Dustin Says

I'm not trying to brag but our flag football team won the Potato Bowl and I was the quarterback.

On her hair...
Katy Perry said "Give me the Macaulay Culkin!"

You're just like Taylor Swift. You both are just too nice to be mean.

I just saw you set that alarm for 6:30 AM on a Saturday and I almost threw up.

Dustin: ...everywhere to me.
Me: Ok Michelle Branch.
Dustin: Shut up. I'm Vanessa Carlton.

Your new (hair) bun looks like a fist.

Bridal Shower

Last Thursday all the ladies from my work met up down the street at Spill. We've all driven past this place but none of us had actually ever been inside. It is the cutest little wine bar. I'm not a wine person or an alcohol person but I can totally appreciate the atmosphere it had. Of course Jessica and co. had already decorated by the time we arrived. There was a little present table and a cute little hors devours table. Everyone got their wine on except for me and my pregnant co-worker friend. We got whatever the virgin drink is. It still was fancy as fuck and tasted delish - just without the alcohol. Score!

Ed brought Antonia to Spill and we got to watch them walk up together hang in hand. When they walked in the door she immediately started to cry and it was just the cutest. I was so happy we pulled the surprise off. For months this has been in the works and the original day was supposed to be the Thursday after Irma. We postponed it a week and it went off without a hitch! I don't know how many times I almost spilled the beans. Thankfully I didn't!

Antonia got all dressed up in her sash and crown with attached veil. Someone put a drink in her hand and she made the rounds. When she made her way to me we talked about the surprise and how we all almost ruined it at one time or another. Then I asked Jessica "When does she get to open the presents?" and Antonia's face lit up in the cutest way and she said "There are presents?!". DUH girl. We hooked you up. My department all chipped in for a crockpot that was on their registry, She's already used it! She's a hell of a cook so I knew she would get so much use out of it. She got a bunch of other things from her registry and a lot of other fun personalized gifts that were complete surprises. 

I stood next to her mother the whole time she opened her gifts and was dying laughing. Her mother is hilarious and the sweetest ever. So is her dad. I asked Antonia if they would consider adopting me. I have an Italian last name too!  I mean, I married in to it but still! And glasses! And I'm a brunette! I'll fit right in! HA! 

The whole night was non-stop laughter. It was so nice to just let loose and have fun with all of my awesome co-workers. That hurricane really had us stressed and working overtime (literally) so it was a nice breather. Most importantly we got to celebrate Ed and Antonia whom we all just adore. Not only are they each awesome individually but they make one hell of a couple. Dustin and I love getting together with them and shooting the shit. 

Their wedding is a month from Thursday and I cannot wait. I mean, I don't have anything to wear just yet but I'm going no matter what. I will be there in pajamas if I have to. There really is no more deserving couple than the two of them. 

The countdown is on!

 

Do You 10Q?

Do You 10Q?

I've been participating in this since 2010. I couldn't tell you how I heard about it but every year I continue to enjoy it. The concept is incredibly simple. Each year on the eve of Rosh Hashanah you receive an email linking you to the questions you answered the previous year OR if it's your first time then questions are open for you to get in on the fun. You get to reflect on last year's answers while writing this year's answers. The questions remain the same year after year but it's interesting to see how your answers change. Around Yom Kippur all of your answers go into a vault for a year. Although the whole thing is centered around Jewish holidays and traditions the questions are not religious and you don't have to be of that faith to participate. As you know, I'm not religious and I find it to be a wonderful exercise.

Here are some of my answers from last year that I don't mind sharing. I love how you can answer each question any way you choose. There is no right or wrong answer. Their slogan is "Reflect. React. Renew." and that's exactly what I do. I read each answer and really take it in and process it. I think it's a wonderful form of self-care, at least for me. I know this kind of stuff isn't for everyone but if you are even slightly curious I suggest you give it a shot. There are currently 5 days left to participate until the vault closes.

Found

100 Women 2016: Parents who regret having children

Westeros Olympic Games

Best Places In Orlando For A Selfie

Logic's Hit Song Is Driving People To The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in Record Numbers

Coming Out As An Atheist

The Most Beautiful Public High School In Every State in America

Women's Resistance Revival Chorus

Perfect

Isle of Dogs

The worst decision you can ever make is to have a child, according to science

Cat Dresses Up Like Taylor Swift

Religious Children Are Meaner Than Their Secular Counterparts, Study Finds

These seniors and their school IDs are comedy gold.

35 Dog Bios

James Corden Works at Old Navy

Bigger tinted lass issues.

