Noury's Creative World…

This one is from my Memories Trunk…

The picture above was of a friend of mine and myself making an attempt to pretend to play tennis.  To my friend my apologies for cutting you off the picture, but I didn’t have your consent to use your image.  Copyrights issues.  To continue…Why were we making an attempt to pretend to play tennis?  In the 70’s, as it is today, we women would do anything to try to get a qualified candidate to notice us.  St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands is a very small island.  Everybody knew everybody and we knew that the “qualified” guys we wanted to meet would be members of the Tennis Club.  Doctors, lawyers…yes, I know…la creme of qualified snakes to make your life a bit more miserable than the regular “qualified” Joe- the-woman-wrecker.  But we wanted to give ourselves an opportunity to meet educated, good mannered, financially established kind of guys.  And that was the place alright.

 We became members, bought the cute outfits you see there, spent a small fortune getting the equipment and there we went.  To get money, you have to spend money.  Logic.

We sat at the open space clubhouse and of course, there they came.  We were totally surrounded by “the candidates.”  Finally we settled on two guys, two doctors, and full of panic, because the truth was going to be exposed that we didn’t know how to play tennis (I must admit, I had played a bit before, so I had an idea how to hit the ball).  But the goddesses of good fortune were with us that day.  The two doctors were not good at tennis at all.  Probably they had the same plan we did.  Made for each other.  My friend and I laughed all the way back home, because in many instances instead of us hitting the ball, the balls were hitting us.  We were making the rules as we went and all in all, it was just a sad situation.  The four of us didn’t know what to do to save face, so we left them with “we’ll see you again, sometime.”

What a fiasco.  Needless to say, our membership became an issue we would not discuss and the tennis outfits and equipment were tucked in the darkest corner of our closets.

The things I used to do in conjunction with my best partner in crime to try to meet interesting guys.  At least I can have a great laugh right now.  Later in life, I took tennis again, but this time was for the pleasure of playing the game and burning calories.  I still would love to play tennis…anyone?  Not looking at all for any kind of guy here.  Hope that is totally understood.

So it was today…11th May, 2011…a day to reminisce about tennis and catching “qualified” bachelors.

Your Happy Contessa

 “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”  William James, American psychologist and philosopher.  January 11, 1842-August 26, 1910.  Ralph Waldo Emerson was his Godfather.

 

This past Sunday, on Mother’s Day, one of the cutest angels in my neighborhood knocked on my door and brought me a very sweet, reddish looking and cooling to my taste buds strawberry frappe.  I am salivating right now thinking about having the little bit leftover.

After saying “Happy Mother’s Day” to me she gave me a container with the good-looking soon to be devoured frappe.  Then we visited for a while, because I enjoy talking with the younger generations and I think they enjoy talking with me.  Now, let’s get to the part that pertains to this posting.

We were talking about cable tv, DVD players, etc.  I mentioned to her that I am considering giving up cable service for tele and that I enjoy movies, even though some of them are VHS, but that’s ok because I have a DVD/VHS player.  Then she told me the story that one day she was shopping with her grandma and her grandma asked her if she knew where the VHS videos were.  Then she responded…”grandma, didn’t you get the memo?”  I started laughing, and laughing until I had tears running down my face.  That’s one of the best lines I have heard in a long, long time.  Oops, I thought, I think I didn’t get the memo either.

I have made a resolution that I need to keep up with younger things and their vocabulary, because I do not want to be left out of the soup.  Younger thinking, younger looking I am hoping.  Still looking to get the memo that describes how to make wrinkles and lines disappear.  Do anyone of you have a copy?  Please pass it along.

I am on a quest to get the memo every time one is sent out.  Please let me know as soon as there is one floating around.

So…it was today…10th May, 2011…a day in search for the misplaced memo…and in a search also for a new lingo.

Your Happy Contessa

“Grown-ups never understood anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”  Antoine De Saint-Exupery, French writer and aviator, best remembered for his novella The Little Prince.  29 June 1900-31 July 1944.

The most shocking news of my newspaper this morning to me was the headline “SETI is shutting down its alien hunt.”  An article by L. Krieger.  SETI stands for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.  Now that all of that has been established, I am still recovering from such sobering piece of news.

What am I going to do now that all information highways to our friendly out-of-space beings are closed.  I have always counted on them to bring us good news, something other than ourselves killing each other, and big companies stabbing all of us consumers on our backs.  I wanted something fresh, hopeful and lively.  The search for another medium to give us direct access to E.T. is on.

