Noury's Creative World…

Checking on my blog, noticed it was snowing!  So had to change theme of the main page in a big hurry…

This is my grand-doggie’s gift.  His name is Baxter Brown, who has his own page on Facebook.  He was number one on my list.  So easy to please and I know how excited he gets when he gets a little present.

There is no wisdom right now, or maybe yes…start getting your presents (or not) pretty soon, because there are only so many shopping days left, sort of to drain your wallet and your checking account.

Sorry, but for me, this is what the holidays have become, trying to give to people who need your present like they need a hole in their brain.

I am positive I am not alone on this.  What’s wrong with giving love, compassion, caring, and empathy all throughout the year, instead of buying something that probably the provenance is from….China and they do not need anyways.  With my utmost respect to the Chinese people.

There I am, and I thought I had nothing to say…oh yes…college football is keeping me on the edge of my seat.  Love it!

Promise next posting will be more profound and maybe entertaining.

Happy Contessa

“Sometimes silence better serves the purpose of trying to say anything at all.”  Me

This is what greets me when I come into my kingdom…some of my books, a picture of my lovely daughter and her husband, and a sense of gratitude because I made it back home safe and happy to be in this place, and at this time in my life.

I am such a fortunate woman…the good Lord has always been by my side, to guide, protect, and encourage me when I need it most.

I am in a priceless place in my life and my heart just swells with gratitude and happiness.

Life is ultra good!

Wish all of you my friends wherever you may be today…a very Happy Thanksgiving Day and may your journey continue to be one of joy, gratitude and happiness.  Of course there will be some bumps on the road of our lives, but those are minor things compared to the bigger picture.  It is all about the bigger picture.

Love,

Your Happy Contessa

While visiting with family in South Florida, we made a stop along the way back, and when I saw this sign, it reminded me that in our family of three we used to always say, “follow the signs, the signs are your friend.”  That was also what Milagros told me when we visited Paris, and we were at Charles de Gaulle Airport… just landed, and I was obviously anxious, because we did not know a soul in Paris, and our francais was comme ci comme ca (so so).

She said this immortal words to me “mami, let’s follow the signs, they are your friend.”  That’s what we did, even when we did have my Google-printed instructions to go to the places we went.  Of course, Milagros, being young and very confident, sometimes defied the instructions.  Me? melting inside with the fear of getting lost, but she aced it all the time, and that’s how we found some places we would have missed had we followed Mrs. Google’s instructions.

Life is full of signs…invisible signs, intuitive signs, on-your-face signs, very loud signs and little signs that are like a knock on your mind and heart.   I live trying to figure out what’s their meaning, and that’s when I get all tangled up.  My patience is very limited and I want to know things pronto and with meaning very well spelled out.

Life is bigger, stronger and smarter than I am, so usually after wrestling for a while with “my signs,” I usually let go.  Do I have a choice?  Of course not!

Well…just wanted to share with all of you my wonderful readers, that the universe is always talking to us, even if we decide to listen or not.  I am still learning to listen very quietly.  Sometimes is in a language I totally do not recognize.

Another day in my beautiful, mysterious, wonderful life.

Happy Contessa

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious…”  Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist.  14 March, 1879 – 18 April, 1955.

One of the definitions of crush is…”short-lived infatuation.”  Yep, it happened already.  No longer infatuated…I have recovered my common sense, the peace and freedom of my mindset.  I feel like a new woman…again.

“We” were like two ships that crossed their paths in the middle of the night…and we sailed away from each other without knowing we almost touched our lives.  Sounds poetic, and yes, there’s poetry in romance.

But…it’s over!  I am feeling  totally recovered…no more butterflies in my stomach.  That’s a good thing.  I am leaving the romantic stuff at the moment to the characters in my soap operas, and watch all the drama from far away.  Do not need or want unnecessary drama in my wonderful life.

To all the fans of my humble blog, I am sorry that the news is not that exciting, like the news of my infatuation with Mr. Wonderful…but all things always come to an end…even the good and exciting stuff in life.

Having said all of that…I saw this morning on my way to the supermarket, the cutest guy on earth.  From my car window.  And that’s the way it will stay.  What?  I did not say I will stop looking and entertaining another little crush.  It is fun and it keeps my neurons trying to figure out what’s going on with my mind.  Love this!

