04 Friday Oct 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Finding Me
I have started riding my bike in the mornings again. It has been fun exploring my new town.
It feels great to start getting back to a routine. Everything else feels in limbo, unfinished. Will write about it on the next post.
Wishing you all a blessed weekend!
23 Monday Sep 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Finding Me, travels
Tags
cooking, dessert, drinks, food, Minas Gerais, Ouro Preto, passionfruit, recipes, restaurantes, sightseeing, Tiradentes, travel
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ―
Posada Casa da Tuta
In Tiradentes we stayed at Pousada Casa da Tuta. Cozy room, delicious breakfast. I would go back there for the chocolate cake alone.
a store in Tiradentes
In Tiradentes we had a delicious dinner in a restaurant that I cannot remember the name. It had a back patio with a jazz group playing great Brazilian jazz. I remember most the black rice risotto that I had, with fish and vegetables.
Pousada do Arcanjo
In Ouro Preto we stayed at Pousada do Arcanjo – a historical themed bed and breakfast. Great breakfast, comfortable rooms, but I would have prefered a more central location.
Pousada do Arcanjo
We ate at Tropea Cantina Armazen https://www.opassopizzajazz.com.br/tropea and Bene Flauta http://www.benedaflauta.com.br/. Both great restaurants, but I don’t recall exactly what we had. In one Michael had pizza and I had the chicken fried steak with pasta. In the other I had cod fish cakes and salad, and I cannot remember what Michael had.
Bene da Flauta Restaurant
Everywhere I went I would choose a drink of passion fruit and cachaça, but at Tropea I tried a drink with gin, passion fruit and ginger foam. It was delicious.
Tropea Restaurant
Downtown Ouro Preto
19 Thursday Sep 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Finding Me
Tags
Aleijadinho, Brazil, churches, cobblestone, gold rush, Minas Gerais, mining, Ouro Preto, road trips
While in Brazil, juggling work, and personal issues, Michael and I managed to take one week off to take a road trip through some towns in the state of Minas Gerais.
One town I want to make sure to visit was Ouro Preto (Black Gold). I was there with my mom and sister when I was14 years old. I wanted to return and show Michael that area.
Ouro Preto is a charming colonial mining town, full of history, beautiful baroque churches, cobblestone streets, and so much more. It was funded in the 17th century, and it was the center of the gold rush at that time.
Besides staying a couple of nights in Ouro Preto, we stayed 1 night in Tiradentes, spent a day in Mariana and Congonhas. We also stayed at a remote bed and breakfast in Brumadinho for a couple of nights.
We wanted to be near Instituto Inhotim, and also spend time quiet time in nature. Inhotim is a gorgeous open air museum with beautiful gardens, galleries and installations.
On the way home we spent 1 night in Varginha. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to see all the UFO related tourism. Varginha supposedly had an UFO sighting in 1996.
And lastly, we spent a day in Pocos de Caldas, a town that is just is just 35 minutes away from my parent’s home. We took the cable car to Christ at the top of a mountain and enjoyed the view.
We had an amazing time and cannot wait to embark in more road trips in Brazil. I will post some photos of this trip here and in the next few posts.
10 Tuesday Sep 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Finding Me
Tags
Airbnb, beach life, construction zone, DMV, Drivers License, Milestone inspection, ocean views, rebuilding
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.” ―
09 Monday Sep 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Finding Me
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
03 Tuesday Sep 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Finding Me
“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
09 Tuesday Apr 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Finding Me
“There is still no cure for the common birthday.”
―
Last month, in the midst of finishing an audit, tax returns and other work deadlines, I turned 58 years old.
58 is just such a foreign number to me. I don’t feel it at all. Perhaps it is denial.
My twin sister and I celebrated by going to dinner at Sergio’s, our favorite Italian restaurant. We went with Michael and our cousin. It was fun, we had delicious food and talked about a trip that we plan to take together in the summer.
Birthdays have a special way of reminding us that this one life is finite. Our days here are numbered and we owe it to ourselves to make the most of all our days. That is my plan.
