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

Less social media, more real living

03 Friday May 2024

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“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” –  Maya Angelou? (not sure)

Embarrassing confession here: I have been wasting time on social media. 

Why?

Curiosity? Killing time? 

I don’t know.

I know it is a waste of valuable time, and an exercise in nothingness. 

I guess what sparked my social media binging, it was, at first, a trip to the past.  A few people reached out on Valentine’s Day and on my birthday.   I call them ghosts from the past.  They resurface every now and then.  I don’t reply anymore.

I started looking into some of their social media. For the record, I don’t want these people in my life.  

Still,  I got curious and went snooping.  And I didn’t stop with them.  All of a sudden I am back to a place I was in the past, which is, the constant social media surfing.  I now know the latest about all celebrities and influencers.

What a waste of time! Who cares what dress an influencer is using, or where an old friend went on vacation?

I caught myself when I realized I was using this internet surfing, as a mental escape from the stresses of work.  Every second I felt overwhelmed, I found myself in someone’s social media.

This whole rambling on, is just to say that I am, once again, fully resolved to stop going down this path of destruction.  Destruction of a good mind and precious time.  I am resolved to stop the endless snooping and reading of stuff that has nothing to do with my life, and it doesn’t add anything to it.

I have so many projects to finish, at work and personal.  I am behind on my visits to your blogs. I haven’t caught up with any friends.  There is so much I could be doing instead.   I am embarrassed I am robbing myself of precious time.

And another thought on checking up the social media of old friends and exes, it keeps dragging me back to a past I don’t want to go back to.

Realization and accountability are the first steps.  I promise myself to do better.

Wishing you all a blessed weekend!

“I feel keeping a promise to yourself is a direct reflection of the love you have for yourself. I used to make promises to myself and find them easy to break. Today, I love myself enough to not only make a promise to myself, but I love myself enough to keep that promise” ― Steve Maraboli

ps. please pardon typos and other error – too busy surfing 🙂

March the month of meaning

29 Monday Apr 2024

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“When the future begins to run out, the journey to the past in our minds increases tremendously because there is no longer any room to go beyond, so we go back to expand our lives in a virtual way!”  ― Mehmet Murat ildan

Hello friends,

I am still trying to cleanup my Drafts Folder.  It will feel like a huge accomplishment when I am done.  I have already deleted a lot of them, but will be posting some every now and then.  No editing.

The comments will be turned off on the old posts, as they represent where I was, but not where I am today.

This one is form 2015.

***********

Welcome March!  One of the best months of the year for me!!  Why?  Well, for starters it is my birthday month:-)

It marks 3 years of writing this blog

It marks my 49th birthday

It marks my getting my 2 bedroom apartment

It marks the International Day of the Woman

It marks my favorite person’s b day.

It marks the past, it marks the future.

So much to be grateful for.

So much to be proud of.

Hard work, God’s blessing, tenacity, luck, the right people, patience, lessons and learning.

My 2015 starts now.

I didn’t go skiing, but I am not terrified as I was before,  that I will never go skiing again.

Life is good, and it will only get better.

Always grateful!

We are Invaluable

26 Friday Apr 2024

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“I have always said that if you undervalue what you do,                                       the world undervalues who you are.             
And when you undervalue who you are,                                                            the world undervalues what you do.
My experience is that women are, unfortunately, masters at both.”
― Suze Orman

 

“Strong people have a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness; they don’t need the approval of others.”
― Roy T. Bennett

 

“I will not be “famous,” “great.” I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one’s self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.” – Virginia Wolf

Lunch on St. Johns River

23 Tuesday Apr 2024

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“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

Inspired by the visit to DeBary Hall, and learning about his steamboat trips along St. Johns River, Michael and I decided to take a river cruise.

St. Johns River is the longest river in Florida and it is the only one, of very few in the world, that flows south to north.

We chose a 3-hour lunch cruise on the Barbara Lee. The Barbara Lee was built in 1986 and refurbished in 2012. 

We boarded at 11am.  We were seated by the window on the first level. We were served pecan buns as soon as we sat down.  They were delicious. 

After giving our waitress our lunch orders we went outside to take in the views.  It was a gorgeous day. We sat outside for awhile I enjoyed a mimosa.

We returned inside around 12:30pm for lunch. Michael, and it seemed like everyone else, ordered the salmon.  I was between the chicken parmigiana and the prime rib.  In the end I, regretfully, ordered the prime rib.

The meat looked awful. I took a tiny bite and even though it was not so bad,  I couldn’t get past the look of it.  I ate the mashed potatoes, green beans and the bread rolls with butter. For dessert there was red velvet cake. We enjoyed that very much.

There was also an entertainer singing some oldies, but goodies, such as Frank Sinatra’s songs. I really enjoyed that.

I highly recommend this boat trip for a fun day.  Just don’t order the meat.  They also have dinner cruises and other theme nights.  

Afterwards we walked around downtown Sanford, which is a great little town.

 

“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.” ― Hermann Hesse

Gullible much?

18 Thursday Apr 2024

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“Fame is proof that people are gullible.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I first starting going on my bike rides in the morning and my walks in the evening, I kept noticing this beautiful duck in this little pond.

I noticed that he was always in the same spot and always alone.  I felt sorry for him, as he seemed lonely.  

Then, a few days into my walks, Michael decided to walk with me.  I pointed out the duck to him. 

He said: “It is fake”.

All of a sudden it made complete sense.  I felt so dumb.  Why didn’t I realize that before?  It never moved. It looked so perfect.

Oh well! Now the question is: Why is there a fake duck in the pond?

“I am extremely gullible when I lie to myself.” ― Michael Ian Black, You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death, and Other Humiliations

 

Love is togetherness, but is also independence.

16 Tuesday Apr 2024

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This is one of my favorite excerpts from The Prophet:

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

― Khalil Gibran