mid-week randoms

*After mocking me for my Candy Crush obsession (seriously how the heck do you get past level 125), TLS downloaded the game the other day. Since then, he has not stopped playing it and keeps on asking me to send him lives and train tickets. It is so incredibly amusing to sit here and just watch him get all frustrated. Now it's my turn to mock finally!

*Monday I was supposed to have an appointment with my endocrinologist because I'm pretty much convinced that my thyroid meds are not working. I'm still tired all.the.time and have no energy at all. No amount of Coke Zero really seems to help with this. The endocrinologist at Landstuhl (American hospital on base) doesn't see dependents so I have to see a German doctor off base. I spoke with my primary care doctor about 2-3 weeks ago who assured me that as long as I still had appointments left on my referral, I would not have a problem with my insurance company. When I got to my appointment, I was told that since my referral expired in April, the doctor could not see me unless my insurance company would give her the authorization over the phone or by fax which they refused to do. I ended up having to cancel my appointment (which I had to make over a month in advance) and the earliest one I could get is at the end of July. The only available appointment is during the time T and I were supposed to go to London. I don't want to have to delay my appointment any more so now it looks our trip to London is getting pushed back to August. Sad face. I hate dealing with insurance company red tape.

*My vacation request for October was approved today and I will be back in the States from October 2nd-23rd. Finally!!! If you live in the NYC area and want to meet up, please let me know. I cannot wait! Of course I went straight to look at plane tickets, and they are up like $100 from the last time I checked. I will wait a little bit to book my flight and hope that prices come down. I need that extra money for Shake Shack and Starbucks and manicures!

*How gorgeous is this pearl necklace from Bellevue Newport?

It's on sale at their flash sale tonight at 8pm EST on their facebook page. I am trying my hardest to stay up to make sure I don't miss it. The time difference and my underachieving thyroid are not my friends right now.

*In a bit of Alzheimer's humor for you that's slightly related to today's rulings: my Nana has started introducing my mother to people as her wife. Whenever I talk to my mother now, I always ask her how her wife is doing now.


How is your week going so far?

Why I will never get a gel manicure again

If you follow me on instagram or twitter (@whaleflipflops on both), you have probably noticed that I love nail polish. Unfortunately, I am one of those girls whose nails just don't hold polish well and my manicures chip pretty easily. I end up changing nail polishes several times a week (partly due to chipping, and partly due to me not being able to ever make up my mind). I used to get gel manicures done in the States and stopped here partly because of the astronomical cost (I mean some places charge 19€+ for a regular manicure!!! talk about highway robbery) and partly because of how brittle my nails became after getting them done for a while. The other day, I was in Douglas (Germany's version of Sephora pretty much) wanting to get a manicure and I saw that they did gel manicures from Anny (a German nail polish brand that I love) for 20€. I was immediately drawn to the display with all of the pretty, shiny nail polishes. There were so many choices. It was like being in a candy store but without those pesky calories. I settled on Pink Party- a gorgeous shade, and sat down in the chair.

My nails looked fantastic. They were smooth, pretty, shiny, and the manicure was just amazing. After doing several loads of dishes by hand, a day of shipment at work, and a whole slew of other activities, my nails looked perfect. I was enthralled. I could not for the life of me remember why I stopped getting gel manicures. This was perfection. After about a week or so, I started to get really bored. This was the longest that my nails have remained the same color in quite some time, and quite frankly, I was bored with it. Given that I had plunked down 20€ (about $25-27 depending on the exchange rate) for something that the manicurist assured me would last for "up to 3 veeks," I wasn't about to take them off any sooner.

Today was about the 1.5-2 week mark. I have started getting new growth on my nail beds that is visible and to me just looks awkward. Of course you are your own biggest critic and I'm sure that if anyone else had seen my nails, no one would have seen anything wrong with them. Tonight, we got home from dinner, and I noticed that one of my gels was peeling at the corner. I peeled it off. Big mistake. I forgot how brittle and bad my nails look after it. A few of my nails peeled off easily, the other ones stayed put. I have some acetone nail polish remover that is meant for gel polish and is so strong it can pretty much strip the paint off your car. I tried soaking my nails in that. It hardly made a dent. I googled how to remove gel nail polish and found a tip that involved soaking a cotton pad in acetone, putting that on your nail, and wrapping your fingers in aluminum foil for 10 minutes. The only thing that successfully did was make me look like some alien swamp thing. The polish still wouldn't budge. At all. All of a sudden, I looked at my hands, and noticed that they were all blue. After a few moments of panic, I realized that some of the acetone had dripped onto my hands and when I grabbed the box of Reynolds Wrap, the blue dye from it transferred to my hands turning them blue. I ran to the bathroom and furiously scrubbed them for a few minutes. No luck. 

