Noury's Creative World…

Well, another surprise just happened.  This image, the one above went from my ccc to my computer in no time.  I thought, what the heck is going on here.  Let me explain.

Yesterday I sent out some emails with some photos I had taken with my ccc (cheap, chic camera).  The emails along with the pictures went into a black hole.  Nothing happened.  They are somewhere in black hole land.  Now, this morning I went about to try to send them again.  Nothing.  I included myself in the “to” line, so I was going to see what happened.  Nothing.

Better and bigger, what does it mean?  Let me see how I can explain this one.  Too much of a good thing is not good for you sometimes.  Too many mega pixels can make you spend over two hours of your day in nothingland.  Suddenly it dawned on me that maybe I should consult my know-it-all, Dr. Google.   Why didn’t I think of this before.   In one of the answers to my dilemma, it was suggested I change the camera default to less mega pixels.  Wonders of it all.  It even has a choice for pc.  I cannot tell the difference between 12 megap or pc default.  One of the emails I sent early in the morning took over one hour to be received, with only 3 pictures in it.

Technology, do to or not to do.  Change or perish.  I’ll take change (technology).  Don’t want to be left out in the dark, even if that means spending over three hours in my pajamas trying to figure something out.  In the process, my realtor shows up at the door.  I had my uniform on.  Pink robe that one of these days is going to disintegrate on the washing machine.  Someones wants to see the house in around 10 minutes or so.  ????  Thanks God for under the bed resource for storage and sweat pants and tops.  Ready in 10 minutes.  Are they buying the house?  Don’t know.  At least they saw it.  I almost wrapped the house in a bag and gave it to them for free.  I told them I was a teaser, but to remember I had the best house in the neighborhood.  Let’s leave it to the gods of to buy or not to buy.

Can you tell my muses are all down South?  I can.  I have been babbling about much to do about nothing for a while now, but it makes an impression that there’s something on the screen.  Oh boy!  Muses, please come back soon.  I am desperate around here!

Sayonara,

Your Happy Contessa

Super, super good and just right hot chili!  Last Saturday night Raylene and Richard invited me over for chili, and I am always ready for Richard’s chili.    It was Ron’s favorite also.  This time it was a bit spicy hot, which was just perfect for the cold season we are processing.  I had my ccc (for those of you that don’t know yet, that’s my cheap, chic camera), so I took some pictures, the one above included.  I love my new ccc, it has its own intelligence and knows when to flash a little or flash a lot.  Just like some humans I know, self included.  Maybe that’s why I like it a lot.

After partaking with the delicious hot stuff, we set about to watch a movie.  “The Blind Side.”  Great inspirational true story movie.  It showed something that I strongly believe in.  You have to be yourself, be strong when you need to, and most of all, dare to show up when we see a situation that needs our showing up.  This woman from the South was small in size but humongous in determination and courage.  Thanks the Creator for people like her.  All in all, it also showed that yes, it takes a village to make a difference in other people’s lives.  If we look, we shall find.  There are others just as determined as we are.

Also, to cap the evening, Raylene graciously gave me a beautiful case for my ccc, which she found when she was globetrotting a few years ago in Turkey.  How plentiful is the universe.  So much we are given.  I am always grateful, always.  She noticed that I had my ccc in a plastic sheet, so she disappeared with my ccc, and voila, a chic case for it.

Life is sooooo good!

Until next time,

Your Happy Contessa

“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.  From “The American Transcendentalists” book I have started to read.

I bought this bumper sticker on a weekend at the Outer Banks, North Carolina.  The foursome was Raylene, Richard, Ron and self.  (noticed the three R’s?)  I just noticed myself.  I buy a lot of bumper stickers, but I use them to display in my house where I think I can get the message and remember why I bought them in the first place.  

I have always believed in the self-empowerment of women, really, in self-empowerment, period.  But because I am a woman and love the study of the evolvement of the role we women have accepted in our society, due to lack of resources or lack of dare, this sign called my attention.  So many things have occurred in the past recent years of my life, that it is very important for me to realize that what I think I want to get accomplished in the rest of my days during my journey, I must promptly act, in spite of what others around me might think or advise.  My new reality (just heard that expression again in one of my novelas earlier today) is one of “the buck stops right here with me.”  Any decisions, trivial, important or no decisions, I must make taking into consideration all pros and cons, and sometimes I just make them on the spot, because it was needed.

