Noury's Creative World…

Just yesterday I learned something that has left me surprised and disappointed, but really, after the initial shock, I am back to being my old self.

I have been training myself not to let anything, too good or too bad to surprise me or shock me.  After six + decades, what gives.

I learned, thanks to my ever investigator friend, that a food chain, one that is very famous for being an authority in organic food was packaging organic frozen vegetables from a country in the far East, the one that is making most of our housewares, clothes, and everything else, and making the vegetables look from the image in the plastic bag as if they were a product of the U.S.   What a let down!

I will not be caught in high suspense surprise if one day a baby will come out of the mommy’s womb with scanned numbers printed on its butt and a label that would read “Made in China.”

Going back to the supposedly “organic heaven,”  the food in the salad bar and food that you can purchase ready to eat (hot) were or are not organic.  So much for my good feeling whenever I went to eat to give myself a treat at this organic authority.

So is life, what we see is not necessarily what we get.  But using logic, isn’t that the case with everything, even human relationships.  So…in conclusion I have decided to give myself an extra half hour to READ labels and make sure (or give myself the illusion) that I am picking up the right product.  Wishful thinking!

So…it was today…18 September, 2011…a day of feeling the little wooden knife stabbed on my back once again by “them.”

Your Happy Contessa

One definition of chemicals:  “Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.”  Author unknown.

Today the element of magic has been eluding me all day.  This is the corner of my residence where my neurons meet the keyboard and the brewing of words takes place on a daily basis.

It is a very special corner.  I feel I am surrounded by the muses that maybe have been knocking on my Florida door recently.  I really do need some inspiration, because the well is running dangerously low.  As you can tell, I am writing about nothing much.  Can you tell I am just making time to see if my sleepy neurons come to my aid and help to make this a decent post for the weekend.

Trying hard as I am doing right now, nothing is happening.  Maybe the probability is that I have NOT studied my French lessons all week and now cramming time has come.  My French is getting mixed with my English, Spanish and the silent language of stress speaks.

I have questions for the teacher, but I am embarrassed to email her so late to do that.  My sister told me to tell the teacher that I didn’t have time to study and just leave at that.

Can you imagine an old woman, who voluntarily went and paid some good money to learn how to speak one of the most romantic languages in the world, would look to this young teacher.  Probably I will lose all credibility and respect.  I may have to stay late tonight and tomorrow night conversing with myself in French.  Parlez vous Francais?  The verb du jour is parler.  Je m’appelle ________.  At least I know how to say…my name is___________.  You should be so happy,  because you are learning French with me.

Blessed dear muses…welcome back, if even for just one second.

353 words…So it was today…15 September, 2011…making it by a thread.

Have a lovely weekend!  I will be back on Monday, if I make it through my French class.

Your Happy Contessa

“The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.”  H.G. Wells, English author, better known for his works in the field of science fiction.   21 September, 1866 – 13 August, 1946.

It has happened again…the pleasure of an unexpected visitor.

What do you think it is…the water or just the alluring Florida name.  This time is my baby sister.  I am nine years older than she is and she is visiting from the Dominican Republic.  Do we have a lot to catch up.  And in Spanish!

But dinner for her was a hamburger, fries and a soda.  So unvegan…and so unDominican.  This is becoming harder by the minute.  Everything and everyone that surrounds me is trying to keep me a carnivore.  One of my Face friends told me he was having a juicy steak.  Yeah, right.  Enjoy the hormones and the cloned corn that those poor cows have to eat.  No grass apply to the steaks that are readily available from most groceries stores.

My sister bought chocolates (milky ones that I do not eat), cheesecake, ice cream, all kinds of cookies, and here I am chewing on mostly grass and some fruits.  But frankly, I feel good about passing up all those goodies.  I don’t try to save her from all those arteries clogging material.  She is younger and can take it, and besides I do not want to spoil her having a good time with the oldest sister.  This is about having a fab time without trying to discuss our aging issues.

What aging issues?  We are chic and look really good.  At least that’s what we tell each other.

Oh, the blessings of sisterhood!

So…it was today…14 September, 2011…a day of enjoying the privilege of having a fun sister,  practice Spanish and remember good younger times.

Your Happy Contessa

“One can never speak enough of the virtues, the dangers, the power of shared laughter.”  Francoise Sagan, French playwright, novelist and screenwriter.  21 June, 1935 – 24 September, 2004.