I am kind of confused.  I thought all we needed was a musical keyboard and play ta ta ta ta ta.  And then they will answer us with an array of ta ta ta ta ta ta with a beat and lights of all colors.  They do have rhythm, because their answer to our ta ta was pretty fast and very melodious.

Now on a more serious note, I think that if there is any E.T. life form out there or maybe down there, they will find the way to get in touch with us, or on a more perverse thought yet, having us for dinner.  French wine anyone?

But because we are on a slower pace of energy, we are not getting it yet, so probably “they” don’t even want to bother with us, slow pokes.  I hope I don’t see that day when “they” finally decide to play Columbus with us.  So many shuttles, so many billions spent and no reply.  We should get the message.  “They” are no that much into us.  Let’s search for another kind of entertainment.  How about digging into the core of the planet?  We may be surprised.  Of course it will be hot, but what else is new.

 Do you think all of this melee is going to affect our direct communication with our sweet angels?  I surely hope not.  I love talking with and listening to these sweet embassadors of heaven that don’t need any technological advance or set back to look out for all of us.

I suddenly feel better, even though we just have told E.T., “no more talking with you.”  Maybe we will find another way.  I am positively sure of that.

So it was today, 9th May, 2011…a day of not so hot news…and a challenge to keep on talking with E.T….

Your Happy Contessa

Hope you like my props.  It gets my neurons working overtime.  That’s a good thing.

One of my most prized possessions are my magazines.  Love my magazines.  Maybe it is because they take me to places I may never be able to visit, go into homes that portray places I would have liked to live in, be an inhabitant of beautiful and dreamy gardens, or just plain absorb what people I think highly of are thinking.

There’s so much to magazines, books and any other form of information that allow us to acquire knowledge that sometimes there would be no other ways for us to obtain. 

But…I am simplifying again.  Getting ready again…to move.  Hopefully my house is going to sell pretty soon and I need to be ready.  I have been saying goodbye for the last two years.  Talking about a long…long farewell.  I had to buy a new Christmas tree last holiday season, because I had already donated tree and trimmings to the Salvation Army.  But…I have hope that next Christmas will be celebrated in Florida, with lights on Palm trees.

I have to remind myself that the law of plenty is always working.  I have to let go of things I don’t need or use, to make room for new blessings that are waiting for me to make space for them to come into my life.  Law of reciprocity.  What you give to others, you are already giving to yourself.

So it was today…8th May, 2011…a day to be in my garage making decisions about what goes out first.

Your Happy Contessa

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”  St. Augustine, philosopher and theologian, born in Roman Africa, November 354.  Died August 430.  His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity.

I became a mommy the first day I found out I was pregnant.  Did you notice I said “I”, not “we” as in these days.  The good old days making room for the better newer days.  Officially I was blessed with a vision of my Milagros on November 12, 1979 at 11:58 am.  After a lot of push, push and enough push, there she was with a mane of thick black hair and big black eyes looking at me like saying, hola mami!  I believe that when you touch a baby, you are touching heaven itself.  The innocence and wonder of a baby.

Motherhood is a hat you wear until you go back to your Creator.  It is ingrained in you and it is an unexplainable feeling that you will carry forever to eternity and beyond, as Buzz Lightyear would have said.

These two cards were hand-made by my Milagros some years ago.  I will always treasure them and I am forever grateful that I have had the opportunity to be a mother, and very blessed that I had the privilege to be Milagros’ mami.

I wish you all a Happy Mother’s Day and also to all and everyone that had to wear that hat one time or another.

 

So it was today…May 6th, 2011…reflecting on being a mother, …so the legacies will continue…

I will be in touch again on Monday.

Your Happy Contessa

Today it is a beautiful day!!  Sunny, temperature in the mid 50’s right now, sky light blue and lots of clouds for my ever-growing collection.  The perfect day to open the windows and let the old polluted air out and let the new not so polluted yet air in.  Curtains are dancing to the wind, and I can hear all of nature’s sounds and right now someone must be in big trouble…an ambulance is cruising by with its very well-known high-tech sound.

