Noury's Creative World…

All that starts, has to come to an end.  The era of my 63rd birthday celebration has come to a complete halt.  Screeching halt.

Now it is the 63+ period.  Does it feel any different?  Right now, after the “not allowed” glass of wine and a good turkey sandwich, yes, the vegan discipline took a big break this weekend, I really do not feel any different from last Thursday.  Tomorrow is back to the school and discipline of just grazing on veggies and stuff such as tofu.  Need to get a firmer one, tofu I mean, the one I had last Thursday night was very soft and not so appealing.  Live and learn.

The neurons are tired and very relaxed after wine and great conversation.  Had a memorable birthday weekend.  The lovely daughter is on her way back to the big North where the chills of cold weather are in full swing.  Fine down here, thank you very much.

Today, short in words, but hoping tomorrow will be back to normal.

So…it was today…23 October, 2011…a short day of typing and thinking.  Very much on the happy and content side.

Your Happy Contessa

“Thank you for the meaningful and beautiful memories.”  Happy Contessa to the lovely daughter.

I make a big deal out of being able to say “I am sixty-three years old.”  That’s six decades plus three years.  A humongous accomplishment!

I feel such a fortunate woman.  I have always been surrounded by beautiful and wonderful people.  Have been in love a few times, always had a ball in the place where I was residing at the moment…I remember particularly St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Island.  What an exciting, incredibly fun and some heart breaks.  But all in all, whenever I look back, I can say I did it my way and with His blessings, everything turned out just right.

I learned my lessons, I am still looking forward to learning and experience very much.  It is a process full of promises and surprises.

But one very important thing I must recognize, when the going gets tough, show your class and do it with style.  Nothing beats going through hard times, than doing it in a classy way and with much style.  Even if the mascara is pouring down your face.  Nowadays, they sell that stuff that is water proof.  That’s exactly why I don’t use it any more.  To remove the holy thing, you almost have to remove the entire eye.  No mascara for me!

Well, my darling daughter is arriving in a few moments, so I have to get ready and look my best 63rd time around.

So…it is today…21 October, 2011…my 63rd Birthday.

Happy Birthday to me, to me and to me!  Oh, yes, I will be back on Monday!

Your Happy Contessa

“To be content and grateful regardless of our daily dose of crapola, is the best kept secret to succeed in living… and life is short, make it loud!”

I was making plans for a lunch birthday celebration on the 21st.  I will reach the tender age of six decades plus three monsoons.

Had settled for a nice Caribbean lunch with a very dear friend.  Just now, checking my emails, I received one from my lovely daughter and the subject was “Happy Birthday.”  I thought, probably she has the date mixed up, so I proceeded to open the ecard.  Very, very nice, and then the first line was SURPRISE!  I will be singing the birthday song in person.  I am arriving in Orlando on your birthday.  I read it twice to get it.  I started laughing and laughing and more laughing.  I thought, Oh, my God, she is coming to be with me on my birthday!  Have to clean the one and only toilet, wash sheets, and get everything ready for my little sunshine.  I love her so.

I couldn’t have asked for anything better.  My dearest friend is letting me enjoy the time with my lovely daughter and we will celebrate next week.  I am so blessed.  The festivities have already started!

Wanted to share with all of you my happiness and being grateful for still being around and among delightful people.

So…it was today…19 October, 2011…a day of a happy surprise.

Your Happy Contessa

“Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me”….rehearsing before I eat some cake too.

One of the reasons why I moved South was due to the cold weather.  Look at this week’s weather for my area.

Some 90% possibility of rain for today, but as of 4:25 p.m., only a lick of water.  Probably the areas where water is not needed, they are getting it all.

Good, or may I say, excellent weather to catch up with reading, studying French.  Have been watching a dvd in French, and all I hear is just noise.  Recognize a word or two and I imagine the rest because of the story and what they are doing.  But, that’s how I learned English.  Watching the Ed Sullivan Show and when all of them were laughing, I laughed because I did not have the faintest idea of what was being said.  My mother used to chase me to go to bed.  She used to say that if I didn’t understand anything, why I was wasting my time.  Little did she know.  English has been my greatest tool for survival in life.

