Noury's Creative World…

The gravy train of inspiration has left the station.  The muscles in my back are all twisted, the eyes are closing and not interested in opening again, the legs begging for rest, and the neurons in my brain all shut-down.

Today is a hard day for inspiration.  I cannot even think.  I had to resort to taking a picture of me with a scarf and sunglasses to make it look decent.  The muses are at this moment non-existent.  There’s a lot of boxes, so I thought, why not to be the queen of the boxes.  By now we have a love relationship.  I know their measurement by heart and even name them.  You must be thinking right now that I am losing it.  Very close in that neighborhood.

When I sat on that box, I almost made it collapse.  Packing by an amateur.  Moi.  It gives.  Whatever happens, happens.  I am taking my makeup, undergarments, and a few pieces of clothing with me so that should suffice.  And there is…Walmart.  I don’t remember life before this giant octopus.

On another note, tomorrow is the launching of Atlantis.  Around 11 am, so watch history in the making.  I know I will be watching it in my computer from NASA TV.

My beloved readers, friends and everybody else, today is a day getting closer to me contemplating taking that European style vacation.  I am tired from the moment I get up.  My life on the fast lane of packing.  If I sound like a cry baby, I am.

So it was today…7 July, 2011, another day of working hard packing for my next adventure…and the muses having a field day without me.

Have a very lovely weekend.  I will see you on Monday.

Your Happy Contessa

“It is what it is.”  Someone very wise and practical.

How much undergarment can one have?  Do I think that maybe one day I will be going to Siberia, where probably I will have to take my own food, my own folding chair (Hi Lucy), and a bear to help me keep warm.

This is a partial picture of suitcases, canvas bags, overnight bags, and any other name you want to baptize a piece of material sewn together and give it the name of luggage.  Color is irrelevant, brand, weight, how many wheel drives it has and does your flip 360 degrees?  Two of mine do.  Big deal, yes it is when you want to show off.  See, I can turn wheels around and you cannot.

And it just doesn’t stop there.  Cars, toilets, houses, diseases, and a whole entourage of things that we think we cannot do without.

I am even making excuses to hold on to most of them.  Maybe I can put all copies of my tax returns, receipts, photos, and even myself in case of an emergency.  You never know where I may go that I may need some cover.

Oh, oh, someone just knocked at my door really hard.  Careful there, do not chip the paint.  Need to deliver this house in top condition.  A young man selling pest control service.  First I told him that he should be more subdue when he knocks on a door.  He looked at me as if I was a Martian.  Close enough.  Then I told him that I already have a service and to be careful with the lightning out there.  He told me that probably he was going to get zapped, because he was going to be all night out there selling this service.????  I told him, well, that’s too bad, because you are not going to have a long life.  Then I send him off with a good luck and enjoy your short life.  How bad can an aging woman, so tired of packing boxes and annoyed at his knock can be.  Very, very bad.  But, he asked for it.  Being cute at this time of the day.  Don’t I sound like the perfect grouchy old lady?  Need a break.

Ok.  Going back to the excess thing.  I really don’t have any wisdom on this one.  I am going to continue probably to be a bag lady for the rest of my life.  I will just shove my suitcases, bags and myself into some boxes and live forever happily in wrinkle city.  Florida here I come!

So it was today…a day of nothing much, but of packing the heck out of my stuff, and sending a young man to be zapped by lightning.  It does not get any better.

This was good.  I had a good laugh.

6 July, 2011.  Different format.  I like surprises.

Your Happy Contessa

“The more you have, the heavier it gets.”  From the book of wisdom of happy contessas.

I remember when I was growing up in the Dominican Republic, every day there was a lady, Dona Gloria, that used to come and visit my mother for one to two hours in the afternoon.  They would have coffee, and talk, talk and talk until it was time for one of them to go to the bathroom to discharge the liquid and then Dona Gloria would go to her home which was maybe 100 steps away from our house.  I was thinking where from they got their material to talk about for so long every day.  Today I was not going to show up.