Also today I decided to spray against bugs.  I do not like seeing creepy things on my floor.  Especially spiders.  I know…about karma…but it is their karma or mine.  To this date, I am still preferring mine.  This brings back memories…when I was growing up my mother, two of my sisters, a cousin and I were taking a trip to Puerto Rico from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  We were staying at a hospederia (hostel) overnight to take a plane the next day.  That evening, around midnight, my cousin started screaming like someone was stabbing her to death.  It was very, very dark.  She screamed that someone was touching her. She kept on screaming until the whole population of the small hospederia was up and out on the yard, wanting to know what was going on.  We were so embarrassed.  We discovered after we turned on the lights, that a big cockroach was the culprit.  The funny part is that as soon as she started screaming, all of us started to scream also.  But we didn’t know why, just that something was going on.  After we found out, of course no one could go back to sleep.  Just checking out for bugs.  Now you know my trepidation about discovering a bug in my house.  That have been a few surprises around midnight in the bathroom, but usually my hand and a tissue do the job.  At that time of the night, the only karma that rules is mine.

All the windows are open so air can flow freely and the fumes from the spray to diminish the bug population can also waltz out.  I do not want to join those statistics yet.

Same thing happens when we breathe.  It is good to let all old oxygen out and inhale new full of stuff oxygen in.  It works for me.  Whenever I have palpitations, that’s when that exercise works the best.

It is feeling pretty chilly right now, but it is a day that you feel good to be around.  Everything so green, fresh, birds singing their own melodies, and the refrigerator talking its own language.  Am I alone here?  My refrigerator makes the funniest noises, especially at night-time, when I am trying to fall asleep.  It sound like it is hurting or it needs food.  I cannot make that one out.  Even appliances these days are becoming hard to live with.  Forget about the house settling.  I only wish I knew their language so I could join in the conversation.  Being by yourself exposes you to a lot of new and improved situations.  You start talking with yourself, and that’s not that bad, it is when you start answering to each other.  You and your shadow.  I better stop right now.

So it was today…5th May, 2011, a day to say goodbye to some innocent bugs…and recycle the good polluted out and let the new one in…the cycle of life.

Your Happy Contessa

“I am still learning.”  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Italian Reinassance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer.  March 1475-February 1564

 Very often in conversations I have with friends and family, the subject of happiness always comes up.  There are countless books on happiness, there’s a movie with the title of today’s posting, there is a class at Stanford University on this subject also given to students enrolled in business classes, so I have to deduct that happiness is a very important matter in the role of being a humanoid.  My self-appointed title is what else, happy contessa.  So, yes, happiness is very important to me and I guess to the rest of the world.

How do we define happiness?  I am sure it has different meanings for each one of us.  For me, happiness is a thing of the moment.  Happy thoughts, happy moments.  It has time limits also.  Happiness in the morning is not the same as happiness at noon, afternoon or night-time.  Good coffee, having the newspaper delivered closer to my door and not on the street,  being able to breathe, to have a bathroom to go to, and opening my kitchen curtains and being exposed to my foliage is just divine.  It makes me feel as if I am part of something bigger than me and my tiny universe.  Having a moment of gratitude makes me extremely happy.

  Happiness is having a lot of books around me, peace and quiet when the moment demands it, or better put, when I feel I want to be quiet.  It is knowing my daughters and son and their families are doing just fine, and so it is knowing the rest of the clan are managing without too much drama.  Do not like drama!!  Even though, I have been known to have been a drama queen sometime some moons ago.  I didn’t know better, and loved to waste precious energy dramatizing and making grandiose every miniscule problem.

🙂               🙂               🙂               🙂                 🙂               🙂                🙂               🙂

That’s when learning that life is guaranteed with problems, paying taxes and dying came into my life to settle things down, and show me what the real priorities in life are.  First, being able to breathe, and then the rest is very thick gravy.

Most of the time, happiness is determined by staying in the moment.  Then things don’t seem to be that grand spectacle of crapola.  A 100% happiness will get to be tiresome, I think.  Utopia is eight feet below surface and they don’t seem to be doing too much noise, so I gather excitement is not one quality of the population of down below.  I am going to be cremated, so I’ll be happily joining the sharks, pretty fish and corals.  Now, that’s what I call not knowing what tomorrow brings.  One day in the Pacific, another in the Atlantic, and hopefully a lot of time in the Caribbean Sea.  I’ll be the best sun tanned sand you will ever see.