Yesterday was a day of venturing out…I walked around where I reside.  Kind of apprehensive, because I was by myself, no walking partner and no stick to keep intruders away from me.

Went out before even having breakfast, to get it over with.  Nice going…taking a picture here and another one there…

The gardens are beautiful, so many old trees, pond with ducks and their ducklings, and also saw something moving under some dark spot of the water, but was able to see only bubbles, and after a while, I decided it was better not to be too inquisitive.  Gators do swallow contessas, you know.  They don’t know better.

Then in the evening I decided to go to my first HOA meeting to meet other people.  It was a long meeting and when we were leaving, my nine decades old friend and I, one of my neighbors, probably mid-eight decades invited us to ride with her.  She had driven her car.  Probably no more than 100 steps.  To humor her we decided,  why not.  That’s when the fun began.  My ninety something decided she was going to ride in the back seat, so I could keep an eye on the eighty something doing the driving.

The passenger’s front seat would not move, so my 90’s friend, in her skinny jeans, just decided to squeeze into the back seat.  Just imagine.  The seat belt almost sliced her neck off.  But you know how “we” older chicks are.  We just push and shove ourselves into places that only a razor blade would be able to.

So we rode for a few seconds and then the time to come out from the back seat arose.  We were laughing so hard that we thought she may have to sleep on that back seat.  But another pushing and shoving and there she was, out.

La vida loca.  I am living the crazy life with all these wild women.  I cannot wait to get into my nineties and find out how much crazier my life is going to get.

So…it was today…13 September, 2011…making it through my sixties and anxiously awaiting for my nineties.

Your Happy Contessa

“Getting older is not for wimps.”  The baby boomer generation.

This is harder than I had envisioned.  I forgot…there is no vegan fast food…it is either you cook it or is back to eating unwanted hormones, fat and all kinds of other unmentionable stuff.

The good thing is that when I cook, it lasts for at least three days…that’s the same thing that is not good…you eat the same thing for three days in a row.  I have been looking at recipes, because between my being lazy and not liking to cook and having to cook or starve, the option is obvious…I like to eat…a lot.

This was the end result of my steaming veggies and making brown rice.  It does not look that hot, does it?  But it keeps me chewing and fooling my stomach that something is going down the pipes to make it feel full.  I had some onions, for the first time in over 20 years, and they don’t taste that bad…it is the aftermath that made me be onion free zone again.

This was last Saturday’s lunch, after my French class.  Class went well…my aging neurons are somewhat slow to catch on, but it is only two students.  A young woman in her twenties and myself.  That’s where the problem may be.  She is fast and furious and I am slow and not so on the ball.  But, teacher is a nice young French woman and very understanding.  I think we covered half of the entire course just last Saturday.  Man, I am going to be fully fluent in French by probably next weekend, it she keeps the pace.  My brain may explode, but at least it will be pretty, in French.

I better hit the books and study.  I can not get younger and faster, but I can become a nerdy French student.  That will do.

So…it was today…12 September, 2011…trying to be vegan-a-la-French.

Your Happy Contessa

“C’est la vie!”  Some smart French person.

This was a phrase in the final episode of one of my novelas.  It caught my attention and I hope nothing was lost in the translation.

What a beautiful thing to say to the person you love…Of course, the moment has to be absolutely the right moment and in the right frame of mind to say something like this.  I have had moments where I felt that way, but there were other moments when the total opposite was the feeling.  I guess if you are a normal human being, you have moments of total elation and moments of total frustration.  Cannot imagine a couple being in total love and admiration all the time.  Shrink material, please.

Love is an interesting subject.  Different kinds of love for different kinds of people around you and for different scenarios.  Can you transmit love to someone you have never met?  I think so.  Love does not have limits and frontiers.  Love is beautiful energy that is constantly surrounding us, but the choice is ours to embrace it or put it on hold or totally disregard it.

When we were born, we were the essence of love.  Just look at a baby with its innocence and purity.  That’s ultimate love.  I believe that when we touch a baby, that’s the closest that we will ever get to touching the love of God.

So…it was today, 11 September, 2011…feeling the energy of love surrounding me.

Your Happy Contessa

“Love, compassion and understanding are the answers to all.”  Your Contessa

In gratitude to all the innocent victims and their families for their sacrifice…

I am going back to school…to continue learning one of my favorite languages…French!