I didn’t think I could do a posting.  I was so tired and drained.  And couldn’t think of anything to talk about.  Then I went on to describe a part of my day.

Miss Raylene tried to help me to send a pdf file from her house, because she has a higher tech printer/scanner with all the bells and whistles.  But in the process, I am trying to get access to her wireless service so she could send me the file,  my computer took over her entire internet access.  Even her phone went out of commission.  I almost had a neck breakdown.  I didn’t have any liquids in my system, otherwise, I would have needed a Pampers for big gals like me.  I was deep breathing, went into meditating, prayed until the rain started to fall instead of the answer to my prayers, and the right side of my head is still trying to recover from the stress.  And to think I thought I was a total master in controlling stress.  Do I live a very sheltered life.  My apologies to all of you worker bees out there.  I couldn’t survive in the real world.

Miss Raylene spent almost two hours on the phone with her internet/router providers.  I have to hand it to her.  Grace and poise under pressure.  I just wanted to leave her house so bad, that the agony was almost unbearable.  But she kept on insisting that she was going to complete the favor, even if our computers went into a heavyweight championship with each other.  I shut mine down trying to minimize any casualties.

Finally…she comes out of the other room, and declares victory.  I just grabbed my insignificant not so high-tech computer, gave her a big hug, and lots of apologies to her and her husband and took off in the middle of lightning, and a slight rain.  I couldn’t drive fast enough.

I came home, plugged in my computer to see if it still had any life left for me to just do my humble things and voila, it is still breathing and functioning.  It is somewhat bruised, her ego, but it is kicking.

There you have it, and I thought I was not going to be able to blab for today.

So it was today…5 July, 2011…a day Miss Raylene showed me how tough she and her computer are…and glad mine’s still carrying on.

Your Happy Contessa

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent.  It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”  Charles Darwin, English Naturalist.  Author of “Origin of Species.”  12 February, 1809 – 19 April, 1882.

This is as close as I am getting to a beach right now.  I love this painting because it gives me the feeling of peace, tranquility and serenity.  Same things, just sound different.  It is a big painting, that probably I will have to depart with because I won’t have any space for it in my new digs.  Two chairs, did you notice…, that was supposed to be Ron and me enjoying the sun at a beautiful beach somewhere in paradise.

I have been thinking about taking an European-style vacation.  Vacation in that continent, or most of the countries, is for 30 or 60 days.  Low productivity, but high yield in enjoyment of life.  We need to learn that art in the brave-new world.  Popping pills to calm stress has become our national emblem.  Need 30-days of relaxation, and chillin to recharge the depleted system, our fragile human body.

This translate to my being absent from entertaining you and myself with my interpretation of mundane things and making them sound interesting.

I need to give it some more thought.  Really, I am up to my eyeballs in packing boxes, getting stressed about having to depart with a lot of “our” stuff.

As you can see, things are just being packed or in boxes for the Salvation Army.  I feel sometimes a bit with “la depre” (down), because having to depart with stuff is harder than you can imagine.  But then I think about the lack of space I will have in my new apartment, and then is easier to let go.  Do not believe in renting space to put stuff.  A tightwad.  I love making my money go a long, long way.  Less stuff, easier to move and move again.

My neighborhood display of fireworks…I watched the fireworks from Charlotte, NC, Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.  Love the Boston Pops with Keith Lockhart conducting.  1812 Overture, my favorite.  The ones from Washington, D.C. are majestic with the monuments as their background.  Unforgettable.  I felt as if I was there.

So it was today…4 July, 2011…celebrating another year of independence in our beloved country.

Your Happy Contessa

“I am a great believer in luck, and find the harder I work the more I have of it.”  Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U.S., and an influential Founding Father.  13 April, 1743 – 4 July, 1826.

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:  That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….”

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

These lines were pivotal elements in the formation of our country.  What determination, courage, and foresight our founding fathers must have had to take upon the task of giving us the opportunity to be such a unique country.