We don’t realize what an important piece of the collective as a society we are.  I look back in my life, and all major decisions I had to make, I had to go on a limb.  But I always think, what is the worst that can happen?  Then, once I get an answer, I charge.  The best experiences in my life have been made this way.  Call them guts, instinct or just plain “having cojones” as Ms. Madeleine Albright once called on Fidel Castro at the United Nations.  In life we write our story, so let’s make sure it is a really incredible one, one that your great, great-grandchildren will have something to talk about.

Let’s make our lives a memorable one.  Let’s start a garden, an association, let’s look around and see what’s needed and let’s do it!  I believe Emerson said something to the effect that if just one life has breathed easier because we have existed, we have succeeded.

Until next Monday,

Your Happy Contessa

Today, after almost six days of being held hostage by self in this house, I ventured out to where else, the rectangular box looking store.  Picked some veggies, some eggs, and other essentials, among them my 72% cocoa dark master.   Have to be prepared for next shut down.  Passing by the Electronics Department, I glanced at the camera I had purchased on December 31st, and I’ll be…It was marked down $10.00!   Promptly I searched for an employee, and she told me to bring the receipt and the camera and all its stuff back and I will receive a $10+tax credit on my credit card. 

After finishing my shopping experience, I get in line behind a man who somehow reminded me of Ron when I met him.  Now, bear in mind, I was only looking at his back, nice slim body, tight jeans  (we women do look at other things in men besides their faces), and his grayish looking hair.  Not bad, I thought.  Just the right type.  It made me stand up straighter, you know, not to show my 62 maracas, and fixed up my hair, vanity checked.  Then…and then…this is a big then…the man turns around and smiles to the cashier, and…NO TEETH!  Lord forgive me, but I am still cracking.  I feel so guilty for laughing so bad, but I had to go to another register, because I couldn’t control myself.  Poor guy.  Maybe he had just returned from the dentist, maybe the same one that told a dear person that in order to fix his teeth, he’ll have to remove all of them,  or whatever his reasons, but I will never forget that moment.  Not everything that shines is gold.

That’s the reason of posting my picture.  Is it for real, or what added stuff I have.  Hair coloring (check) things meeting gravity (checked) bags under the eyes (checked) and who knows what else.  I am writing this because it goes to show how vain I could be some times, and that sometimes I pass judgement without having all the elements necessary to make a conclusion.   That this moment will give me a big laugh for the rest of my life, you  can bet on that, but it will make me pause and check the product inside out before making any conclusions.  As far as it goes, probably I won’t change much, I will continue to be this way, just a bit more cautious.

Later on I returned to the store to get my $10 credit.  They told me that they couldn’t do it because it had been 13 days since I had purchased the camera.  They only honor seven days for price adjustment.  Oh my!  I can return the camera within 30 days, and they cannot adjust the price after seven days.  I told the lady, ok, let me return the camera, already used, etc, and in turn I go to your camera dept. and get a brand new camera and $10 credit on my card.  Does that make sense to you, I asked her.  She called her supervisor, and after some elementary logic being exchanged back and forth between all of us, the supervisor, being a smart cookie decided to let me keep the camera and credit my account with the amount mentioned.  Persist, always persist!  Use of logic always beats the punch line.  Moments later, I am $10.78 wealthier.  Not bad for a toothless day experience and use of some elementary logic.

If you think there is a thread of narcissism in me, you are absolutely right.  That’s an elementary part of my whole.  That’s part of being a sane, and happy person.

Enough for today,

Your Happy Contessa

This little one was looking for food, something or a compass?  When I saw him/her (from now on, the gender should be referred to as hh, because we don’t know),  I thought, what the heck is hh doing in this neck of the woods.  Shouldn’t hh be already in the Southern most part of the east coast,  or getting close to that area?  Maybe hh is just like me.  Wants to go further south, but have to stay around for one reason or another.  Then I saw a few blue birds, they were so beautiful!  What’s going on I thought again.