Let’s go back to the weather…that’s what this posting is supposed to be about.  Today the air conditioner unit was not working, according to a recording I found on my phone.  Went out to catch up with laundry too.  Remember the want-to-be sauna dryer?  Yep, it swallowed four quarters from my pocket and started perspiring like crazy.  Nothing else.  Had to take out all the clothes and visited the second floor to get my clothes dried. Ah, the air conditioner unit…it will be put to the test next time we get a heat wave.

Oh yes, the weather…well,  it looks somewhat decent on the forecast.  Some people cancel appointments due to rain, so…I’ll leave it at that.  I am not making fun of anything or anyone anymore.  I remember the snow days up there in beautiful North Carolina and Virginia.  Give me some rain anytime.  No froggies apply.

So I am venturing out tomorrow, only 30% possibility of rain.   Even if it was 100%, I am going out.  Two days in a row in this condo is making me antsy.  Besides, no bananas, carrots, salmon, or ripe plantains.  Cereal last day is tomorrow.  Out I am going!

So…it was today…18 October, 2011…a day looking gloomy, but good to catch up in whatever.

Your Happy Contessa

“I am still learning.”  Michelangelo, Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, poet, architect and engineer.  6 March, 1475 – 18 February, 1564.

Some of my friends are going through rough times at this moment.  It seems that whenever I talk with whomever, there is always a challenge they are meeting.  Sometimes the challenge is mine to face.

That’s pretty “fuerte” (strong).  I have to admit that most of the time my beautiful circle of friends and I have to face the reality of this stage of our lives.  It comes with the territory.  If it not one thing, it is the other.  But only when you are faced with strong situations, that’s when you find out what a tough cookie we are.  I am surrounded by a strong support system.  There’s nothing we cannot handle together.  We make beautiful symphony, even out of somewhat discordant notes that show up into our lives sometimes on a daily basis.

I want to let all my friends and family on this majestic circle that we are all a part of this together, that I am so grateful to be a link of this forever strong chain, and that I know how special we are to each other.  We matter beyond words to each other and know we will always be there for each other.

We are into this together.  What touches you, it touches me.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.

We know we can handle anything that will come our way, and with His wisdom, strength, and peace we can face whatever is out there floating around.

Thank you each one of you for being my friend and part of the tapestry of my life.  I wish each one of you utmost peace and wisdom.

So…it was today…17 October, 2011, a day of being grateful for having my special family and friends in my life.

Your Happy Contessa

“When it happens to you, it is already happening to me.”

A very dear friend invited me for a Sunday afternoon fashion show in a bedroom community of Orlando.  It was labelled as a Fall Fashion Show.

Very lovely crowd, chicken salad in a croissant with romaine lettuce and fruit salad on the side was the delicious lunch.  Sweet or unsweetened tea or lemonade.  Lots of door prizes, and plants to give away.  I brought home two small plants.  Can’t wait to put them in my bedroom.

So the show gets going, all dark colors, hats, scarves, coats, ready to face a nice winter weather.  I was getting hot, very hot from just looking at the models in their “fall outfits.”  Hot flashes came back out of nowhere and there I was fanning myself in a place that was quite cool, weather controlled wise.

After the very entertaining fashion show, my friend and I went to watch the documentary “Forks over Knives.”  That is after me chewing down a chicken salad sandwich.  Veganism went out the window.  What can a girl do when she is hungry and I didn’t feel like grazing with just romaine and some mini-cut pieces of fruits.  Give the woman something meaningful on a Sunday afternoon.