I would like to take this moment to say thank you to all Americans for giving someone like me the opportunity to become an active and proud citizen of this country.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

God bless the United States of America.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Your Happy Contessa

I will be back on Tuesday.

I remember when Ron used to get all excited because he was going to his favorite place in the whole world.  The hardware store.  I could never comprehend how he would go in there and spend a long time just going through the aisles and then coming out with just a few items.

Now I know the feeling.  I went there for a few boxes to continue my packing and as soon as I went in, this is what I encounter.  A sight to behold.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have had this experience before.  Ron trained me really good.  Lightbulbs anyone?

I know what questions to ask to the forever good-looking guys in those places and know my way around the aisles.  I feel more excited when I go to the hardware store than even going to the very nice malls.  Women’s clothing and accessories are just that.  At the hardware store, your imagination goes wild.  I could do this, I could do that.  But unfortunately, after a few rounds, I decided that really, all I needed were just the boxes, and oh yes, some AA batteries.  I postponed my other shopping experience for when I get to my other destination.  Then, I can let my imagination go wild.

Now they even have self-service check-out registers.  Why not to try anything to challenge my aging neurons.  The cashier had to come to my assistance, because the technology is not that advanced yet.  I wanted to scan just one of the boxes and multiply it the number of boxes I had without having to do that one by one.  She said they are not up to that yet.  So the aging neurons beat high-tech for a change.

You should see my walls.  You cannot tell where my art was hanging.  Thank you very much, Ron.  Painted and everything.  Feel good right now.

So it was today…29 June, 2011…a day of termite inspection…and a exciting visit to the hardware store.  Yes, I also filled up the tank with gas at $3.37 a gallon.  A real deal.

Your Happy Contessa

“I regret nothing.”  Edith Piaf, French singer and cultural icon.  Among her songs, “La Vie en Rose.”  19 December, 1915 – 11 October, 1963.

Sorry.  Not a pretty picture to start with.  But this will help to illustrate my experience of early today.  One of the tasks I wanted to accomplish before closing on the house was to have the air conditioner unit serviced.  I dreaded doing this and kept on postponing it until almost the last moment.  Why?  For the same reason all of us do procrastinate.  We think it is going to be harder, almost impossible,  and who knows what problems the subject of our procrastination will introduce into our lives.

I called the company.  So today this very nice older fellow, isn’t that something.  Most of the people around me or in my life are “older fellows or older chicks.”  Let’s continue.  Why is that.  I guess I am not a young chick any longer.

All right. To the point.  So there he is working very early to avoid the heat wave we are confronting in these days.  I asked him to be extra careful not to make too much noise.  It was before 8 am and one of my unwritten rules is to try to be kind to others.  So there he goes, Mr. Fix-it guy.  He turned on the faucet on the side of the house that has never been used, and there I hear a very strange noise.  I thought, what the heck is going on.  Now I may have a new problem.  I went out to check on this newly acquired melody and he told me he was cleaning the coils.  Not a big deal.  I am thinking…yeah, right!

Then he comes inside, goes upstairs to check on the furnace department and I am praying to the Heavens that the man doesn’t come through the ceiling of my living room.  Here I am, Miss Positivity herself in person.  It is easier said than done.

Then…he goes into his truck, stays there for a while, and I am thinking…how much is going to be the hit.  He comes inside…surprise!  Just the charge for checking/servicing the unit.  Everything is pretty “cool” with the unit.  Another thing to be grateful for.  One thing off my list and I am a bit relieved about having met an honest Mr. Fix-it guy.

The wheels of progress continue with their movement…down they come and then into a box.  Little by little.  It’s a zinch by the inch.  Ron’s favorite.  Don’t have a confirmed place to move to yet, but the moving truck is scheduled and so is everything else.  I am rolling down I-95 South even if my next residence will be the Atlantic Ocean.  I am not stopping now.  Look out Key West, you may have a surprise visitor.  Hope not.

So it was today, 28 June, 2011…a day of a pleasant surprise…motivating me not to procrastinate too much…and packing my stuff.