I got my new chic cheap (ccc) camera (if we are nicknaming other things, why not the camera), and tried the zoom control.  A few minutes later I realized I needed a better camera.  No, no, I am not buying a new one right now, but the next one has to be able to capture the roots of the grass growing under the ground.  That’s how good it has to be, in the meantime, this one does wonders, considering the one I had before.

The bird, yes the bird, I forgot how cold it was, so I just took my ccc and went outside to try to snap some shots, and then I realized what I had done.  Cannot go back inside, because by the time I come back out with a coat, the magic  moment will be gone.  That’s exactly what happened.  This was the best result I go from all the shots I took. 

Was this just my imagination playing tricks on me to make me feel better about this winter of my discontent, or was it just a disoriented young bird?  While I was trying to figure all of this out, BAM!  A piece of ice landing on my small concrete pad.  Time to go back inside, I said to the non-existent bird, and to myself.

It amazes me what can pop up into your life, if you are paying attention.  Maybe hh came into my life for that moment, so I could have something to tell y’all today.  There’s always something to talk about.  All we have to do is stop, look and listen.  There’s magic everywhere, even within ourselves.

Not too bad, wouldn’t you say?

Until the next magical moment…

Your Happy Contessa

Finally, the soup materialized…very easy and simple to do, but just right for a cold day such as today.  Door bell…I wonder who that can be at this time of the night, oops!, it is only 6:32 pm, but it looks and feels as if it was getting close to midnight.  It is Miss Hannah, (remember, she is one of the girls that cleared up my sidewalk) my wonderful neighbor.  Chili and corn bread!  The goodness of this family is one of my biggest blessings here in North Carolina.

Going back to the soup.  It takes about one hour and you just brown the turkey (85/15 grounded) with olive oil (extra v), then add seven cups of water, bring to a boil, add the mix already prepared in an envelope, and let it simmer for one hour.  I added some veggies I had left from last night’s dinner (fresh pasta from my angelic neighbors) and just waited for my warm and magic brew.  It hit my cold self just right.

I ran out of my 72% cocoa chocolat!  When I was growing up in the Caribbean, there was not an opportunity to learn ice skating, so I didn’t think it was wise to venture out to get the dark master.  I remembered I received for Christmas, from my charming and lovely  step-daughter, Kym, and her family among other things, a tin can with kisses inside.  Seek and you shall find.  I am covered for the next few days.  I’ll have to limit my intakes of these kisses to four a day.  Thank you Kym, you saved my daily intake of chocolat.

Now I am getting mentally prepared to see what next thing I am going to concoct to keep myself from becoming lunatic.  Need to get out of this house!

 Your Happy Contessa

P.S.  Yes, I know, the plate is missing a small piece, but I cannot bear to part with this one.  Only have three left and I bought them in an estate sale in Florida long ago.  The soup tastes better in these plates.  The tin with butter cookies in it has not yet been opened.  Will have to wait for another worthy major crisis.

Yes, 11:oo am came on Monday, and not a sight of anything white or colorless dropping from the sky.  Oh well, I thought, no excuses available, so I guess I have to go to the Community Center today.  But because it was a bit later than I usually have been going (2 days last week), I thought that maybe there won’t be any hot walkers at the trail.  Not a chance!  There were three already, and guess what.  Two to them were in a maniacal rush to get to heaven faster that they are scheduled to.  Man, they (a man and a woman) couldn’t walk fast enough to beat each other.  Not only that, but the woman got into one of those machines and all I could hear was the clicking to make the machine go faster, faster.  By the time I left (30 minutes), she had gone back to speed walking and the man was still walking but his face looked as if he was in real pain.  These people were not spring chickens, around my age or older.  That’s a puzzle to me.  Why do we do things that are supposed to be good for us, but we do it stressing the heck out of our organs, especially our little heart.  We are nuts!  But now that I think about it, maybe it works for them.  Not for me, buddy.  I am a slow poke in no hurry to beat the track.  Besides, I was always looking to the outside to see if anything white was falling to the ground, so I could cut short my 30 minutes, but no luck.  As I was walking out, waving goodbye to Miss Linda, little white droppings (no pigeons around) started to show up.  By the time I got home and put the garbage containers back to where they belong, it was all gone.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I am disappointed for not having any snow yet, but after all the hype on television, come on, something got to give.  And the sky over my location is oblivious to all of it.  Maybe it is a good thing.  Where are you Martha?

