Life Lately + Head Trauma

Posted on July 17, 2015 by vbvicwc

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. – Ferris Bueller

SO FREAKING TRUE. While we haven’t done anything monumental lately, we have had some really awesome weekends, and the more I forget to share, the faster the time seems to go.

Let’s start out by categorizing what’s been going on with our life lately!

Wedding Planning

I. AM. SO. EXCITED!!!! This is the stage where I’m the most comfortable being at when I’m planning anything. It’s the anticipatory, to-do lists, breathable, productive, I’m-going-to-conquer-the-world stage and I’m loving it.

Obviously, the beginning was ROUGH. Like, beyond rough. Like crying every day for a month rough. Once we set that date, it was a ticking time bomb strapped to my back. Looking back, it was a combination of everything in the world that overwhelms me, hitting me all at once.

Ginormous price tags? Check.
Guilt beyond belief at my parents paying? Check.
The idea of being married when I had never wanted that? Check.
Decisions that I never thought I would ever need to make and try to make them with someone who doesn’t like making decisions? Check.
Planning a major event from a different state for a reason that I never had wanted before? Check!

One of the main problems was that Timmy and I do not approach decision-making in the same way. In fact, we’re complete opposites. I’m a snap decision-maker. I don’t like to over-analyze anything and I just want to move on and get shit done. Timmy becomes paralyzed. He gets frustrated easily when it’s time to decide, and then he will just stonewall until he feels he’s had enough time (usually about 10,000 times longer than I’m okay with). This does not make for smooth decision making and it’s been an issue for a long time in our relationship in general.

But we sat down, hashed it out, and now we’re excellent. Timmy and I finally found a groove to wedding planning. I’ll do some research here and there and compile some ideas and send it to him, and then 2-3 weeks later, we’ll basically knock out like 3-5 decisions in one day. And I’ve had time to digest the fact that my parents WANT to do this for us and I can accept it now.

We have just under a year until we get married. This is what we’ve done so far:

wedding coordinator hired
date and time chosen
venue chosen
guest list almost complete
photographer chosen and engagement pictures printed
caterer, food options, baker, and design chosen
band chosen
alcohol package chosen
wedding website nearly complete
invitations printed
registries complete
save the dates designed
rehearsal dinner space booked
wedding dress and bridal party and outfits selected
bachelor/bachelorette party scheduled

I told you, I don’t mess around when it comes to planning. I want as much done now so that we can just pretty much coast up until the wedding. We have about 4 things on the docket that should be complete in the next few weeks, so as that to-do list gets done, I get happier and more and more excited to marry my partner.

Travels and Visits

The first weekend of June, I traveled to NY to celebrate my best friend Denise’s daughter’s baptism. Seeing as how I hadn’t met the little lady since she was inside her mom’s uterus, I thought it would be a great time to meet her and chill out with my besties. This trip, I didn’t even step inside Manhattan, which was a nice change of pace. It always feels like the city is trying to run me over when I visit because I try to fit so much into one weekend, and this time, we just stayed in the suburbs and enjoyed beautiful weather with family and friends.

Not going to lie, their apartment does not absorb sound well, so in addition to little Mary’s screams, I also was privy to the fighting Puerto Rican family below them, and good god, getting 4 hours of sleep is just not okay.

A few weekends later, my good friend from grad school, Alex, came down for a half week of relaxation and fun. This woman, god I love her. She’s amazing. Strong, driven, intelligent, and with a heart as big as the sun. I admire her in so many ways, and it’s always such a nice calming feeling to be around her. She pretty much came down to escape a little drama in her life in Atlanta, so we ate well, beached it, had a boat day with my old work colleague Leila and her husband, and just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

fun with Tia Victoria

starting them young on the Stuart Weitzmans!

this little lady…

boat day!

Leila and I

Alex comes to visit!

Pride Weekend

It’s really really fun living in monumental moments. Timmy had made the trek to St. Pete a few weekends in a row, and so Pride weekend (the last weekend in June) was supposed to be my weekend in Orlando. But then the Supreme Court upheld marriage equality Friday morning, and because Timmy is the most amazing person ever, he decided to come to St. Pete to help me volunteer and experience what a major civil rights victory feels like.