Well…another day in my ever exciting life of… to crush or not to crush.  🙂

Your Happy Contessa

“Learning to live is learning to let go.”  Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan Dzogchen lama.  Author of  “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.”  Born in 1947.

My life…fall is here…needed to change the decor…light up the fireplace…wait a moment…I don’t have a fireplace.  Maybe it is in my far, far distant future…like when I go to visit heaven and come back as the most beautiful baby girl ever!  Yes, girls have more fun.

What about the title?  Yes, I must confess, I have fallen deeply in love.  Not telling who the lucky guy is.  He does not have the foggiest idea what’s going on.  Neither do I.  Am I infatuated?  Who knows.  This have never happened to me before.  I always had the guys eating out of my hand…but no…this little guy came and I am letting my saliva out of my mouth without any control whatsoever.  Man…this is very hard for me to have to confess all of this.  But…who do I tell?  My friends…don’t think so.  They would not believe that the self-confident, arrogant and so “my life is perfect as it is” has fallen for a difficult to describe guy.  C’est la vie!

There it is…I have managed to spill the beans without a warning whatsoever.  But…I must admit, I feel lighter, butterflies in my stomach every time I think of …him…boy, this is getting harder as it goes.  Love is a beautiful and wonderful thing.

Now, the question that I have…knowing myself…how long is this going to last?  I am very impatient and I must admit, I love, love, and again, love my life as it is.  There’s no room, or space to accommodate anybody else in my wonderful life.  So…by deduction and logic, which by the way, I love logic…this is on the way out already.  It felt good while I was typing it…but as one of my favorite phrases goes…next!  Thing in my agenda, I should have added.

I had fun typing this…hope you had a good laugh…I surely did!

Your Happy Contessa

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.”  Saint Isidore of Seville, Born in Cartagena, Spain.    c 560 – 4 April, 636.

What a good life I have…this is my breathtaking-so-Southern- view when I go for my daily walk around 7:30 am every day…well…except Sundays.

Today was laundry, languages, and then I decided to learn how to make a movie with pictures in my files.  The movie so far is only around 17 seconds…with music added, yes, music…I remember my precious daughter made a movie with some pictures and then she spend a few good hours adding music to it, to have it ready for me before I went back home, then North Carolina.   The movie was about our visit to  Paris a few years ago, so I decided that we somehow share our DNA, so if she can do this kind of things, so can I.  The roles have somehow reversed on some things.  Now I look up to her.  If she can do it…so can I.  Cool!

After a while, I put the whole project in the circular file until I feel aggressive enough to tackle the beast again.  It has not hit the recycle bin, as of right now.

Other than that nothing much to report, except that I already prep my cantaloupe, lettuce, apple, etc for my ever healthy lunch.

Some of you probably are thinking…really, are you thinking?  Just a joke!

Have a happy day!

Your Happy Contessa

“Finding what degree of happiness is enough for oneself is an exhilarating experience.”  La Contessa

Talking with one of my best friends recently,  we were conversing, again, about becoming Medicare babes. For those of you that are not inhabitants of the United States, the Medicare word is associated with having reached the tender, lovely and mature age of 65.  There is plenty to talk about, analyze, etc.  You get the drift.

I was telling her about my new beautiful pink shoes. Loved these shoes, but after I purchased them and brought them home, I tried to walk with them on, to have a better feel and to get used to this new daring and darling pair of high heel pumps. After a few steps,  I started to question my mindset when I purchased these beautiful shoes. Loved them…but I pictured that around  the end of the evening, someone will have to pick me up me with a spatula from the dancing floor.

Yes, I do dance and did the wobble at my daughter’s wedding. I am worthy of dancing with the smallest shinning speck in the sky.  But, after my first attempt at being a celebrity in the Randy to the Rescue, Washington, D.C. episode, I really don’t want to deal with paparazzi. Go figure.

As a Medicare-Babe-to-be, my mind thinks mid-thirties, my body acts anyway it feels like, but not necessarily in agreement with my mind.

Getting in the vintage stage of our lives can be fun, interesting and a royal pain on my feet. Loved those pink pumps, but…they went back to the store to torture another pair of feet. I must clarify that they were half a size too big, otherwise they would be torturing mine, with controlled pleasure.

With that very profound pondering, I must leave now.

Your Happy Contessa

“It is not how old you are, but how young you think.” …yeah, right…tell it to the Marines.