So to recap: I have blue palms and pink polish of 4.5 of my nails. I am not trying to attract a man on Pandora. Tomorrow I am headed back to Douglas to get them to take the polish off and get a real, non-gel manicure. I'm currently thinking #178- Cosmo from Dior.

picture from Polish Police

 And if I ever, ever, EVER try to convince myself that I want to get a gel manicure ever again, someone please smack me upside the head.

30 until 30

Yes, I'm back into blogging after falling off the bandwagon/taking a break for a bit. 

Today marks one month to go until my (welp) 30th (welp) birthday! I am so excited for it (I am one of those girls who celebrates her birthday for multiple weeks/times) but am also terrified of getting older but not necessarily wiser. 

I have started getting the "so what do you want?" questions from husband and family. This year, my wishlist is slightly pricey but as my mother says, you only turn 30 once. (Side note: I actually really hate that saying a lot. Does it mean that people turn an age like 14 or 37 multiple times? But oh well, whatever convinces her to buy me an iPad Mini or a Yurman ring.) 

Speaking of which:

iPad Mini- I have a 16GB iPad and while I love it, it has gotten a bit small and there is no way to upgrade the memory. Also, I bring my iPad most places, and it gets a bit heavy and bulky after a while. I love how thin and lightweight the Mini is and since I've been wanting to get a new iPad for more memory (I know, I know- white girl problems), it seems like a good time to get a lighter/more portable option as well.

This gorgeous ring from the Tiffany & Co. Ziegfeld Collection-

It's onyx and pearls and is simply stunning.

David Yurman- I have loved Yurman jewelry for as long as I can remember, and have wanted a piece for about as long. The jewelry has always been out of my price range and hard to justify, but a girl can dream right? Here are some of my favorites:

C. Wonder Seashell Pearl Stud Earrings-

I adore pearls and wear something with pearls in it pretty much daily. I think these earrings are such a cute and fun twist on a classic. Sadly C. Wonder doesn't ship to APO addresses (wah!) so I'm hoping that someone Stateside can procure these for me.


Kendra Scott Earrings Elle Earrings in Chalcedony-

Another item that I love and can't get shipped over here.

Tiffany & Co. bow pendant-

One I've had my eye on and is much more realistic than that ring! Also, bows make the world a better place.

Kate Spade Pave Skinny Mini Bow Bangle-

see above

One of these two wine glass options from Preppy Princess-

To hep nurture my newfound love of drinking on my patio.

And also this.

Obviously.

Jojo Loves You Sale

Have you heard about Jojo Loves You? It is an accessory company based in Brookline, MA that specializes in fun, colorful earrings called blings.

pictured in Capri Blue

If you want something with even more sparkle, they have Party Blings with Swarovski crystals around the border.

pictured in Mint

Pearl Party Blings- the ones I currently own and love!

Other options include Mini Blings and Mini Party Blings for when you don't want something as large

pictured in Lavender

pictured in Sapphire

Oval Blings and Navette Blings for when you want a slightly different shape:

pictured in Ireland Green

pictured in Flamingo

Now through Memorial Day, Jojo Loves you is doing their annual Memorial Day sale. Mini blings are 3 for $50 (normally $20 a pair) and regular Blings, Mini Party Blings, Party Blings, Oval, and Navette Blings are all 3 for $60 (normally $30 a pair for the regular Blings, $25 for the Mini Party Blings, $35 for the Party Blings, and $32 for the Oval and Navette Blings). This is an awesome time to stock up for parties, bridesmaid gifts, or just because gifts for friends (or yourself!)

This is a song for the broken hearted

Jon Bon Jovi played a concert tonight in Germany. I got tickets to go. Free ones. I couldn't go. This is how I feel right now.

If I could sum up my entire college extracurricular life in music, it would all be Bon Jovi and Kelly Clarkson. I can't even tell you how many nights I spent at roughly 2am singing "Livin' on a Prayer" into a beer bottle. Plenty.

I got word a few days ago that Bon Jovi was playing a concert tonight in Munich. The band or the man himself donated some tickets to the USO and word spread that they had 250 free pairs tickets to give away. Through my spouses' group I was able to get one of them. I found out late Wednesday night (at like 11pm) that I had procured said tickets. The concert was tonight at 6. For the next few days, all I could really articulate was Bon Jovi this and Bon Jovi that. I had wanted to see the man in concert for as long as I remember, and now I had the tickets in my hand to do so. Free ones!!!

In case you are nearly as lousy at geography as I am, Munich is about a 4-5 hour drive from our house. The question became of how to get to said concert. TLS didn't want to drive it all in one day so we would have to get a hotel room. Of course, by this point, anything near the Olympic Stadium was either completely booked or insanely expensive. Way more than the face value of my tickets. "Fine then, we'll take the train" I said. It turned out I had two options for the train- one that cost only 42€ and would take around 7 hours and involve 5 connections on slow, regional trains to get there, or one that cost well over 100€ and would get me there in 4.5 hours. 