Well…there we go happily after ingesting some stuff that are not at all acceptable by the Forks over Knives concept, to watch the film.  No wine suggested.  WHAT??  Isn’t a nice glass of red wine supposed to be good for you?  Besides it makes you feel all relaxed and ready to go to bed.  The world seems a friendlier place when you have had a nice little glass of wine.  I just looked at my friend and said “there goes the happy moment with dinner.”  Not only no meats for me, now no wine either.  Suddenly the world is not that nice and friendly any more.  But…I want to be healthy and live longer.  My cable guy told me just last Friday that by 2035 we may be able to live up to a 150 years.  What for, I asked him.  I am running out of things to do as it is right now.  Man, things are getting a bit much complicated lately.

One hundred and fifty years.  Hmmmm…How many languages can I learn?  Mandarin, Greek…and the list goes on.  It does not matter how good my life could be…150 years is a lot of years.  Stop!  No more thinking beyond this moment.  Suddenly I am getting tired.

So…it was today…16 October, 2011…a day full of contradictions…no more wine for me, and living up to 150.

Your Happy Contessa

“One thing that never ceases to amaze me, along with the growth of vegetation from the earth and of hair from the head, is the growth of understanding.”  Alice Walker, American writer, poet and activist.  Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction.  9 February, 1944-.

Let me introduce you to my new kitchen gadget.  My new convection oven.  I see myself having so many tasty meals.  It looks good,  doesn’t it.

First, have to clean it and read the manual.  So the first meal probably will be cooked the week after next.  I ordered it last Sunday afternoon, so when it arrived yesterday afternoon, I was somewhat perplexed.  I was not emotionally ready for this apparatus.  Just taking it out of the box took all my brainpower away.  Need to recharge the few neurons floating around my scarcely populated brain, so the whole excitement of tasting my first meal will have to be put on hold.

Isn’t this familiar with some other things in our lives.  I was imagining, that is before this thing arrived,  already preparing some zucchini with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese on top,  some broiled organic chicken having it all with Riesling wine, but when I heard a noise outside of my door, and hearing the motor of a big van taking off, I went to see what was the matter.  There it was!  My new oven.  Had to bring it into the apartment and open the holy box.  Then had to reshuffle things around in my kitchen to accommodate this sparkling thing.  Now I have to read the manual, after I finish studying my French and then…wash the whole thing…then go to mecca for organic stuff and…then cook.  I am exhausted already.  Maybe next month I will use this highly efficient new convenient oven.

Ask and you shall have.  I did.  Now I ask for time to get ready to use the blessed thing.

So…it was today…13 October, 2011…a day of admiring my ever shinning oven…and leaving it alone for a few more weeks.

Make it a happy and enjoyable weekend.  Next Monday it is.

Your Happy Contessa

“Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock, and the door will be opened.”  Holy Bible.

Everyday I am given suggestions from my blog host on how to increase my audience.

And my thinking is…I don’t need a bigger audience than the one I have.  I like what I have and why is this constant need in our planet to have more and more.

In my case, I write for the sake of writing, to keep a journal for my darling daughter and to have something to do.  To be accountable to myself.  It makes me be alert to make up stories out of nothing.  Look how far this is going.

The more you have, the bigger the responsibility.  My plate is pretty full as it is.  You don’t have an idea of how many times I have to consult the dictionary and other resources.  By the time I am done, 1/4 of my day is gone.  Ask my friend Lucy how long it takes me to take a picture…lots of flashes, props and taking picture and more picture-taking.  You see, I am very demanding and expect a lot from myself.

Just imagine if I was thinking that I have to cater to let’s say over a thousand people a day.  Holy tamale, I will have to be answering their somewhat half intelligent questions, well, you know what I mean.  The more you expose yourself, the higher the possibility that the stuff will be hitting the fan at a higher speed.

Leave me as it is.  I am under control somewhat and I love my highly intellectual and selective audience.  I hand-picked them.  I am not a tolerant person to put up with people who think they have a license to tell you what to write, how to paraphrase things and at the end, you end up angry and wanting to send everyone down to Hell City.

I am a happy unpopular blogger and I just love it so.

