Author Archives: A Star on the Forehead

A successful visit to the DMV

11 Wednesday Sep 2024

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I could not have made it this far had there not been angels along the way. – Della Reese

I am now the proud owner of a Florida Driver’s License.

I am happy to say that the trip to the DMV was better than expected. I expected to be turned away because I didn’t have my Social Security card and didn’t have anything else to prove my number. All the documentation I had, such as a 1099, only showed the last 4 digits.

It turns out it was a non-issue, I only had to sign a paper attesting that I know my number. 

Michael had a later appointment at 2pm, to get car registration and plates. I asked if they could see him earlier and they agreed to get his items done along with mine.

While being helped, Michael pointed out to me all the angel figurines that the clerk that was helping me had on her booth. He, quietly, said to me: Look at all your angels! Even though he professes not to believe in such things, he has heard me, time and time again, mentioning that I always encounter angels in my way.  They always help me out.  I think he is becoming a believer!

Angels appear in many different forms to hold your hand through the difficult times.- Doreen Virtue

I was not able to see any office spaces today. I hope to be able to see a few tomorrow. I am eager to get a lot things resolved, and stop feeling in limbo.

Floppy in Florida

10 Tuesday Sep 2024

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“Disruption of our mental construct can be deeply disorienting. Still, it may also provide an opportunity for growth and reevaluation, prompting us to rebuild our mental frameworks perhaps more resiliently than before. (“Then everything was capsizing.”)”― Erik Pevernagie

Even though we have closed on our new condo in June, we are only now returning to Florida.

We chose to stay at an Airbnb for a couple of reasons. First, we have no furniture, linen, silverware, anything at all; and second and more important, we didn’t know how the work being performed on the exterior would be affecting the interior.  

In Florida, every building that is 3 stories and higher must undergo a Milestone Inspection to assess the health of the building. This building failed miserably and it resulted in major work to be done. And major assessments.

While the seller had paid for all the assessments by June, it turns out that there will be more assessments necessary, as the work continues. We expected that.

We just didn’t expect that the work in the balcony would be coming into the living room.   The doors, windows and wall facing the ocean have been all taken down.  At this moment, our beautiful ocean view is blocked by sheet rock.

Michael and I were a bit startled by the amount of work that needs to be done, and how dismantled the whole front of the building is. But we are trying to remain positive that in the end we will have a perfect structurally sound place.

 Fingers crossed that the work will go fast and be done correctly; and that there will not be tons of extra assessments. 

Tomorrow, I will be going to DMV to get a Florida Drivers License and will also be continuing my search for office space.  Wish me luck 🙂

“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” ― Roy T. Bennett

Here and there, and everywhere

09 Monday Sep 2024

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Hi Friends,

I am not sure what happened to my last post. Al I see is one quote.  I am guessing that when I hit edit after it had been published, I somehow accidently deleted all of it, except for that 1 quote.

In that post I was talking about being back from Brazil after being there for 2 months, and all I did there. My time there flew by, and yet it felt like time stood still.

After 2 months in Brazil, I was in NY for one week, and now I am in Florida, working out of an Airbnb.

In the next few posts, I will be expanding on my time in Brazil, and will be posting pictures of a road trip that Michael and I took. I will also be giving you an update of my life now, in NY and FL.

I am also hoping to reconnect with my friends here. I have been catching up on your blog, and hope to have a chance to leave comments, as I cannot leave likes (thank you WP!)

Love, light and blessings to all!

“I come home—and I have a feeling of returning like a ghost to its haunt.”― Virginia Woolf

Absence makes the heart grow fonder :-)

03 Tuesday Sep 2024

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“For a moment I felt the quiet hungering thing that comes inside when you return to the place of your origins, and then the ache of mis-belonging. It was beautiful, this place, and it was savage. It swallowed you and made you a part of itself, or it you proved too inassimilable, it spit you out like the pit of a plum.
I’d left here of my own will, and yet it seemed the city had banished in much the same way I’d banished it. Seeing it now after so long, seeing the marsh grass pitching wildly around the edges of the city, the rooftops hunkered together with their ship watches and widow walks, and behind them, the steeples of St Philip’s and St Michael’s lifted like dark fingers, I was not sorry for loving Charleston or for leaving it. Geography had made me who I was.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

The child becomes the parent

09 Tuesday Jul 2024

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“No man is an adult while his parents are alive. Until they die he is merely a performance to either please or punish them.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Adjustment Day

Things have been crazy for me in Brazil.