This subject matter is on my list of things to do…five languages before I evaporate into energy.  Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.  I am on two and a half…same amount to go.

As Martha Stewart once said “When I am through learning, I am through.”  I will always be looking for something new to learn, to do, because it makes my life more interesting and very important, I meet interesting people!

I will be attending classes at the Alliance Francaise where I will be receiving my lessons from a native French woman.  Can’t wait.

I will keep you posted as to how my first lesson on Saturday went.  With that being said, I must say “A bientot! (See you later, meaning, next Monday).

Make this a peaceful, and lovely weekend.

So…it was today, 8 September, 2011…a day to start getting my nerves ready to go back to school.

Your Happy Contessa

“We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite.  Time to be.”  Gladys Taber, American writer.  12 April, 1899 – 11 March, 1980.

This is a sampling of my intent to get my act a bit cleaner of what I ingest.  Been reading books, just finished watching “Food, Inc.” and I have the best of intentions to follow through with eating the best I can eat.  I don’t want to be incinerated at such a terrible young age.  I am just starting to open my eyes to the brave new world I am facing and I need to be ready, strong and alert.

Need to hurry up with this posting.  My favorite novela “Teresa”, the main character is so, I wish I could find a word to describe her, well…she is such a mean person, but like everybody else sometimes I feel sorry for her.  Oh, yes, the novela is coming up soon and that’s the only one I watch live.  Others I record to watch as I please.

Yes, this posting is about eating healthier than I am already doing.  I almost forgot.  I am planning on steaming a lot of stuff.  Not too much oil or fats in this new venture, but you know I cannot leave my favorite, extra virgin olive oil.  Need something to make my hair shiny, and the skin, of course.

Today, I did not steam a thing.  Had cereal and blueberries for dinner, because watching the documentary about how the industry abuses the animals and workers took me to dinner time.  Tomorrow, no excuses.  I am looking forward to maybe becoming a vegan.  Need to know how to correctly pronounce that word.

I am feeling good about making this conscious decision because I feel I am helping myself, the environment, and of course, the longer I am around, the more postings I can do.  That’s a good thing.  Let me share the following; if every American simply reduced chicken consumption by one meal per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be equivalent to removing 500,000 cars from the road.

So…it was today…7 September, 2011…a day of new beginnings of cleaner eating.

Your Happy Contessa

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”  Albert Einstein, German-born scientist, regarded as the father of modern physics.  14 March, 1879 – 18 April, 1955.

Today has been a day of driving and more driving.  Raining and more raining.  Hmmm…and the worst part is that right now at 9:45 p.m. I have absolutely nothing in my mind to write about.

Went to visit a friend of the past and talked and talked.  She is 86.  She introduced me to her friends.  All about the same age.  I love all of them.  Very pretty ladies and each one has a beautiful apartment right next to each other.  So Florida.  Tiles and lots of windows.  Love it, love it.

So…what else can I write about…today is a panicky day.  Let’s continue with the visit.  She prepared lunch; soup and a sandwich.  Brocoli cheese soup and tuna sandwich.  Dessert was cake, banana cake with lots of creamy icing.  There went my intention to eat healthy.

Just the day before I purchased two books, The China Study and Forks over Knives.  Really eye-opening!

And the question I have right now is…do I have to eat?  The pictures these books paint about how we are abusing these animals and birds and then eating their meat makes me want to just become a cow.  Pasture, just give me pasture.  I can chew on greenos forever.  I wonder how I can come up with a cake made just from green stuff.  Ah, zucchini bread.  I can make that and put an extra dose of sugar.  Pure unblemished sugar, I guess brown sugar.

I am very serious about changing my eating habits.  The crapola we are eating is doing all of us in.  At least that’s what I think.

So many of us are on such denial.  We just want to eat, eat and eat.  It is amazing to me how our little mouths have such a big control over our big, big bodies.

Analyzing this subject matter further, it is not how much we eat, but WHAT we eat.  I highly recommend that you check these books out of your library and you will understand how I feel.

405 words.  Not bad.  Word counter is very happy and so am I.

So…it was today…6 September, 2011…a day of realizing that all I have to do is sit at my computer and start moving my fingers on the keyboard, and voila, words, many words just show up.  And the hiccups is totally gone!!

Your Happy Contessa

“Get going and what you are searching for will meet you halfway.  But just get going.”  Happy Contessa from today’s personal experience.