Having a baby vs. having a cat. (Cat for the win. Sorry babes.)

hurriPAIN(in my ass) Irma

Irma Irma Irma. 

Where do I even start? I guess I'll start with Hurricane Harvey. I didn't even know about it until it was almost on top of Houston. I'm not sure how this one snuck up on me because I pay attention to the news. I'm pretty sure a co-worker mentioned it and I immediately texted my boo Erin who lives in Dallas. She said they weren't really expected to be impacted too much. I was, of course, thankful she was ok but when the images and video of the severe flooding in Houston hit the internet my heart just sank for them. There were stranded people and animals, highways were completely submerged, and people were driving boats instead of cars through neighborhoods. It was one of the most devastating hurricanes of my time. Hell, of all time. 

Not even a week later I started getting wind of Irma. She was out there churning in the Atlantic and growing stronger and stronger each hour and eventually became the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic. She became a Cat 5 and for days meteorologists thought she'd hit Florida as a Cat 4. I've lived in Florida my entire life. I've been through a dozen or more hurricanes; Charley being the worst I had ever experienced in 2004 and he was only a 3 when he hit central Florida. Dustin and I discussed very seriously packing up the cats and getting the hell out of the state. The problem was the track kept shifting. It was going up the middle of the state and then the east and then the west. Finally we got word it would only be a 2 when it hit us which calmed my nerves a bit and was the deciding factor to stay put. 

Dustin and I started getting prepared a week in advance. We got our water and canned goods and put in a flashlight and battery order in via Amazon Prime. Thankfully we got all of the necessities before the shelves in the stores went empty. I'm not even exaggerating. By Wednesday of last week there was literally no bread, water, milk, batteries, or canned food on the shelves of Publix or Target or Walmart, etc. For me, it was a sign people were actually taking Irma seriously, as they should. I made sure to fill up my gas and thankfully didn't have to wait in one of those crazy lines just to realize the pump is out of gas. 

My work closed early on Friday to prepare for the storm and let employees make any last minute preparations of their own. I used this time to clean and straighten up our garage. I could not decide what to do with my car. I kept going back and forth between putting it in our garage in between two giant trees OR parking it in an overflow area where it would be out in the open but away from the trees. I asked everyone I knew and the response was completely split. I finally decided on the garage. I stacked up Dustin's drums and moved a bunch of empty cardboard boxes and for the first time in 4 years I actually used the garage for it's intended purpose - storing a fucking car. How about that!

Saturday morning Dustin cooked us a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I would have been looking forward to going out to dinner and going to see Paramore that night but they cancelled the show earlier in the week. They rescheduled for sometime in December but still I was super bummed. I had been looking forward to seeing them again especially since their latest CD is pure FIRE. But instead of getting ready for the show I was filled with anxiety of the impending hurricane. By Saturday afternoon we started to get the very first of the rain and the wind definitely picked up. We went outside for a little bit while it was still light out. 

Later that night we stuffed our faces with pizza rolls and chips and twizzlers. There's nothing like a hurricane to make you stress eat. The cats laid next to me on the bed into the evening. Olive fell asleep but Cheeto was not a fan of the noisy wind. We watched the news until 9:45pm and every time they said there was a tornado warning in our area the four of us went into the closet. Both Olive and Cheeto were good sports although they would just stare at the doorknob the entire time we were inside. We lost cable just before 10pm so we had to turn on our battery powered radio. (Good thinking with that purchase Dustin!) We also were able to check the status of the storm on our phones. The wind and rain were beating down on the house and Cheeto hunkered down in his own way by crawling to the head of the bed and curling into a little ball. We could hear something hitting our house over and over. The howling of the wind continued in force and I went into the closet at the height of the storm, eventually falling asleep. Dustin ended up staying awake until 4am. When I woke up around 6ish on the floor of our closet the power was off. I stumbled into the living room and peeked out of the sliding glass window but it was still too dark to see any damage so I decided to eat a pop tart in the glow of a flash light with two cats watching my every move. I anxiously looked at my phone for news about everything. About the storm itself. About everyone's safety. About the damage. 

I ended up waking Dustin because I didn't want to go outside alone. I was so nervous of what we might find. Dustin woke up cranky. He had barely been asleep a few hours so it was understandable. He walked outside with me and we surveyed the property. We were missing siding from the side of our house, several shingles had come off and were scattered all over the lawn, and part of the fence in the backyard was down. Thankfully we didn't have any major damage. There were tree limbs and debris everywhere but both trees made it! We went back inside and Dustin fell back asleep. Cheeto joined him. Clearly the boys were exhausted from the stress of the night before. I let them sleep and started to put our house back together. 