I am juggling work and the household operations at my parents. My brother helps my parents, and as they age he has to step in more and more. I came to Brazil to see my parents, but specially to give my brother a break.  He just took off on 2 weeks vacations now, and I intend to have him take some more time in August.

We have 2 ladies that come to clean and cook. One comes Mondays and Fridays and the other comes Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are fairly new to the house, so they are a bit lost, and still have to been told what to do. We used to have one person 2 days a week.  She was great, but she relocated and we haven’t been able to replace her.

I got here right at month’s end and beginning of the new month – my busiest time at work. I have an audit to do and bonuses to work on, so it will get a little crazier before it gets better.

I have been cleaning and organizing. Every time I come to Brazil, I try to leave things better than I found them.  I like to think that I often succeed. 

I have been able to start Pilates. I will be doing it at least 3 times a week. Some days it will be at 7am and other days it will at 7pm. My body needs it. My body is showing the effects of over indulging in the cruise and all the amazing Brazilian sweet desserts.

Have you ever Coffee flavored Coke?  I tried and I am not a fan.

Coca-Cola com CafeCoca-Cola com Cafe

I want to be persistent as this flower.  They grow anywhere, even sprouting from the cement in my mom’s backyard.

Persistent Flower

Persistent Flower

Michael adores animals, specially these little monkeys that we have in a park in a neighboring town.  There are about 50 of them living there. Unfortunately, I have been told that most of them have diabetes because people feed them sweets.  They live in an area full of kiosks selling all kinds of treats,  so it is very easy for people to give them some, without realizing the harm they are doing.

 

On the way

26 Wednesday Jun 2024

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Writing from the Uber on the way to JFK.

There is always so much to take.

There will be the day when I travel with just a backpack.

One can dream…

Selling, Buying, Cruising and Flying

24 Monday Jun 2024

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Since my last posting of May 9th, a lot has happened.

Michael and I had decided that in 2024 we would try traveling more, and see how remote work from different places would work out.

We also thought that we would take 2024 to decide where we would be making our official headquarters.

That was the plan. While in Florida in May, we were driving around in nearby towns in Florida, when we saw some balloons indicating an open house. We decided to stop and check it out.

While there, the realtor mentioned another condo for sale. We drove to the other condo, which was 30 minutes away. We fell in love with it. We made an offer and after some negotiating we got the place.

Michael sold his place in New Smyrna. I am selling one of mine in NY. His place went fast, mine has been in the market for a couple of weeks already.

Our new place is already ours as of 2 days ago 🙂 but we will not move in until we return from Brazil.  We are going to Brazil on Wednesday for at least 2 months.

I was forgetting to mention, at the beginning of June I took my first cruise and I loved, loved, loved. It was a MSC cruise to Bahamas. I enjoyed everything about it, and plan on taking more cruises in the future.

Below are some pictures.  I hope to have more time to write from Brazil. It has been  insane for me.  I will give more details in the future.

Thank you for stopping by.

Silent, but not gone :-)

15 Saturday Jun 2024

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Today is all we have!

17 Friday May 2024

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“Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meeting new old friends, and eating mistakes

09 Thursday May 2024

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“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last Saturday Michael and I met his best friends for lunch at Fishlips Waterfront Bar & Grill in Cape Canaveral . He has been friends with this couple since college. Michael, like myself, is not the best at keeping in touch with friends, so I don’t expect to meet many more people.

I really enjoyed meeting them. They are such great people.  We plan on traveling together in the future. The husband and I share the same birthday.  I love such coincidences.

The food was good and fresh. I had the mahi mahi tacos and to drink I had a prosecco wit lychee. I saw a couple of dolphins and seagulls. It was a fun day!

“There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.” ― Jim Henson

My baking continues with mixed results. Lately I have had some success, but also some really bad failures while attempting to make the perfect rye bread. I don’t really care for rye bread, but it is Michael’s favorite, so I am in search of the best bread-machine rye bread recipe.

At lunch I was talking about my adventures with the bread maker, and mentioned the mistakes I made with the rye bread. My number one mistake is not following the recipe properly.

My new friend said: “we eat our mistakes”.

Haha, I love that. I also eat all my mistakes, the edible ones and all others.

Isn’t it better to eat our mistakes than to let them eat away at us?

We have to learn from our mistakes and move on. Stop obsessing about it. Just do better next time.

Here are 2 winners that tasted amazing:
A rye bread, that I have not been able to reproduce not matter how many times I try.  


Irish soda bread

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert Einstein