This year, I’ve been trying to volunteer more around my community, and Pride felt like another perfect moment to help out. I volunteered earlier in the week for the Stonewall Reception and got to meet the mayor of St. Pete. We volunteered together at a concert with someone from Glee (no clue, but holy cow they could sing!), and then we made it out to the nighttime Pride parade on Saturday night. Of course, Timmy is the greatest flirter in the world (which I warned him about), so he won the bead war. Hey, it’s not my fault most of the floats were men and Timmy was practically throwing himself at them!

Slut.

But all in all, it was pretty much the perfect weekend, and I can’t wait for next year! 🙂

Stonewall Reception

volunteering at Pride

nighttime Pride Parade

yes, this is on a float

Destin and 4th of July

UGGGGHHHH, this trip was no bueno for me. It seems like every time I’ve been to Destin, it ends in E.R. visits (which is actually the case for Timmy. He and his friends really have never been able to finish a trip to Destin without visiting a medical professional). They actually still had my information on file from the last time, like 5 years ago, when I jumped in the water and stepped on some barnacles which tore the sole of my foot up.

This time, it started out great. Magda and Corey, who so generously donated the BOTE board for our “30 Years, 1 Wish” party, invited us to stay in their renovated, white, shiny new home. Their house is super gorgeous and seems to be the perfect party pad. I’m not a huge alcohol drinker, so I knew I would have to psych myself up to hang out with this crew who have livers of steel. Not that I went overboard, but I definitely had to pace myself to get through the day drinking part (which for those of you who know me well, is NOT a strength of mine).

Friday, they had a get-together at their house where people just drove their boats up or paddled up on their boards (which is the greatest way of life, let me tell you) and we all hung out in the sun by their pool. Saturday started out much like Friday. The sun burning our eyes out (they hadn’t put up drapes yet), children crying, that sort of thing. But we were heading out to Crab Island, so I was excited to have a really awesome day.

The only photo I got of the weekend.

We made it out there, anchored the boat, played a frisbee game, met people, it was great! BOTE is constantly trying out new designs, and this weekend they were trying out a prototype for a wake surfing paddleboard. It’s smaller than a regular paddleboard, and way less stable. I tried it out a few times, was able to get the hang of it, and even tried (and failed) to do a little yoga on it.

But then, it all went downhill.

Here’s where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I remember talking with Timmy, facing their boat, and then all of the sudden I heard, “Look out!” and then BAM, the paddleboard came crashing down on the back of my head. If you’ve ever been hurt by something that’s also taken you by complete surprise, you understand the feeling. It was horrendous.

After that, I remember things in bits and pieces. I remember being brought on someone else’s boat to ice my head, I remember feeling really sleepy and just wanting to rest my eyes, and then I remember being at the E.R. with a brace around my neck, going in for a CT scan. I couldn’t remember who the president was at first (which made me cry because I was so scared).

Timmy was by my side the whole time. He was my rock, calming me down when I started to freak out, asking all the right questions, and helping me with insurance and confusing payments. In short, he was incredible.

The following week, I had some nausea, trouble sleeping, headaches, and general confusion. I had a lot of trouble getting words out, and am still kind of struggling here and there with speaking smoothly and quickly but in general, I’m completely back to normal. Timmy hated it but loved it because he eventually said, “I finally feel smarter than you!”

Slut.

After that, I felt good enough to have another St. Pete weekend (the last one in a while, since it’ll be my turn to visit Orlando multiple weekends in a row. It’s only fair). We had a really good time at the Rays game last Saturday night for an Emory alumni event, which I may or may not have outed him to everyone as a non-alum. As though his Auburn hat didn’t give him away. We had a delicious dinner at our new favorite place, Brick and Mortar, met a couple and talked with them the entire night. Sunday, we had lunch at Locale Market (an incredible, jaw-dropping place) and saw Jurassic World (which pretty much sucked. We were uber disappointed), and had ourselves a delightful weekend together.