To my few followers, I am forever grateful that you put up with me and most of the time are very silent, so in a way, most of the time I don’t know what the heck you think about my writings.  Perfecto!

So…it was today…12 October, 2011…Hey Columbus, they really did a job on your fame, didn’t they.  I honor you today, the real day that you and your buddies discovered some beach in the island of Hispaniola.   To you Columbus, Happy you Day!

Your Happy Contessa

“When it takes little to be happy, you have mastered the art of living.”  Moi

Or I don’t know how the outcome will change or affect my life.  Or I just tell myself, not now…I am not ready…the pieces are not in place.  Ha!  That’s a good one.

Wow!  That’s a powerful question.  Most of the time we are on denial, and tell ourselves that  we are afraid of nothing.  We just procrastinate and think that fear is not an element at all in the dynamics of doing something we would like to see accomplished.  Right!!  Who are we kidding?  Ourselves, all right!

Really…if I was not afraid of how things would evolve in my life, I would put all my belongings in storage or just give them away to the Salvation Army, get ready a backpack and take to the Himalayas to start climbing some mountains, would love to visit Tibet;  stay for a while in India doing some country sightseeing;  live in France for at least three months;  finally get into a schooner and live it up as a free spirit;  go climbing the Andes and stay for a while with the Indians from Peru, and so many other things.

The question is…why don’t I just do it.  What or who is holding me back?  I don’t see anyone holding a barrel against my back.  Maybe I don’t want to do those things bad enough to just get going.  Am I afraid of what people would think, that I would run out of money, that I may acquire an incurable disease…frankly, I guess I don’t do these things because they feel almost unattainable.  But, honestly, I could start with the first one and take the first step.

The reasoning of this posting came from the Oprah’s interview on Facebook and other books I have read or is it that sometimes I don’t even know what really I would dream about doing.  I guess my Paris dream took 46 years to accomplish, so do I think I have 46 more years?  Don’t think so.

First, I think I need to just start my list once again and pretend that everything I want or dream about doing is attainable and doable.  It depends on me, not on anyone, or any circumstances.  Fear is a paralyzing emotion and the best way we deal with it is just putting it aside and out of our minds.  I am wasting very valuable time…I don’t have an eternity.

Himalayas, why not…so it was today…11 October, 2011…a day of revising my dreams list, again and again.  A lot to do, and how much time left?

Your Happy Contessa

“If it is to be…it is up to me, and it is sooner than what I think.”

Note:  This posting was also prompted after I finished watching the speech Steve Jobs gave to the class of 2005 at Stanford.

I was watching a show about these two designers…their works of art have been shown in  very famous museums in the United States and around the world.

In the conversation they were asked to define art per se.  She said, spirit, and he said vision.  But one phrase stood out more than anything else during the interview.  He said, and she agreed that without discipline, they would both be nowhere.  Sometimes he is assigned by a major store to produce illustrations to go along with some of the clothing designed by his wife and other designers.  He stated that he just sits with nothing in mind, and starts doodling and eventually something starts to happen and before he knows it, voila! there is the foundation of the piece he keeps on working on until it is finished.

I thought about this and agreed with them.  Without discipline there won’t be any food prepared, any children taken care of, any careers finished, or even a thought taken to its final stages.  If I wouldn’t have sat at the keyboard, you would not have the opportunity to read this posting.  Even to be a good person, you must have discipline.

If we really analyze this phenomenon…nothing would ever get accomplished if someone does not commit to the discipline needed to take any task to its finished version.

Everything, and I mean everything major that was ever accomplished is due to the people involved having the discipline to start and take it to the finished level.

I know it is not easy, but in the time it takes to think about something, I should really start with the motions of doing it.  It would snowball just like everything else in life.

So…it was today…10 October, 2011…a day to make a decision about being disciplined enough to take it to the end.

Your Happy Contessa

“Life is half spent before we know what it is.”  George Herbert, Welsh born, English poet.  3 April, 1593 – 1 March, 1633.