Stay tuned for more pictures of this proud moment!

• if there are urinals in a bathroom, then it’s probably the men’s room (even if no one is occupying said room)
• there is such a thing as too many free, warm cookies (but thank you anyways, Doubletree)
• the south is a confusing, meanwhile very kind place to visit
• it is possible to mess up a simple order of “white wine, please” and even a simple Jack & Coke
• Gypsies steal things
• it is possible to become extremely close with someone you just met
• even though Richmond is only 2 hours south of DC, it is definitely part of The South
• it is better to get a parking ticket than a DUI*
• love means smashing your iPhone screen when you accidentally smash your fiance’s iPhone screen
• not all hospitality staff is hospitable
• I cannot stay up past 3am anymore
• You can tell how amazing a couple is by the awesome people at their wedding
• you should sign the guest book towards the beginning of the wedding, not at the very end (my apologies for “Vicki & Mike Vicki oops”)
• the Roger Rabbit will never go out of style, in my book

Huge congrats to our friends Eytan & Trish on their marriage! We had an amazing time celebrating!!

*No I did not get a DUI, I opted to leave my car knowing full well I would get a ticket if I didn’t move it, but was in no state to move it.  Thus, ticket < DUI.

My husband never fails to let me know when these things happen, when he fails to comprehend my motivation or sees the outcome as ridiculous.  He laughs and says, “You’re ridiculous!”  (with loving approval, of course).

Take the other day, for example.

There’s a huge sewage disaster in our small, 12-unit condo building requiring 8 foot holes (amongst other repairs) in the first-floor units.  Thankfully we are not displaced, but the jack-hammering & special assessment costs leave much to be desired.  This also means flushing TP was a no-no for a couple weeks.  After finally getting the clear to use TP as normal I used the restroom one day to find NO TOILET PAPER.  Who does that?  Who can’t replace a single roll of TP after finishing another roll?

So, because I felt I might forget to wag my finger at Mike when he got home (because, duh, follow-up), I tweeted at him.

Direct. Succinct. and also a funny tweet:

I mean, I admitted it was not the best way to go about it, with my hashtag of “classy.”

But it’s 2012 and social media proves to be a great way to communicate – maybe not for all our marital disputes, but for ones that leave me err, high and dry.  I see this “ridiculous” way as successful.

(And I will leave his ridiculous habits alone, for now)

Now that we have new phones, I earned “you are completely absurd”  while tweeting this Instagram picture & caption:

“How I feel now that I have a brand new, working phone (!)”

I think the word is “proud.”

Does your significant other think you do anything “ridiculous” ?

And I’m ok with that.

About two weeks ago I noticed my phone had trouble charging.   I hooked up a clever little rubber-band system to help the contacts meet.  It looked silly and worked only most of the time, so I strolled into Tmobile where they reminded me I chose not to buy phone insurance.  Luckily, our contract is up in about 7 weeks.  But seven weeks is a long time in non-working-phone-land.  Mike and I looked at some options and decided to wait things out with my selectively working phone.

Yesterday (after the onset of a migraine aura and before I laid down to nap through it) my lovely phone refused to charge no matter what I did to it, how many rubber bands I hooked up to it, whatever new charger I tried…. no charge.

Meanwhile Mike’s exact phone, purchased on the exact same day, holds up fine with a weird smirk on it’s stupid touchscreen.

Thanks to Tmobile’s amazing customer loyalty program and our new two-year contract, new models are on the way! But since these new phones are a hot commodity and back-ordered, we need to wait a week for their arrival.

In the meantime?

I’m back in the stone age of phones.  I might as well be using the Zach Morris monstrosity, because my little POS does just about nothing but make phone calls.  What kind of phone is that?!  After about 18 months of smart phone privileges complete with twitter usage (some might call addiction), Facebook notifications, Instagram pictures, emails read/typed/sent, music played, maps, apps, and the occasional downloaded game — I’m lost!  I went from smart phone everything to a loaner flip-phone from the past.

::ahem:: Here are my fancy phone tricks, currently:

There are 25 major cities to chose from as your locale, NYC being the closest to me.  Is DC really not worthy of the list?

I can check current weather!  But only for NYC, as it is my “local” city.

I text by pressing numbers repeatedly to choose the next letter in the alphabet.  Average text takes seven minutes, including accidentally deleting the whole thing and starting over (which happens often).

I would use the slide out keyboard if it didn’t cause me to loose the entire text I already created deleted created.