Emory Alumni event, Tampa Bay Rays game

Timmy, the non-alum

on the field!

sunsetssssssssssss

the wine list at Brick & Mortar is top notch

the St. Petersburger at Locale

The weekends are getting harder and harder when it comes time to say goodbye. We may be seeing an end in sight as we try to figure out Timmy’s job and what moving will look like. We’re not there yet, but we’re definitely having the talks.

Life is so funny. As I’ve been going through the summer, I haven’t really felt like what we’ve been up to has been that interesting to share. I haven’t been taking as many photos, I’ve really been trying to be IN the moment. But now that I’ve finished writing this post, damn, we are busy people. I love our life.

♥, VB

Italy Day 3: Reggio Emilia and Modena

Posted on November 10, 2014 by vbvicwc

When I originally planned out our trip, I had cities to visit every single day. Once we landed, the fatigue from flying, the semester, my certification program, everything, came crashing down on me so I asked Timmy if Friday, would he rather wake up a bit later, tour our village, maybe go to Siena, and in general, really relax? Of course his answer was yes.

So that changed our other traveling days a little bit. The ambitious nature in me thought we could do 3 cities in one day. Why not? They were all located in a straight line, nearly 30-45 minutes away from each other, and all we had to do was start at the farthest city and then stop by each one on our way home.

Yeah that didn’t happen. Sleep happened.

So we shortened our plans (which it turned out we didn’t shorten them enough), and headed to Reggio Emilia, home of parmigiano reggiano.

(Everytime I say or write that, I immediately think of Giada DeLaurentis and her over-exaggerated way of pronouncing Italian words. Love it.)

This trip was not well-timed. In addition to leaving the house late, we arrived in Reggio Emilia, a super cute, tiny little town during the Italian version of siesta. Everything was closed. No one was out. We suck.

But hey, we drove almost 2.5 hours to the Emilia-Romagna region, so we decided just to make the best of it and take a stroll around the town. And it was adorable.

Piazza Prampolini

Palazzo del Monte in Piazza del Duomo

So tiny and so different from the Tuscan mountain cities we had seen up until now. We left Reggio Emilia and headed about 45 minutes east to Modena, home of the greatest balsamic vinegar in the world. The original plan was to visit a balsamic vinegar company for a tour and tastings, but they never responded confirming our tour, and besides, the whole day was off from the moment we woke up.

Modena was such a surprise to us; we loved it. I made the mistake of driving into the historical part of the city, and tried for a good 10 minutes to parallel park our little Fiat, only to realize that we were probably going to get ticketed for even bringing our car there (since there are cameras on the perimeter of the historical section). Silly tourists.

This town…wow. It was gorgeous. We walked and walked and walked some more as the town woke up from siesta and came alive. We were there until the sun set, and it was definitely worth it.

Torre della Ghirlandina

Tim smart…indeed

Modena Cathedral

City Hall and Piazza Grande

We tried to hit Bologna, home of bolognese sauce (which is undoubtedly my favorite thing ever), but it was dark, we were tired, hungry, and the traffic, oh the traffic! It took us an hour to get into the city, a city maybe the size of Athens, GA. We tried forever to find parking only to find that the one spot we pulled into was about 3 miles away from the restaurant we wanted to eat at. I was DONE. Enough driving, enough walking, enough tourist-ing (not a word). Plus, thanks to Daylight Saving, it was completely dark so we couldn’t really see anything in the first place. Bummer, but one day, we’ll come back and plan better.

Our next day was Florence, and that my friends, was a super successful trip. Stay tuned.

♥, VB

Italy Day Two: Perugia and Cortona

Posted on November 6, 2014 by vbvicwc

Before I forget, I was notified by one of my friends last week that although our Italian selfies were lovely, she wanted more food posts. Those pictures we only took on the nice camera, so let me share with you our first meal in Tuscany. Once we got to our villa after leaving Rome and unloaded everything Saturday night, we made our way 2 km up the mountain to what will probably be one of our favorite places on earth for the rest of our lives.

Ristorante Malborghetto was a haven of unreal food, wine, and people. We were already signed up to take a cooking class there on Thursday morning, and we definitely came back for another dinner that week; we just couldn’t stay away. Truffles were everywhere, handmade pasta, the sauces, the meat, the cheese…where was I again? Oh yeah, so we ate dinner, filled ourselves with an amazing Chianti, and then went back and COMPLETELY PASSED OUT into a delightful sleepy bliss.