The thing is, I do not play. When science is telling me that a huge destructive storm is heading my way then I am going to take all precautions. Also, Harvey was fresh in my mind. I packed both Dustin and I backpacks (literally our Jansports from high school) full of essentials (a couple outfits, important documents inside a plastic bag, toiletries, meds, first aid kit, external hard drives, and back up (full charged) chargers. These backpacks were just incase things got really bad and we had to bolt. We also brought both cat carriers in our bedroom so it would be easier to wrangle the kids. I moved all of the bottom half of our closet out and threw in blankets, pillows, flashlights, and extra batteries. I also filled a big plastic container with my iMac, yearbooks, and other random things that I couldn't or would prefer not to replace. Thankfully I wasn't too concerned about photos because every single photo I have is up on my Flickr. I highly recommend backing up photos on an external hard drive and/or some kind of website so in the event the originals are destroyed your memories will still live on. So yeah, I had to put the house back together and it took all damn morning. It took way longer than it normally would have because I had to keep stopping to cool off because it was beginning to get pretty uncomfortable. Dustin woke up later on and since the Seminole County curfew had been lifted we decided to drive through our neighborhood a bit and to Dustin's work which isn't far to check on how everything made out. On our way we saw a few big trees down, tons of fence panels blown out, signs dangling on their posts or completely gone. A lot of street lights were out which was fun treating everything like a 4-way stop. People really have a problem with this concept. EYE ROLL. McDonald's had a line wrapped around the building and down the damn street. Didn't you people stock up on food?? There was one gas station open but other than that nearly all businesses were closed. Near Dustin's work we saw a turtle in the middle of the road. I told Dustin to stop so I could move him. He made me put on gloves first and then I picked up the fast little turd and moved him to a grassy area. 

We came back home and the boredom and heat really started to set in. I started my 1,000 piece Harry Potter puzzle and Olive thought it was the greatest toy there ever was. She tried to eat the pieces. She swatted at them. She laid on my progress. The darkness was hard. I still tried to continue with the puzzle while we both listened to the radio. When we couldn't take the hot and humid air anymore we'd go out to my car and blast the a/c.

Dustin went back to work on Tuesday but I was still off because our building didn't have power. I cleaned out our fridge. And by "cleaned out" I literally threw out every food item except water. All of condiments, meats, cheeses, fruit, yogurt - GONE. It was annoying and hard to do in the heat. I took a nice cold shower with two flashlights propped up on the counter. I'm pretty much used to showering blind (sans glasses) so that part really wasn't much different. Instead of sit in our sweat box of a home I decided to venture out. I went and got some lunch at Subway. Then I headed to the mall. My plan was to waste time there before my movie started except the theater was closed so there went that idea. I walked around the mall but it looked more like an airport. There were groups of people huddled around every outlet. There were people that weren't tired of shopping but trying to soak up the a/c. After I had looked at everything there was to look at I headed to Target in Casselberry. I walked in and the lights were flickering. A young employee told me the second I stepped foot inside "We're out of batteries, flashlights, fans, etc. and we're cash only." Also even though they kind of had power it was hot as hell so clearly the a/c had not had enough time to cool the building down. I smiled thanked her and turned right back around. Since I had all of the time in the world I headed over to Target in Lake Mary. It was a completely different scene. They had full power and the store was nice and cool. Sure they were out of pretty much every food item but overall it was a pretty normal experience. I went home and continued to work on my puzzle until Dustin came home. 

We then went out to eat and took our sweet ass time. We also couldn't take any leftovers because we didn't have a fridge or microwave so we just ate as much as we could. As we left the restaurant we ventured over to Bed, Bath & Beyond. On our way there I noticed a kitten by the curb in the parking lot so I threw my car into park and jumped out without even thinking. I walked slowly over to him and he looked at me for a second and then disappeared into a very thick bush. Dustin and I looked for him for a good 10 minutes but he must have found one hell of a hiding spot. I was in flip flops and must have stepped right into an ant pile because those little suckers were biting up my toes. It was then that we decided to call it quits. I was bummed because I really wanted to help the little guy. I figured he must be hungry but I guess if he can make it through a hurricane he can make it on his own. It still sucked to drive away. 