It runs on 1G if I want to try to access the internet through some DOS-looking program, then wait 2 minutes for any page to load.

There is one default ring-tone (but 8 alarm sounds!).

Don’t even ask me about the “camera.”

A week is a long time in flip-phone land.

I’m in my own personal phone hell.

I know some of you might argue that is sleeping in, but in comparison to Mike – I’m getting up early.  Mike’s always been a night owl and I’m an early bird.  I get up, make coffee, and settle in front of the computer (shocking, I know) until I hear him stir. Then I usually go say good morning as he is such a Garfield about waking up.

But last Saturday I found this, around noon:

Apparently when I get out of bed, everyone else gets in bed!

And this guy? This is where he spends the night, anyways, on top of my pillow. If you try to move him, he gets all whiney and turns into a dead weight. 

I’m amazed there’s any room for me, at all!

attempting to scoop their “toy” out of the water

success!

Stunning young animals, huh?

• made a wedding album (or even started picking out pictures for said album)
• spent all our wedding gift cards (hoarding the Macy’s ones)
• used the fine china stemware
• opened the Cuisinart-mixer box
• discarded any of the RSVP cards from the invitations!
• discarded the left-over programs
• resold/re-purposed the frames from the table numbers
• gotten rid of the old vacuum which the Dyson replaced (yes, 2 vacuums in house)
• updated my passport (they sent it back because I overpaid them)

and here’s what we have accomplished

• reclaimed our kitchen table from miscellaneous wedding planning crap
• dry cleaned my wedding dress & stashed it in box in the corner
• changed my last name (with SSN & driver’s license. others need to be done)!
• enjoyed our first round of winter holidays & respective birthdays together
• gave everyone framed wedding pictures as gifts
• framed a single 8×10 picture for ourselves
• talked with our wedding photographer & sent a bagillion emails apologizing for not starting our album yet
• hung our Ketuba
• sent out all thank you cards (within 6 months of getting married even though etiquette says you have a year)
• watched the wedding video 4 times
• started planning a one year anniversary trip!

It’s hard to believe we’ve almost been married a  year!

But before I tell you about that, you need to know that my dog has allergies.  We know this because her eyes get goopy, she paws at them, and she scratches them until the sides of her wee-puppy-dog eyes get sores and she bleeds.  Nothing* is sadder.  So our vet told us to put her on daily antihistamines, unless we want to spend $800 to find out exactly what makes her allergies flip out, then pay $100 a month for allergy shots.  Um, yeah right. I love you dog, but I also love a cheap fix.  So off we went to the land of plenty (aka Costco) and purchased a bottle full of generic Claratin.  And it worked (when the darn pooch doesn’t pick it out of her food and leave it in random places around our house).  About a year later we found her eyes goopy and sad again.  The vet told us that like humans, dogs’ bodies can get accustomed to a medicine (remember this for later), and we should switch it up. Costco again. Giant bottle full off something different.  Success.

Now, back to the other mammal with allergies writing this.

Recall back at the beginning of my migraine journey, my neurologist told me my headaches were caused by allergies?  My brain doesn’t know how to process so much darn tree sex (because let’s be honest, that’s what pollen really is).  My brain backfires and migraines, essentially.  But I wasn’t so sure so I went to the allergist who kinda-sorta-agreed but more importantly was horrified by the giant blob of mucous stuck in my nasal cavity.

Now that we’re all up to snuff.  heh, get it? snuff?

I have allergies. They may or may not be causing my migraines.

I realized I forgot to pop a claratin and called my friend Diana who was also heading to the zoo with me that day.  Diana has an uncanny ability to have everything anyone might ever need always on hand.  She also had antihistamines, but not my beloved claratin.  See, when the dog reached her max with the claratin, I started taking it as my go-to-daily antihistamine.  Ya know, the one I take every day?  Diana instead had Zyrtec.  I took it.

And then we walked around, outside, for 4 hours and I proceeded to have the best head day in weeks.

About 2 hours after getting home, I realized my head felt great all day and still felt great.  There was some pressure, but no pain.

I recycled through my day’s activities: cell phone store, zyrtec, mexican food, outside, awesome lions as the zoo, froyo, home.  The one difference? Zyrtec!  The one different antihistamine I tried all these weeks? Zyrtec!

Since, like dogs, our bodies can get used to a medicine taken over time, there might be truth to changing things up a bit.

Diana and I traded bottles of antihistamines.

It might be time to trade the dog’s, too.

And it’s been right there, under my nose, the whole time!