Happy accidents can make for the best memories. After struggling to get up on Sunday morning (which also contained a nice Daylight Savings time switch, so that was fun), we made our way by car to the train station in Montevarchi about 30 minutes away only to find out that we had missed the train. A combination of Timmy getting up too late and me reading the incorrect time on the printout wasn’t the greatest start to the day.

So we sucked it up and decided to drive 1.5 hours to Perugia in order to enjoy the 2014 Eurochocolate Festival. Yes, that says Eurochocolate. I unknowingly planned our week vacation to coincide with the final day of the week-long Eurochocolate festival, and you better believe that was one of the first things I added to our agenda when I found that out.

On our way through winding Tuscan roads to the Umbria region, we spotted a few things that made us wonder if we were imagining things. On the side of the road (and keep in mind we’re talking RURAL roads…early on a Sunday morning), not once but twice, we saw hookers.

Hookers. Hooking. On a Sunday morning in the middle of Tuscany.

So yeah, that happened.

Anyways, we got to Perugia, which happens to be one of the best preserved medieval cities in Italy, parked, and made our way to the mini-train to go up the mountain. The mini-train was freaking adorable, and felt like we were on a ride at Disney, making our way up the side of a mountain to the town.

We arrived, and HOLY CRAP. The views were unbelievable.

Perugia in panorama

Unreal. We walked around the town, trying to control our anxiety through MASSIVE crowds, bought a few chocolate goodies, and loved the town all-around.

We found our way back to the car and on our way home, we saw that Cortona was just a short drive away. So we decided, why the hell not? It wasn’t on our original plans, but we made it happen anyway. A good college friend of Timmy’s got married in Cortona last year, and we weren’t able to make it. We wanted to, but after having moved to Florida and starting new jobs, it wasn’t in the budget. And now, after having visited this town (during a sunset no less, which definitely didn’t suck), we can see why they chose this magical place to marry.

Side note: there was a sweet little cafe in one of the main piazzas that cracked me up and I had to share with you (although you probably won’t enjoy this is as much as my family). My Yaya (the one who turned 100 in March) has always said my name as though it were in Italian. She is a full española so it’s funny that she can’t say my name in Spanish. She leaves out the “c” altogether so that it sounds like Vittoria. And lo and behold, what do we see in Cortona?

We loved this city. It was unbelievably beautiful, and the people, oh the people! We stopped in a wine store and were perusing the selections when an older Italian gentleman stood up and just started telling us which ones to get. “Very good wine” as he pointed to some Tuscan choices. He was dead right, the Syrah was DELISH. And he didn’t even work there. 🙂

Later that evening, we went to the local restaurant, La Grotta della Rana. We only ate there once because we could NOT figure out when they were open. Some days they were open for lunch, some nights they were open for dinner, but never when we walked over (this place was literally 50 feet from our villa). So that was definitely unfortunate because the food was incredible and we never got to the try the wine made from the village’s vineyard. And you may notice the wine bottle we ordered, which was delicious. We tried a lot of Chianti this trip simply because we were in the heart of Chianti region and we would’ve been dumb not to.

We may or may not have ordered a bottle of wine at every lunch and dinner that week, minus 1-2 meals. Yeah, it was that kind of vacation.

So that was day two. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the massive amount of pictures. More to come!

♥, VB

Not Enough MINI Dreams

Posted on May 22, 2014 by vbvicwc

My dream car has been a MINI Cooper since I have no idea, but it seems like forever. After seeing The Italian Job (the remake), I became even more obsessed with owning the sportiest little car this side of the Atlantic.

In 2007, after wrestling with what used to be my dream car, the first Ford Focus, it quickly became a piece of crap as domestics tend to do, but this was unexpected. It only had 42000 miles on it since 2000. That’s right, 7 years and only 42000 miles, but the noise it made upon starting, you would’ve thought it was a 1978 Buick boat-car. It ran like shit, and it was super clear that I had to get a new car before grad school or else I would inevitably end up stranded on the side of 400 (which is never a good place to be during rush hour in Atlanta).