The walking shoes you see above, I purchased back in Florida around 2005, when my husband and I sold our antiquarian bookshop.  That’s when I started my walking gig.  I feel better after I do it, it is the battle before I go out to walk that is the challenge.

It is 3:49 pm, nothing yet.  Maybe we’ll be lucky.  Maybe not.  Either way, I am prepared.  My wonderful neighbors, Miss Kim and her daughter, Hannah, just came by to spray some mix on my walk path so the snow won’t stick.  There are still angels all around us.  They were the ones that cleared my sidewalk and path to my door when I returned from D.C. and we had all that snow.  Maybe I do look like a little old lady after all, that can use all the help anyone can provide.  This family has been a beautiful support system for me after Ron went to heaven.  I am grateful for them.

Oh, I forgot, I am supposed to make some soup and the beans in it need some time, so I better get downstairs (the tundra) and get cooking.

Until next time,

Your Happy Contessa

P.S.  It is 8:24 am on Tuesday and there is one solid sheet of ice covering everything outside.  My newspaper delivery person is the hero of the month.  There it was, inside two plastic bags, the newspaper.  I had to walk on the grass, that was very crunchy, I didn’t want to risk having to go to the hospital by walking on the sidewalk.  Unless the clouds up there decide to come apart, to let the sun shine through, this ice is going to be with us for a while.  Please gods of the clouds, be extra nice.  There are things to do and people to see.  That’s funny.  Do you think this ice will be there tomorrow morning.  That will be outrageous, I need to do my walk!  By the way, no soup for me yesterday.  Maybe today.

I am exhausted…it is only 2:45 pm Sunday afternoon and I am ready to sit again to continue the process of the disappearing derriere.  That’s until I go to Wal-Mart to see about those magical balls that will stop the disappearing act.  There’s not worst thing than being your own boss, especially if you are a very demanding person.  I am, but this way of being is taking its toll.  No wimpology principle is tolerated in Happyville.

Oh yes, the quilt.  I started this quilt over twenty years ago.  My late mother-in-law, Miss Margie, she made beautiful quilts.  I saw one with a lot of little squares and then I thought, I can do that.  I still have that streak of invincibility in my aging personality.  I think I can do anything.  Sometimes that’s the only way I can  survive.  Anyways, I didn’t ask her one question about quilts and the process.  I’ll show her, I told myself.  Now she has been in heaven for quite a while, and the quilt was very placidly resting in one of my closets until my restless self found it.  I thought again, of yes, I can finish this thing before I become energy myself, along with playing the guitar.  That guitar stares at me every second that I am sun bathing in my winter retreat.  Patience, dear guitar, patience.  Going back to the quilt, the thing is that the same way you measure a tv screen, you know, at a diagonal angle, well, the quilt has somehow taken an odd shape.  It is not square, it is not rectangular, it is just that, odd.  I refuse to cut it to make it even, so I am going to have to be very creative, so that a 100 years from now, when my daughter’s great-great grandchildren see it, they will find some surprises in its structure and the way it was put together.  Then they’ll say, wow, look at what abuelita (Grammy)  did to make it work.  Hummmm.  Hopefully they will not take after this trait, to take shortcuts.

It is a big quilt.  72″x78″, that is, after tucking and shoving some of the little squares.  It is pretty too.  I embroidered her name, date and time of birth, place of birth and added some drawing such as flowers, a little house and the sun.  Also, it says how much I love her.  The concept is very touching, but the process keeps on getting complicated.  Now I know why it was in the closet.  But I am finishing that thing this winter of my discontent.  Promise.  Let me add, that all those little squares were sewn by hand, one by one.  Now the next step is the batting, I think.  Wal-Mart to the rescue again.  Oh, and the ball.