🙂                                        🙂                                         🙂                                          🙂

Let focus on the happiness issue here.  To be totally honest, sometimes I don’t even know what really makes me happy.  I sometimes equate happiness with having an eternal smile on my face.  Then the wrinkles issue comes into the picture and I have to stop laughing.  Enough lines already.  Need to invent some kind of eraser.  Saw one on one of the shopping channels, but then the product goes away after you clean your face.  Scary.  Now you see me looking old and full of wrinkles, now you don’t.  Will confuse the heck out of people who know me already and those yet to know.  I’ll keep my wrinkles in the meantime.  Less complicated.

To prove a point I made all those little happy faces.  I am tired of looking at them.  Even happiness has a limit.  Too much is just too much.  Enough is enough.  No more happy faces for the rest of this posting.

Going back to happiness, you decide what makes you happy.  And then, as they used to sing, “don’t worry, be happy.”  Hippies and Bob Marley, I think, always had it right all the time.

So it was today…4th of May, 2011…a day in the pursuit of happiness…

Your happy Contessa

P.S.  I just realized, the mention of money never came into my mind when I was thinking about what happiness is for me.  That’s fascinating.

Now that there is no sugar to be found, all the maple syrup bottles from Vermont have been exhausted, and the honey is lacking everywhere, from all the newscasters being intoxicated by these ingredients, I am going to say my piece.

I didn’t get the point that the groom was not going to get a wedding ring, even though that was discussed days after their engagement, until I saw one lonely ring sitting on the Bible, and even that ring didn’t want to smoothly go and be part of adorning Her Royal Highness’ finger, it dawned on me that the soon-to-be bald groom did not get the round piece of metal.  Deja vu!

My first still moron husband did the same thing.  Alarm, alarms are ringing!  Let me explain.  When we were dating, he was Mr. Smooth operator, come to think of it, I always attract guys that are like a magnet for women.  Well, let’s continue, he was an institution with the women in the island of St. Croix, and a very well-known,  available,  very attractive man, very elegant;  what any woman will fall for.  He used to say the right things, open the doors, pull the chair, even in our own home, and in summary, a real find and catch.  But…there is always a but…isn’t it…time was going by, we were having a grand time together…I was getting older and he was getting more interesting, you see, women, we age, men, noooo! they get fascinating.  Talking about a chauvinistic society.

The moron did not want to get married.  First husband, if you are reading this, accept it and deal with the fact, you were a moron.  So I did give him an ultimatum…get married or I am out of here.  My prime time years were clicking by.  That’s what I told him.  I gave him a month.  So the days went by and I was checking my calendar.  Always been a matter of fact kind of girl. 

One day, when he picked me up from work, grudgingly, he said that we were going to go to a place that will make me very happy.  A jewelry store!  I said, oh, that’s nice.  Then he said “but I am not getting a ring.”  A big knife went through my little happy balloon.  I told him “so…you are not getting a ring…ok, you choose one for me, I really don’t care how it looks.”  And that was that.

The day of my wedding was nice, in a garden with a 157 variety of plants, champagne everywhere, great guests, a guy playing beautiful songs with a guitar, la creme de la creme was there, but the groom’s ring was MIA.  That should have given me a clue.  He was not that into me!!!!!!   Four years later we were toast.

Now, let’s go back to last Friday’s ceremony, watched by 2 gazillion people all over the world.  Girlfriend, I mean, your Royal Highness, let me get on your face and tell you the message no one dared to tell me, His Royal Imbecile Highness is not that into you.  Finally, it is off my chest.  Did the very short honeymoon was a hint, hint.  I don’t know.  Only time will tell.  Or maybe after you have been honeymooning for over ten years, no surprises anymore.  Are you still with me… 

A message to all the brides-to-be with a groom that does not want to have a wedding ring.  Get the hell out of that relationship!  It is what it is.  Or, you tell him that you too, will not wear a wedding ring.  Equal showing for all.  And start timing your going away party from that marriage as soon as you see other signs.

There are other guys out there that will give anything to wear a wedding ring when they get married to you.  Seek and you shall find.  Remember?

So it was today…3rd May, 2011…saying my piece about to ring or not to ring.

Your Happy Contessa

It is not what people say…it is what they do…no ring…no go…no do…

  

All of us are always playing a role, even if we realize it or not.  Most of the time, we want to believe that our role is for goodness sake, and we want to be thought of as being a good person.

Babies, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, husbands, fathers, sons, and so on.  The roles we take upon depends on the kinds of influence we have had since the time we were born, and later on in life, it depends on our external influences.  These could be things, people or events.