We asked the Bed, Bath, & Beyond associate where we could find fans. She pointed us to the back of the store where tons of varying sizes of fans blew the coolest of air. The problem is they all needed electricity. Do battery powered fans even exist?! We were not having luck on anything so we just went home and hung out in the car in the parking lot with the air on. Neither one of us were looking forward to going to sleep as it was miserable. The air was as thick as butter and honestly it was hard to breathe. I'm sure some of that feeling was thanks to my anxiety. I laid there on top pf the covers in nothing but underwear and a sports bra incredibly uncomfortable. Dustin lay next to me with heavy sighs. I miraculously fell asleep but I tossed and turned all night. I ended up waking around 5ish and just decided to get up and play around on my phone. You know that feeling where you wake up and you have an hour more of sleep and you get so excited? Yeah, that didn't happen. I was excited to be awake because it meant I would soon be out of the house and in the a/c. That's the theme of this blog post. I should just re-title it 'AIR CONDITIONING AND ITS IMPORTANCE'. I left the house way earlier than usual and stopped at Wawa. I got to work an hour early and was excited about it! Sure, I still had wet hair and looked a mess but air conditioning was calling my name. 

Just as I had been excited about getting to work I was sad to leave. Leaving would mean having to go home and I didn't want to. It was the first time ever in my adult life I didn't have any desire to go home which really pissed me off because I'm a homebody through and through. I love seeing Dustin and the kittiots and being in our space together. The minute I got home Dustin and I loaded up the cats into their crates and brought them into the car. Now they did live outside so I'm sure they were doing fine in our miserably hot house but we still wanted to cool them off. The problem was they thought we were going to the vet so they couldn't really relax. After we put them back inside we ended up leaving to go out for dinner. Once again, we took our sweet ass time. Chilis had a limited menu but neither of us cared. Dustin watched a Destiny video while I caught up on who knows what on my phone. Then we walked around Academy Sports and Ross just to kill the time. We ended up going to Jeremiah's next because, ice cream, DUH. Also, another time killer! We got home after dark and spent some time inside listening to the radio and working on my puzzle before going outside. It was another miserable night sleep and I woke up early yet again. 

By this time I was feeling very overwhelmed. I had been experiencing break-through anxiety (anxiety that comes out even when you're on daily medication for it) . Not only that but I was exhausted physically and mentally. I am a person who craves routine and not knowing when we'd have power again stressed me out something fierce. It goes without saying that we came out of this lucky. I know that. We still have each other. We still have a roof over our heads. But it doesn't mean we can't be frustrated over the disruption in our lives. Thankfully it was just that - a temporary inconvenience. I am truly grateful. 

When we came home Thursday from work we saw the light on ON OUR HOUSE. I honestly wasn't sure if it was real. This is a practical joke right? We both walked inside and the a/c was running and the light in the kitchen was on. We were back. I was so overwhelmed with emotion. I was smiling in disbelief and then I hugged Dustin and started to cry. What a fucking week. 

We went out to dinner yet again. We had power but we didn't have anything in our fridge and we were both over PB&J and spaghettios. The first thing our waiter asked when we sat down was if we had power. We both said "YES!" and he put up both his hands and Dustin and I simultaneously high fives him. It was just a cool moment. Yes, we all have our own families, our own little bubbles, but we were truly all in this together. Some had it bad and others had it worse but we all have this shared experience. 

Four days without power. 

Eight days without internet and cable. 

This hurricane experience was very reminiscent of Charley. Back then I was still living with my mom and we were without power for a week. I was out of work/school for that long as well. But I remember staying with friends who did have power so it felt more manageable mentally. This is my first major hurricane on my own and although we did just fine it was a struggle at times. 

The thing I hate about these events and tragedies is all the 'PRAY for INSERT CITY HERE' memes that start popping up. To me it's selfish. People post them just to show their friends list how "caring" they are. They post them to say "Hey I watched the news!". I appreciate what those memes are supposed to stand for. I get that it's a form of unity and support but as an atheist prayer doesn't mean shit to me. I know it means a lot to others and to each his own. Truly. But to me actions speak louder than words and prayers are just words. If you truly cared about people affected by this tragedy you would ACT. Offer someone a place to stay. Take someone a warm meal. Bring someone a bag of ice. Help someone pick up debris. Donate to a reputable charity. The list goes on and on. Posting a meme on the internet that you've prayed just doesn't cut it for me and especially the people that truly need actual help. Central Florida got hit hard but the Keys got slammed. Also, don't forget about all of the islands that got hit before Irma even reached us. Please donate and if you can't financially help, please find another way to DO. Act. Give. 

Hurricane Irma Charity Navigator

Julio Melendez

Hurricane Harvey Charity Navigator

JJ Watt's Houston Flood Relief Fund

art by: Gina Fote