Given that we are going to Luxembourg City next week for our anniversary, and that T is heading back to the States sometime next weekend, it slowly became clearer that there was no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I was going to be standing on a field belting "It's My Life" surrounded by Jon and several thousand screaming Germans. 

I don't handle rejection well. I started going through some sort of the stages of grief. (I mean, I would be ok with not going if we physically couldn't get tickets to go, but did I mention that there are two tickets to the concert sitting in an envelope on top of my hallway table.) I tried bargaining (well can we go to Munich and just forgo our anniversary? Husband loved that one!), pouting (not terribly proud of this, but if we're being honest here), complaining (A LOT of complaining). Eventually, I had to put on my big girl snowman pajama pants and accept that I was just not going. This was going to cost us way too much money and was too difficult to plan on such short notice. 

Thank goodness that there was a Dunkin Donuts sale on base today. The Great Gatsby in 3D, a Boston Cream donut, and a new nail polish have been almost enough to cheer me up today. That and pricing out tickets to some of his other shows on the European tour. I mean, it's totally feasible to fly to Norway for the night?

Can I just take a moment to say?

How much I love this dress?

Factory Seersucker Ruffle V-Neck Dress from J. Crew Factory

I have been looking for a cute seersucker dress that doesn't break the bank for a while now. I've found a few cute dresses but am not ready to pull the $200+ trigger quite yet. I was looking on the J. Crew Factory site today and when I saw this, I pretty much squealed. I have a cocktail dress from J. Crew in a similar silhouette that I love, and the price tag on this one is great (regularly $98- on sale at the moment for $59.50 for being a new arrival). I think this may be my first weight loss incentive dress.

And while we're talking about J. Crew Factory, can I just say that I am so very glad that they are making the Critter Flip Flops again? I missed these from J. Crew so much and have pretty much worn all of mine to the ground so I am happy to see that Factory is making them again.

Is there anything you are looking forward to getting from J. Crew Factory?

Don't forget to use ebates to get 3.0% cash back!

Sunday Social

Linking up this week with Neely for Sunday Social.

1) What is your shopping weakness?

I'm not sure if it is limited to any one store, but I would have to say any lip balm/gloss/chapstick type product. I am a total lip product junkie and at any given moment will have anywhere between 5-10 (I'm not even kidding here!) lip products in my purse.

My other love is Polish pottery. My pattern is Floral Peacock. I want to get a full set of dinnerware in that pattern and some serving pieces. I have a few plates and bowls in other patterns also to mix and match. I'm hoping to find some good deals when I am in Poland next week.

2) What is your food weakness?
That one's easy.

I could pretty much eat sushi every single day if money was no object and not get sick of it. There are days when T will ask me what I want to do for dinner, and I just give him the look that says "why even bother asking?"

3) What is your go-to movie to watch when nothing is on?

4) What is your go-to breakfast food?

Ummm. Does this count as a breakfast food?

In all seriousness, I am not much of a breakfast food person. For religious reasons, I can't eat most breakfast meats (I don't eat pork and when you go out, it's not like you can find turkey bacon in a lot of places), and I don't eat eggs at all (they trigger my gag reflex). I love pancakes and hash browns (especially with melted cheese on top!) but it's not like that is exactly a healthy breakfast that you can have every day. My breakfasts usually consist of a can of Coke Zero, pancakes or home fries if I'm out, some fruit, a granola bar, or whatever else I can find lying around. (I know, I know. A dietician would have a field day with this.) When we travel, I love hotel breakfasts that have smoked salmon in the buffets.

5) Do you drink coffee? If so, how do you take it?

I take my coffee white- 3 gallons of milk, 2 pounds of sugar. Whatever room is left in the cup- you can go ahead and put coffee in that. The guy who owned the coffee kiosk near my old job in New York used to charge me $0.75 for a $1 cup of coffee. And believe me when I say that it was not because of my winning personality.

Early into our relationship, TLS and I were in Chicago and took the train to the Museum of Science and Industry for the Harry Potter exhibit. We grabbed coffees to go from our hotel and I explained to him that I like my coffee sweet. He said he understood me. And then looked on in horror as I proceeded to put 7 packets of sugar into a small cup of coffee that already had flavored creamer in it. (Have I mentioned that a dietician would pretty much have a field day with me?)

This is part of the reason why I love Starbucks drinks so much- after all of the syrups and creamers and whipped cream and chocolate drizzle and chocolate shavings and whatever else it is that they manage to possibly stick in that cup, there's very little coffee taste left.