Noury's Creative World…

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.

Recently, I was watching a television show profiling some celebrities and their homes.  Of course, their homes are very impressive and very individualistic, according to their personalities.  You sometimes can see that some of their homes are an extension of their persona, and some of them were just put together by their decorator and are a reflection of that decorator.  Just that.

But, taking this show to a higher level, I was interested by a particular show of a musician and his place in California.  It was so reflective of his personal story, and his career.  Then the question arose in my mind…how come some people have the good fortune to live their lives doing something they dreamed about when they were children, and some of us just drift into careers, and lives that reflect that it just happened by default.  Sometimes our lives are a reflection of no thinking at all of what is it that motivates us or what our personal dreams are all about.

I think that most of my life is a reflection of living by default.  I am a happy camper, but I have to admit, I did not devote much time to living and doing what I used to dream about when I was growing up.

I dreamed about being a teacher…I used to sit all my little friends as if we were in a classroom and used to talk to them as a teacher would.  You know, with a commanding voice and poise.  Then my father will come and totally call the class off because it was time to go to bed.  End of school session.  Then, later on I wanted to be a pediatrician…but the sight of blood while witnessing a mother giving birth, a la natural, no pain-killer or anesthetic, took care of that vision.

Now, at this stage in my life, I am making sure that I question what is it that I would like to do with my time, without taking so much into consideration what others will think, because when the time comes to say “Sayonara,” it will be my life written in my book, not anybody else’s.  But, by then, I will never know what happens after I depart, so in this time and place in my life…it is all about my wishes and dreams.

So…it was today…September 5, 2011…a day to reflect on my dreams and what I would like to do next.

Your Happy Contessa

“I make my own decisions and couldn’t imagine anyone else doing that, because I’m in control of my own destiny.  And if anything happens, or if a mistake is ever made, it’s because it’s something I chose to do…” Janet Jackson, American recording artist and actress.  16 May, 1966 -.

During my drive-about this morning, I stopped at a yellow light because here where I decided to reside, there are traffic cameras even inside toilets at the rest stops.  Just kidding.  But seriously, almost every stop light has a camera, so I drive praying to God that the yellow light comes on way before I get to the intersection.

So with my paranoia, because I didn’t think I was up to par to show up on traffic cameras, I decided to stop at yellow.  This young woman behind me starting blowing her horn for around longer than 30 seconds just behind me.  We were standing still.  I looked at her from my rearview mirror just staring at her with no emotions at all, without batting my eyelashes.  Then she started practicing her sign language abilities with her two hands and her motioning was quite a bit disturbing.  In my olden days, I would have waved back, but this time I just stared at her without losing the rhythm of my breath.  When she finished her conversation with herself with her fingers and everything else, I looked at myself in my mirror to check my makeup and hair and was amazed at myself for my non-reaction.

Then I thought about a bumper sticker to be:  if you are so stressed out with your miserable life, and cannot cope with stopping at yellow lights, just flush yourself down your stinky toilet.  But then, that is not Contessa’s style.  Just keep on driving and continue planning for the next stop at a yellow light.

Getting close to my house, at a red light, with my peripheral sight, I caught the driver on my right motioning with both arms quite agitated.  I tried to ignore it, because I thought today was the day of practicing the abilities of those that choose to use their fingers and arms to express themselves.  Conspiracy theory working full-time.  After a while of all this commotion, I decided to look to see if the guy wanted me to let him in front of me.   Noooooo, I think he had a wasp inside his car and was desperate trying to protect himself and waving everything he could to get it out.

I couldn’t wait to get to my sanctuary, away from all these stressed out individuals.

Finally, inside my place, I got on my knees and just thanked my Creator that I made it safe with my makeup intact and hair just in the right place.

So…it was today…finding out how cold my blood could be…and getting away from the crowd trying to practice international sign languages that only they could understand.

I have decided today not to practice my abilities for signing naughty language because I will be the only one making an idiot out of myself, as the stressed-out young woman did.

See you next Tuesday.  Labor Day Holiday.  Make it a good one.

Your Happy Contessa

“Circumstances and situations do color life but you have been given the mind to choose what the color shall be.”  John Homer Miller, American writer and educator.

I have been searching for a pair of shoes to wear with the two cutest dresses that grace my closet right now.  The lovely daughter recommended sand color or so.  There I went this morning.  Saw an ad in the newspaper that showed shoes were 65% off in this particular store.

It just happened that in order to get to that store, I had to go through another one that I like a lot.  Went to the Shoes Department and they were having a 75% off.  10% is a mean great additional discount, considering the status of our national debt and my pocketbook.  2+2=4.  So 10% additional discount makes a lot of sense.  Found pair #1, the shoes that I really went for.  When I checked the price on the price checker, it was from a lot of money to under $15!!  I thought, Wow!  That means that with that 10% I can buy another pair.  Found pair #2.  Then my eyes kept scanning the sales rack, and with the assistance of a very cheerful sales person, pair #3 happened, and eventually pair #4 to wear with my jeans during the Florida’s coming fall.  Rationalizing and more rationalizing.  All sounds just great.

By the time the adding, subtracting and then an additional 10% with a coupon I had from the newspaper, the final tab was under $48.  Subscribing to the newspaper pays off.  Coupons pay for the price of the subscription.  My way of justifying everything.

Am I a happy camper?  You bet!  I am ready for next summer, next fall and also ready to go dancing, whenever that happens, hopefully before I get ready to be incinerated.  I am already practicing my merengue, salsa, Indian, rap, hard beat, soft beat and everything else in between.

I am so happy right now, I could sing through my typing.  Actually it is happening.  So little makes me happy.  Love my new shoes, and saved a lot of money.

So…it was today…31 August, 2011…a day of helping our national economy, mine,  and having great looking shoes.

Your Happy Contessa

“All fortune belongs to him/her who has a contented mind.  It is not the whole earth covered with leather for him/her whose feet are encased in shoes?”  from the Panchatantra, 2nd Century B.C. collection of Hindu tales.