Your Happy Contessa

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”  Lewis Carroll, English author, mathematician, logician, photographer.  Best known for “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”  27 January, 1832 – 14 January, 1898.

5,012, last count of views and 179 postings.  Merci beaucoup, muchas gracias, thank you very much.

Now to the business of the title of the posting.  Probably you are thinking, what does a garbage truck has to do with gratitude?  A lot may I say so.  Let me explain.

I am in the process of moving to another place looking for what I have not lost, looking for a better looking greener grass, but all of you already know all of that stuff.  So as a result of my searching for my Mara Mara (I just made this one up, I think it means to me the ultimate experience), I have a lot of cardboard and old boxes that I needed to discard.  On Sunday afternoon, my container for the recyclables was full, so I prepared a box full of cardboard very nicely trimmed and stuffed in the box.  I was hoping the mechanic arm of the truck will get low enough to reach for the box.  Talk about turning and turning in my bed, guessing how that was going to pan out.  Even guessing if they were going to take the additional material.  So the moment of truth came.  I started watching from my very well protected window, so they could not see me.  The man came out of the truck, and placed the box with all the discards in the truck.  Alleluia!!  Talking about beginning the day with a very grateful attitude.

My concern today was cardboard pick up, somebody else’s concern may be a cure for an illness, another one for a job, another one…just use your imagination.  It doesn’t matter what the issue is that I am seeking help or an answer to, I like to start my day on my knees, being grateful I can even get down on my knees and get up again.

The important thing is to be grateful that we are able to breathe, able to walk, if we can, there’s a quintillion reasons to be grateful about every second of our lives.  Even hearing my daughter’s voice on the phone when we talk, I am so ever thankful about.

So I take this opportunity to render gratitude to my Creator and to all of you for being part of what I call, my life and its ramifications.  I have still so much growing to do, but it is with those around me that I am able to get the inspiration and motivation to go on and be my best self, keep on my quest for expanding my horizons and continuing to be forever grateful.  For everything, including the-pain-in the derriere challenges.

C’est la vie!

So it was today…27 June, 2011…a day to remember to be grateful for everyone and everything.

Your Happy Contessa

“Thank you.”  The best prayer ever!

The good thing about going out to eat is that you don’t know what to expect.  Some people’s or expert’s judgement about good food is not necessarily one you may think you are going to agree with them 100%.

I was invited by good friends in my neighborhood to a North Carolina landmark and one of the best-rated restaurants in the United States.  They, my neighbors, are a very lovely couple and because I supposedly will be moving back south next month they asked me to dinner.  So I really did not know how my opinion about the place, service and food was going to fare.

This was the dessert offering.  I know, I am starting at almost the end of the experience.  But sometimes life is like that, you get the results before you understand what hit you.  Going back to the delicious-food-evening.  Place is a big red barn, style kind of homey or very Cracker Barrel, but on a more grandiose scale.  They have a room that one of the walls is a display of old guns, rifles, etc.  Weapons enough to start some sort of small-country- revolution.  No kidding.  But in the name of decor, it does not appear or looks menacing.  Then they have the “Turkey” room/bar.  Lots and lots of figurines of turkeys, and more turkey galore stuff.  It is a place to really go there and spend a whole day just looking at the decor, and oh yes, we went there to eat.

The spinach salad is so grand.  Lots of fresh organic spinach, with lots of also good for you bacon, boiled egg, and croutons worth your salivating.  They will not share the recipe for the dressing.  Hard to explain the flavor, some sort of sweet, sour, that made the salad unconsciously tasteful.  I would have been just fine with the salad and the bread.  Butter, I believe also made from organic cows (is there such a thing?), was dripping from the toasted bread.  Who’s thinking about fat when you could die right there and not even realize you are being taken out.

That’s not even the beginning.  Carmen, our server, was just plain pleasant and very willing to make this a very unforgettable experience.  Excellent training!  She brings some type of square home-made (in this case, restaurant-made) crackers, with aged cucumbers, pickled celery, two small containers of aged cheese, cheddar and a sharper type of cheddar and an assorted type of olives.  I love olives.  I am still recovering from the so good strong-tasting cheese, washed down with the house red wine, that who cares if the gazillion of calories are just being added to your soon to pass out into a heavenly body experience.