This morning while taking my now sweaty-and warm-walk, I met a neighbor who happened to be taking her morning walk also.

Inevitably, we started talking about our issues and challenges…and then at the end of our casual meeting, she said…”I feel better about my life after having met you.”

Wow! You pray for moments like this, and then bang! it happens. I never know what the Lord has in mind for my days, but I am finding out that if I let my Creator take over, my life becomes peaceful, joyful and meaningful. Very meaningful.

I guess I am in one of those days that I am in alignment with my Creator…feeling very good about my journey.

I read recently somewhere that when I focus on the goodness of situations and people, everything looks and feels better.

With that profound wisdom…I wish you all a beautiful continuation in your journey.

Your Happy Contessa

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.” George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics. 26 July, 1856 – 2 November, 1950.

Needed to change picture and posting, so I decided to show all of you my worldwide fans how I look on a recent photo taken at the Eastern Market, in Washington D.C.

Hair looks decent, compared to another recent picture of me, that looks as if I just rolled out of bed.  I don’t know if it also happens to some of you.  You think you look so hot, and then there comes a picture that shows you looking like you went through the doo-doo- tunnel and the image is there for eternity for all to see.  That just happened to me.

So, to make myself feel better, I found a photo that makes my hair look somewhat the way it usually is.  Not so hot, but there is hair.  Thanks God for hair color!

Life has been hectic, daughter getting married, commuting between Washington D.C. and Florida.  One good thing though has come from all of this.  At the security gates at the airports, we are kind of on a first name basis…well…not that far yet.  Faces look familiar and my taking off my shoes, belt, scarf, and jacket has become a routine I just don’t think about any longer.  It still amazes me what has become of us as a society.

Well, I don’t want to get on the serious side.  We have the networks for that.  Scaring the stuff out of us.

Hope all of you like the picture…or not.  I do like it.

So…it was today…another beautiful day in paradise.  All is well and all are happy.

Your Happy Contessa

“I am only responsible for what I say; I am not responsible for what you hear.”  Don Miguel Ruiz, Mexican author of “The Four Agreements.”  Born 1952.

Let explain…my sister and brother-in-law, Raylene and Richard,  were visiting Florida just a day ago, and we went on an adventure to the Gulf Coast.   We had a fabulous fun time…ate greasy food, lots of eggs, scrambled and sunny side up…home fries, pancakes, fruits (only Raylene ate the healthy stuff),  and a coffee that smelled just like the best coffee they serve at any good truck-stop.

Also, went to the beach, oh…the sand so beautifully white and the water of the Gulf this beautiful tone of emerald green…a little bit lighter in shade.  The wind was so fierce that it lifted the sand off the surface and the tiny grains were going straight to our eyes and any other space they could find to deposit themselves.

The “beach” experience lasted around five minutes or so, while we snapped a few pictures and pretended that we were not that cold.  I WAS FREEZING!!

Then we got into the mobile and drove around Ana Maria Island, where we spotted The Tortuga Inn, where my belated husband and I spent a few lovely days back in the days of early 2000.

Then, after going around downtown Sarasota and looking from our mobile’s windows all the snowbirds (people who come to Florida for the winter), we decided that really…we needed nothing to purchase and went back north on Tamiami Trail.  Got gas at $3.93 a gallon and went our merry way.

Drove finally into I-4 East and Richard, my brother-in-law, a frustrated pilot, was happily driving or may I say flying.  In a moment, some manuever that he did, that would have meant a probable close encounter of the third kind,  prompted my sister-in-law, Raylene,  to call all the angels, Jesus, and saints to be with us.  In the back seat of the mobile, I mentally got ready for a crash and going to heaven, when suddenly this thought assaulted me…”Oh my gosh, I am going to meet Jesus in this outfit in my skinny jeans, and dirty hair from the sand, and looking at myself, I said, well I guess ready or not here I come.”

Just like that I was going to the most important meeting in my life.  I closed my eyes and expected the big BAM.  It never came…I think my Creator did not like the idea of our meeting yet and not in the outfit I was wearing.

There was a profound silence most of the way to my digs.  I guess the three of us were making our own conclusions as to what almost happened.  No yet, said the Creator, and not so fast.

Another day in Paradise…

Your Happy Contessa

“It was not our final day.”  Happy Contessa on 7 March, 2013.