How we define our actual role?  It depends where you are positioned in life right now.  I know that as for myself, I like the idea of always looking good border line cool.  I have a full-length mirror that approves or disapprove of my looks whenever I ask for its opinion.  Most of the time I make sure I do my best before I even think about asking.  On the other hand, sometimes I just need a confirmation that I just look dreadful.  Being a masochist is another role I play sometimes.  Especially when I eat a lot of crapola and to make myself feel worse, I go in to see Miss Cruel mirror and just stand there and get the nod, that yes, I look disgusting.

Going back to the roles we play.  Sometimes we like being a victim, but it is funny that in the role of victim if we really saw ourselves playing it, is pathetic.  What about the role of looking for approval or being needy all the time?  I don’t know which one is worse.  I am checking myself all the time to make sure that the scripts I am reading at any particular time does not include these two roles.  This is what I call self-talk all around the clock.  In these days, they call that 24/7/365.  We love numbers, don’t we.

Sometimes we play the role of “the knower all of nothing.”  That’s when keeping our mouths shut is better, even if they think we are dumb, than opening the big hole on our faces, and they will know for sure we are dumb.

Some roles I enjoy playing, some of them I realize I am playing when it is too late, and I know I have acted stupidly.  There’s nothing better than self-analysis.  It is all about evolving to achieve peace not only with yourself, but with those around you that are busy figuring out their own roles. 

Oscars are for the few that outdo themselves playing a role, but I think all and each one of us are worthy of a better award that we shall call “Best Me Ever.”

So it was today…2nd April, 2011…a day to think about what next role I wish to play.  Comedy is always a good choice.

Your Happy Contessa

These two paintings are on exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  Frieseke was a neighbor of Claude Monet, thereby the influence, and that was Ms.  O’Keeffe’s neighborhood church.

I enjoy visiting museums because I learn about the thinking of different kinds of people, their different periods and how they express their emotions, or the absence of any emotions.  My personal definition of art is:  the tangible expression of anyone’s emotion or imagination at any given time.  Artists mature, change their style and evolve, as they get different kinds of exposures.  Also, the influence of their fellow artists may affect they way they interpret their environment or any other form of connection.

Please click on the pictures to see a larger image.  Thank you!

This is just a sampler what this museum has to offer.  We visited the West Building which was opened in April 2010.  It is a “green” building and has won awards for its design that incorporates fabric filters that diffuse daylight into galleries from the side walls, and has 360 skylights with diffusers also to control the quantity of light that is filtered into the galleries.  It is an easy museum to navigate, because it is so bright and modern.  You can also appreciate the old masters paintings in the same building, but with the brightness that doesn’t make the old masterpieces seem overwhelming.

I like to visit museums because there is so much to be learned.  Today I learned and surprised myself because I am tilting towards modern art more today than I was in the past.  I was a traditional/old masters girl, but now I think modern art offers me a challenge to perceive and feel what one particular artist was feeling or trying to portray when the particular piece of art was being produced.

 

This one is titled “Pigeon” by Elizabeth Murray 1940-2007.  Oil on canvas on laminated wood construction. 

The one on the right is “Mattise Window” by George Bireline, 1923-2002.  Acrylic on canvas.

Life is evolving, and so is my taste.  I still love Monet, all the French and American Impressionists, the Hudson School of Arts,  some of the Wyeth;  I am also in love with some children illustrators, such as Kate Greenaway, Tasha Tudor and others, but my range is ever-expanding.  I guess I am becoming a more accepting person and conforming and learning from whatever it is that I am exposed to.  I feel lighter and younger. 

I do not want to forget to be appreciative to Raylene and Richard.  They invited me for this Sunday’s lovely experience.  First,  we had brunch at Whole Foods.  The french toast creme brulee was very moist with a custard consistency and I poured galore Vermont syrup, also had eggs with mushrooms and cheddar, which was flavorful with the zing cheddar has, probably was sharp, and also the poached mango that was better this time.  Art was the dessert and what a dessert it was!

Life is such a big canvas, but only we can make it magical and beautiful.  I will be sharing more of the art I was exposed to today in future postings. 

So it was today…May 1st, 2011…a day with an array of good food and interesting and beautiful art.

Your Happy Contessa

A museum is a place to expand our horizons and learn to witness others’ point of view.