So upon weighing all my options, costs, benefits, etc., the MINI Cooper came out on top. I designed it on their website, and within days, my very own, custom built MINI arrived in Atlanta. It was mine, ALL MINE. And it was loyal, and beautiful, and kept me company through tons of good times, sad times, and moving on up.

Then the extended warranty expired last year and all the expensive shit started breaking. OF COURSE IT DID. And after the 3rd item that would’ve cost almost $2000 to fix , I decided enough was enough. My relationship with my bright yellow MINI Cooper was coming to an end at 99, 400 miles. Here are some of the things we did together over 7 years:

Got me through grad school in style. This included every social event, drive to the lake, and vacation I took that didn’t require someone else and their luggage to be in the car with me.
Transported me from Sandy Springs to Decatur to Smyrna and back my 2nd year of graduate school, which was quite a lot of driving each day.
Helped me get through my last relationship and make it to Timmy, the ultimate achievement.
Comforted me through 3.5 years at CDC, where I hated my life and was bored to tears every day.
Moved me to FL (where I had to leave half of my stuff in Atlanta because you can’t actually move anything in a MINI), where great things have followed.
Drove me through hour+commutes from Lakeland to St. Pete and back, where most Friday evening drives resulted in nervous breakdowns and tears.
Moved me to St. Pete, where life is now calm and beautiful.
MINI Cooper, you shine like the sun

Small enough to hug, big enough to love

I’m still grieving the loss of my companion. She was beautiful and fun and a joy to drive. But in anticipation of getting older and perhaps starting a family one day (I said PERHAPS), it’s obvious that a MINI Cooper just won’t be practical with children and all their mountains of crap (literal and figurative).

I nannied in grad school, and getting the youngest in and out of the car seat was a pain in the ass then, but now is a literal pain in the back, and I wouldn’t ever be able to do that with my own children. So two doors were out. Four doors are in.

And now we come to the newest member of the Beltran family. My newest ride, my newest companion who will see me through more good times and bad…

The MINI Cooper Countryman

4 doors of beauty

the NYU Sticker is the only thing remaining from my last MINI

hello beautiful

I fought the 4 door as long as I could. I am a MINI purist, which means that I believe that the only true MINI is the original hatchback version. But I sucked it up because I’m more of a planner than an optimist, so here it is. The car of my dreams, expanded.

♥, VB

Life Lately, According to my iPhone

Posted on April 24, 2014 by vbvicwc

Life has been pretty great lately. After all the traveling, things slowed down a bit, and I’m able to think clearly again. It’s so very nice.

We had a wedding last weekend in Atlanta which was a blast, and we have another wedding this weekend, which should be so so so fun. I have come down with a cold (thanks to the lady who was coughing up her lungs without covering her mouth on the plane last weekend…you suck), but I don’t care, I’m having fun this weekend no matter what.

Last weekend, we got a chance to visit with Matt after his first week of chemo, and I was so glad to be able to see him. After hearing about his stage 1 diagnosis, my mind was telling me “Yay! That’s good news as far as cancer is concerned.” But my heart was broken. Hearing this news so soon after Jake’s passing, I just don’t know how to describe the sadness I feel. And knowing about his chemo treatments, 5 days a week, 6 hours each day, one week on, two weeks off, 4 rounds…god, that’s going to be so rough on him and his family. I’ve been thinking about them nonstop, crying most mornings and fighting complete mental breakdown some days.

We also got to visit with Jake’s parents last weekend, and man, that was fun. Timmy had them dying laughing at some amazing Barbara stories. If only for 30 minutes, I’m glad we got them to laugh.

A few weekends ago, Timmy planned the best weekend in Lake Mary. We drove super fast cars at the Orlando Grand Prix where I was the only chick on the course and everyone was driving poorly (as in running into me and others. It’s not bumper cars…no wonder, since they were all dudes). We went to the Central Florida Zoo and were surprised at how sad zoos are once you’re an adult. The animals trapped in cages, unable to move very far…you don’t see that at all when you’re a child. And the weekend before that, we enjoyed a lovely day at Pass-A-Grille beach in St. Pete. God I love living here.

Here’s what life has been like the last month or so. Enjoy.