So many things to do, and hopefully the winter will last long enough for me to accomplish all I am set to do.  What did I just say?  Winter…long enough?  I must be losing some of the screws up in my cranium.  One of these days, the muse that is on her way on  I-95 South may find some company.  Until then…

Stay warm.

Your Happy Contessa

Well, there you have three of them…probably you are thinking, what’s with her now?  This afternoon, after sitting at the computer for a few hours, when I was getting up from the chair, I realized how my derriere was kind of sore.  Then, as you probably know a bit of me by now, I thought, man, I am sitting too much.  Then I thought again, (I am always thinking)  need to do something.  But when I went downstairs to see what’s for dinner, it dawned on me that I was going to have to sit to eat and then to watch the news and my novelas.  Too many musical chairs. 

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone were to invent a chair that nurtured our derrieres.  What I mean by that is (I am sure this is an issue that is not gender biased) that instead of our back’s small protuberance (mine is) disappearing as we more and more sit, there would be chairs that will make our back side really look like a back side and not like a flat piece of board.  That’s the way I look to myself whenever I look on the full length sized mirror.  It is a good investment as everything really shows up.  What you have that is too much, what you are missing, what is out of control and the things that are dropping trying to catch up with gravity.  Right now I am sitting on the edge of my back side so my almost non-existent derriere does not continue to disappear.

Did you think it ends there?  Noooooooo, when you are ready to go out, and you lock your door, what happens next?  There it is!  Another derriere flattener  device  waiting for you.  Your car seat.  I must admit my new cheap chick camera does wonders.  It was dark, really dark outside when I took this picture, and look at the results.  Now, going back to the real issue, I don’t have the foggiest idea what I am going to do about this dilemma.  In the meantime, need to walk some more.  Maybe I can walk while I sleep.  Anything to have a nice looking derriere!  Help out there, need some suggestions.  I am not getting any younger and plumply, everything is going down to meet gravity, all of my parts included.  One of my sisters bought one of those things some women wear to look more plentiful, but I am afraid that if I were to use one of those,  it might turn the wrong side and I may be showing some curves in the wrong places.

These are some real serious issues.   HELP!!!!!

Your Happy Contessa

 P.S.  This posting is for today and tomorrow.  Need to walk some more.  Brrrrrrrrrrr, it is cold outside, but it is either a disappearing derriere or hitting the road!

Welcome to my favorite winter spot.  It is the warmest, brightest and most  welcoming spot to an always cold body in my house.  Here I take in my daily doses of Vitamin D (whenever the clouds allow the center of our planetary system to shine through), ponder on things to do or not to, and feel grateful that at least I have this place upstairs (that’s why it is warmer) to escape to whenever the views from the windows downstairs are so depressing.  No sun, no warm feeling, not so hot for my usually happy and content person.  Here I concoct what I would like to see materialized in my life.  The resolutions are somewhere hidden under one of those books.  Dreams, accomplishments and resolutions are totally different things for moi.  Sometimes they cross each other’s paths, but very briefly. 

Today the muse that usually inspires me with a funny line called a few minutes ago, from some rest stop on I-95 South.  She is driving as fast as she can, probably will get to the Keys and keep on driving herself into the ocean.  It is spicy cold (noticed I used a new word?) even in Florida.  My sister in the Dominican Republic tells me that it is very cold there also.  I subscribed to Skype for a 120 minutes rationalizing that I could talk to her 30 minutes a week, but those are gone in just one conversation.  Does anyone know of a very cheap way to call a cel phone in the DR?  Ok, let’s go back to the cold issue.  Let’s try to revisit the South Pole theory again, shall we?  Or how about the Equator?  Maybe I will start my list of those countries to keep in mind for next time.

I am reading books on Julia Child, Martha Stewart and some guru guy to keep my mind motivated and focussed on the important things in life.  Food, beautiful surroundings and peace of mind.

With that note, today is just another great day, rain, shine, snow and whatever else.  

Make it happen!  Whatever that is for you.

Your Happy Contessa