*there are many things worse

Disclosure: this is NOT an add for Zyrtec, although it might seem like it.  I found a product I really liked and it might be the key to unlocking my pain mystery!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings my seven and eight year-old students will test from 9:30-noon with a 15 minute snack break.  This teacher has to sit and proctor with no computer, phone, or content related material open.  I can’t approach their desks individually and may only speak in blanket terms (“everyone, be sure to check every answer to make sure you didn’t skip any!”).  I feel badly for my kiddos but I can only imagine how bored I will be sitting and staring… (this does not tickle my fancy)

On that note, a few things that tickled my fancy as of late:

• I love trashy reality TV, especially my new fav:  My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

I’m in awe of the gypsy/traveler lifestyle portrayed in this show.  The girls get married as early as 16, in the biggest/most gaudy dresses imaginable (think cats on dresses).  The women adhere to certain stereotypical gender roles while the men complain about getting arrested for racing horses on open roads.  This show is not as much of a train wreck as Toddlers and Tiaras, but maybe that’s why I like it? (TLC, Friday nights at 10 – set your DVR.  It won’t disappoint)

• this new migraine medicine: Sumavel Dosepro

This supposedly clears up migraines so fast because it’s inject-able without a needle. I have yet to use the sample of this medicine my neurologist gave me, because I’m holding out for the world’s worst migraine. Weird, right?

Taken from their website: “The unique design of SUMAVEL DosePro makes needle-free subcutaneous drug delivery possible. The medicine is delivered by a compressed nitrogen gas-powered ram and piston, which provides the biphasic pressure needed to first push the drug through the skin and into the subcutaneous tissue. This occurs in one-tenth of a second. The medicine is then absorbed into the body’s bloodstream.”

Amahzing.  I can’t wait to try it, but then again… I can.

(disclaimer: I was not paid to write the above. My doctor prescribed the sample for me due to my fracking stupid migraines.)

• Warmer weather is here to stay!

After a very flippant spring, I’m confident that flipflops, sandals, skirts, shorts, and most importantly no heavy jackets, will be happening on the regular.

It’s time to do what we call “the great clothing swap” – which happens twice yearly, as the fall/winter clothes trade places with the spring/summer attire under the bed. Let’s hope I still fit into most of it…

(my personal photo –>)

What are you excited about on this fine Tuesday?

While my wallet says “whoa” my heart screams “yay!” because ladies and gentlemen, these peoples are so money it’s not even worth checking my bank statement.

My bestie, Meagan, and I met in high school.  We spent many a morning late for class due to my inability to relate to a clock.  But during those drives, classes skipped at the coffee shop, jaunts to the mall, and whatever else we did as teenagers (?), we became very close.  She’s one of those friends you can go weeks without talking to (which we do too often) and always pick up where we left off.  Since we both teach elementary school there’s an added bond.  Meg Rocks. She’s like a sister to me.  Which is why I wish I was there in person to celebrate her big 3-0 on the 8th.  I will make it to visit soon, though!!

My eldest niece, Eleanor, turned FIVE on the 9th.  Can we pause for a minute? When did that squishy little baby get to be so big?!  There will always be a huge place in my heart for her.  Eleanor rocks my world and always make me laugh.  Like when she called to wish Mike a happy birthday (they share a bday!), sang to him, and then said, “Now you sing to me!”  Aunt Vicki Cool Dude  loves her Little E.

I know when I married Mike we promised to help each other in sickness and health and all that good stuff. But lately he’s been such a rockstar I don’t even know how to express it.  While my head decides to dish out weird bouts of pain, Mike consoles me and takes care of me, without missing a beat.  I loved celebrating his birthday (once in March and again on April 9th), because he deserves so much.  I am so very lucky & so very in love.

[ enter picture of Vicki & Nicci taken in the future when

we attend a conference on blogging together]

Recently I met Nicci through the interweb words and our personalities clicked.  She’s crafty (visit her shop!), funny, nerdy, smart, and also wants to be a teacher! There are times when we can be found having a text, email, and tweet conversation all at the same time.  We’re that cool.  Fate decided the 12th needed to be a stressful day for her, instead of a fun birthday, so I hope this bday weekend is kinder to her!

So you see, April has some pretty stellar people born into it!

I’m so glad they are all a part of my lives and I get to celebrate their existence.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Meg, Eleanor, Mike & Nicci!!

Note: Vicki is no longer accepting friends or relatives with birthdays in April. Please apply for May or August, where the ratio of people’s births to dates is currently low.