Then, finally the steak, also very good for you, from very happy,  well-grass-fed- cows. Not an ounce of hormones or anything insulting to the beef population.  I made a mistake, as I requested the steak  “well done.”  No blood running on my account.  I should have asked for next to well done, because steak was a bit too dried.  My mistake.  Just had the leftover with my Sunday lunch salad.  Melting in my mouth.  Add rice pilaf and a baked seasoned with all herbs tomato.

Dessert?  Where?  I really wanted some key lime pie, but my eyes were bulging out.

L’addition, s’il vus plait.  The check?  I was just there to eat and generate and join in the conversation.  I was one happy and grateful camper, I mean, eater.  But I gather that I would have to save some of my personal allowance a few months to go back and enjoy again the experience.  Looking forward to that one.

So it was today, 26 June, 2011, a day to play back in my mind having had such a wonderful eating experience with fascinating people to share it with.

Your Happy Contessa

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator.  29 June, 1900-31 July, 1944.  He wrote “The Little Prince.”

Have you noticed that fruits and vegetables do not need a label with ingredients, % of this or % of that?  The only ingredients are, oxygen, water, and sunlight.  A magic brew and voila, the miracle of nature and our Creator.  The best color coordination and best tasting nature has to offer.

Cutting this cantaloupe and pear made me think of this.  Don’t even have to look at any label when you buy them.  Very simple.  Why couldn’t we just consume more of these goodies, instead of those you know what, those things.   I really could not come up with a name to describe “le garbage” we are bringing home when we go shopping for groceries.  I think I already did a posting on this issue.  But just looking around us we can see we are going down baby, we don’t need anyone from outside our frontiers to come and do us in.  We are happily eating ourselves to the road of no return.  And the curious thing, no one likes to talk about it.  We just go on happily eating and drinking and buying larger sizes.  Super size me!

Have you noticed how sizes are getting bigger?  What about the furniture?  One thing I noticed in Paris is that the chairs in the restaurants are very petite.  Even to get in and out of your seat, you have to pull the table, so you can maneuver out.  Spaces are very small and you are very close to each other.  The French paradox.  They eat a lot of creams and  butter.   This butter is just heavenly. I remember I was eating the butter by itself thinking it was cheese and Milagros told me it was butter.  That’s how good it is.  Going back, they, the French people do very happily eat and accompany their meals with plenty wine and good conversation.  There’s a grace to do that.  Here, most of the time we just get drunk and the faster we eat, the better.  Not such a good thing.

Going back to the paradox, maybe alcohol burns the fat on the way out of our systems.  Who knows.  I am not recommending use of alcohol.  Remember, alcohol burns your brain cells.  Not too many neurons to go around for me.  But that’s where the paradox resides.

One thing is for sure, and my friends, I am including myself in this constant and eternal battle, natural ingredients are so much better than those names we cannot pronounce.  They should create a country for just those little names.   Conspiracy theory working full-time here.  They give the garbage we are ingesting those names, so we don’t feel we really know what the hell we are sending down our pipes.

Only natural ingredients are better than those monos, saturated, artificial anything and you know what I mean.  Every time we are contemplating putting something in our petite mouths, let’s think–look for other alternatives.  If none is available, water is a good filler upper.

When I was working on this posting I heard a tweet from a bird and it sounded as if the bird was inside the house.  I looked to the upper glass part of my door, and there was this tiny bird serenading me with a beautiful melody.  This was my best attempt to capture this memorable moment.  Nature at its best.  It never fails.

So it was today…23 June, 2011…a day of contemplating how we should become more of one with nature.  Have the loveliest of weekends.  See you Monday!

Your Happy Contessa

“Can we ever have too much of a good thing?”  Miguel De Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright.  Don Quijote de la Mancha.  9 October, 1547 – 23 April, 1616.