I don’t always succeed. Some days feel wasted. I am one of those people that want to see results, that feels that I need to be always productive. But life is not about results, it is about “ing”, the doing, the living, the trying. And that could be just ‘nothing”.
On those days that feel wasted, I look back, and I see the details. I look at the nothingness of the day and I see the immensity of it. And I am grateful.
Life is in those little details. Life is the experiences, but also the down time. Yes, it is just as it sounds: I am justifying and giving permission for me to do nothing 🙂
“I have a peculiar capacity for doing nothing and yet enjoying myself.”
― The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen
13 Wednesday Mar 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Finding Me, Reviews
Tags
a day skiing, audits and auditors, back to reality, best food, Breckenridge Colorado, living life, loving life, skiing vacation, tapas restaurant, worst food
“I feel the need to endanger myself every so often.” ―
After returning from Florida, we spent one week in NY then went skiing in Colorado. Breckenridge was divine. Too bad we cannot be on vacation forever. Real life was here waiting for me.
The audit headache continues. The new auditor that we had to hire is proving to be more difficult than the actual regulators. He has given me information that is different than the regulation that I know. At this point, with 2 weeks to go, I have no choice, but just go along and get this done. After this audit is submitted then I will have decisions to make.
Right now, after putting out a fire, I am taking a break to have coffee. I am using this moment to tell you about my skiing vacation.
I am sharing some of the pictures from Breckenridge below. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights:
Skiing continues to terrify me. I still struggle with it. I feel out of control. I panic. Still, I continue… because… I absolutely adore it! Go figure…
Now my focus is on getting this audit done. We will probably go back to Florida, and also go to Brazil at some point in the next few months. So much to do, so little time available to do it.
I hope everyone is having a great March!
Delta’s delicious breakfast
Best Food at Mimos Fancy Tapas
Mimos Fancy Tapas
Mi Casa – worst food ever – flavorless
Tom’s baby-the largest piece of gold found in Colorado
On the chairlift , feeling grateful
My happy place
A gorgeous snowy day
Ten Mile Station lodge
“I am jealous of those who think more deeply, who write better, who draw better, who ski better, who look better, who live better, who love better than I.” ―
25 Sunday Feb 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Dating, Finding Me
Tags
1 year anniversary, being happy, being happy no matter what, celebrating, happier together, happiness is a choice
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
―
From the moment I read the words “happiness is a choice”, I decided to be happy. I do not remember where I read that, but the lesson has stayed with me.
I make that choice every single day. Some days are easy. Some days not so much.
Some days are all sunshine, butterflies and cupcakes. Some days not so much. Some days, it all seems to be falling apart and I struggle not to fall into the victim mentality trap.
At those moments, I really have to work hard to remember that I can be happy no matter what is going on in my life and around me.
Happiness is not something to be achieved or acquired, but is learning to appreciate all we already have in our lives.
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
―
One of best and fastest way for me to achieve instant happiness is to make a gratitude list. Counting my blessings puts me in a happy mental space. Smiling and being grateful for being alive is pure happiness.
Chocolate cake and fresh bread with butter also help 😉
But all kidding aside. I work hard at not having my happiness tied to a person, circumstance or an achievement. I am happy just because I make that choice. Every morning I wake up and I make that choice.
Life is about choices.
***
1 Year already!!!!!!
On February 23, it marked one year since meeting Michael face to face – we started exchanging messages on February 8.
Michael has made my life more fun, more adventurous, and indeed happier.
BUT, I was happy before him. He was happy before me. I don’t expect him to make me happy. He doesn’t expect me to make him happy. We are just happier together!
And we plan on being happier together forever!
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” ―
14 Wednesday Feb 2024
Posted in Daily Life, Daily Message, Dating, Finding Me
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ―
I hope everyone is having a beautiful, loving and blessed day!
I had planned to write about love and about meeting Michael. But, for lack of time – I am going through some work audit issues – I will write about us in the future.
For now, I will leave you with a couple of quotes and my beautiful flowers.
Love and be love everywhere you go!
“But how will I know who my Soulmate is?” Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life.
By taking risks’ she said to Brida. ‘ By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in you search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end.” ―
Blessed with a Star on the Forehead 