I wish I had steered clear of the cliques and actually slept more, too. I love being able to say I went and value what I do take away from it, but is that enough for a repeat performance? I have mixed emotions.

Until tickets go on sale for BlogHer13, I’ll sit back and laugh at these pictures. You have until then to convince me I need to go, again.

Filed Under: awesomeness, besties, BlogHer, dorklove

My brain is broken

August 16, 2012 10 Comments

The day following BlogHer, after a nice solid 12 hour sleep, I woke ready to take on the world/my swag.

Still processing what exactly I wanted to take away from BlogHer (and honestly, still am digesting the whole experience), I sat down at the computer ready to write. Mid email from a neighbor I lost the ability to read. Letters jumbled, words failed to make sense, I struggled to sound out everything, and my vision blurred.

I quickly realized these sensations as a migraine aura and popped a rescue pill. I laid down in my quiet, dark room and waited while my right arm proceeding to go numb. The feeling spread up my arm and then down my body. For the next hour I lost my right side. The feeling came and went and after 2 hours of nausea the pounding, excruciating pain crept up to my left temple.

I texted Mike, as best possible, considering. I called my doctor, knowing the double doses of prescription meds failed. After a half hour of waiting, I called again. Finally after an hour my doctor called and through sobs heard my symptoms. I needed emergency room care since this migraine was unresponsive to my typical Rx approach, including an additional dose of Percocet.

Mike left work early, came home to find me in a mess of pain, and off we went to the ER.

Once there my high blood pressure relayed my extreme pain. My slurred speech and inability to recall exactly the words I needed nodded to abnormal brain activity. The struggle to move my right side as easily as the left checked off one more item on a list. There was concern I was having a stroke.

The emergency room doctor gave me doses of three intravenous medicines, one at a time. Each one failed to kill the pain. Only with a strong dose of narcotics did my pain finally subside.

Thankfully, my MRI came back clear with no stroke line. My new diagnosis stands at a “complicated or complex migraine.”

Moving forward? My neurologist was honest saying he did not know the best way to treat me. I can take prophylaxis (preventative meds) however currently the risk of potential side effects for me outweigh the benefits of taking them. I will continue to use my rescue meds as necessary, but if they fail I have to follow up at the ER and get another MRI if I loose feeling for an extensive amount of time. I can no longer take The Pill, as it increases your risk of stroke and my body already has a “learned behavior” similar to stroke.

For now I am increasing my magnesium, evening primrose oil, and vitamin D. I will see my acupuncturist three times a week. I will not take the synthetic hormones which were thought to regulate my levels and help, since they could harm me far worse.

So that’s where I’ve been — trying to fix my brain. I also took a nice little side trip down to Florida to be with my family at the beach.

I owe this blog some other updates (ie: selling our house! my final thoughts on BlogHer! school year starts on again on Monday! my nieces are adorable!) and those will come soon.

Please continue to check back and thanks in advance for understanding why these posts are currently sporadic!

Oh and sorry for being a bummer, but YAY for not having a stroke!!

Filed Under: BlogHer, future, halp, thats life, your health is your wealth

BlogHer12, Part Uno

August 8, 2012 6 Comments

I spent much of the time leading up to BlogHer12 planning, meticulously, what to bring. I made a trip to Trader Joe’s just to pick up snacks, raided Target’s glitter supplies, and packed 6 liters of water. Apparently I thought NYC doesn’t know how to bottle water and no one would have enough glitter. Much of my time was too jam packed with nervous energy or food samples to want for extra food. Also, seven pairs of shoes = silly talk.

Alas, I lugged my much too heavy bags to the train station, narrowly missing my train and almost spawning anxiety attack 1 of 500. Not having time to stop and grab a trashy celeb ‘zine I played on my phone the whole 4 hour ride. I’ve heard of worse forms of entertainment.

And it was a darn good thing my eyes were trained on rotating between Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, because at one point I saw, “Anyone getting into Penn Station around 2p?” on the Blogher12 tweet-feed. I piped up immediately, because if that morning’s departure from the train station was any indication, I was going to need emotional/mental/physical help getting all this necessary stuff into a taxi.

AND THEN THE TRAIN JUST STOPPED MOVING (all caps necessary).

Sure, trains stop moving all the time – like when they let people on and off said train. However we were almost at a station, and unless people got discount tickets, there was no jumping off the cars and track walking. Shortly after the first announcement came about technical difficulties. Then an announcement followed declaring our engine dead. In about an hour a new engine would arrive and be installed.

I wrote back to the lovely @SgtMsWife stating my train broke.

However, her response brought me hope: “Our NJ transit train is pulling up next to an Amtrak.”

Imagine how awesome I looked when I broke the news to my car of the train.

Not only did I actually have a cab-buddy, but I was getting on her train! It seemed too good to be true, which it was, when they sat me in the corner reserved for disabled riders and piled my luggage around me.

This seems like a good time to wrap things up, right? Wrong. Once we got to the station and I ran over 1 person’s toe, allowed my giant bag to spill over onto a native New Yorker (no words, just eye rolling. massive eye roll), and finally get into a cab, we went to the wrong Hilton. Jenn was so confident in her recital of the hotel address I smiled and nodded and focused on not falling over my bags, again. Thank goodness for the lovely bellhop at the wrong Hilton, telling us about the other 2 incorrect arrivals. When we asked him about the bloggers he recited it back to us as “blogages?” or something and we turned right around. Our cabbie was pleased for the extra $10 and drove us to the correct location.

We made it. We arrived at the correct Hilton and we found our roommates. It was time to experience BlogHer and all its “glory.”

Special thanks to whomever it was that reminded me the actual trip up to NYC was not a disaster, but rather blog fodder. Excellent call, my dear.

Filed Under: BlogHer, what the what?