Bye, bye weekend...

The weekend is over and all I got left of it is, the good memories and some pictures to prove it.

Saturday we went to the beach during the day and then at night to a friends birthday party, we had a good time!

coral

Sunday morning we went for a dive with a friend from high school and her boyfriend. I probably haven't seen my friend Maria Fernando for at least 10 yrs! We had a nice dive (even saw a nurse shark), a delicious lunch with great conversation.... They are visiting the island for a week so I am sure we are going to see them again in the next few days.

 Me & Maria Fernanda

Then in the evening we went to dinner with my husbands cousin, his wife and kids who are also here visiting  from Washington DC.

It's funny, sometimes we go months without visitors, and now this week we have more than one visitor at the same time, that's alright cause we like visitors!

Well, now it's Monday again so it's back to work, and all that's left at the beach is this lonely board (and a crooked horizon, LOL!)....

Have a nice week!!!

Serenity Saturday

Even though I don't particularly care much for frogs (at least when they are close, and it looks like they are ready to jump on me), I do love this picture...

 

Happy Weekend and many beautiful days full of serenity, 

from my pond to yours!!!

"Flower Power" Friday

Today's flower is blooming in my own back porch, it's a beautiful Fire Dancer Cattleya Orchid.

After about 2 & 1/2 years of having this orchid, it's the first time it delight us with this wonderful gift, so it's pretty special to us. Happy Weekend!!!!

Letter from a "criminal"....

"Dear" Mr. Traffic policeman (who yesterday saw me parked in the wrong zone);

According to you, my car was withing 45 feet of a pedestrian crossing, although yourself managed to park your car in front of mine and still had enough space between the crossing on the street and my car, but you also insist that my car was obstructing...

Them Mr. Traffic policeman, when I came back to my car you were sitting inside yours, right there in front of mine, doing whatever is it that you do, and because of this you were unable to come out of your car and give me the ticket in person, instead you check the computer files for my personal information, got my cell phone number and called me but not without harassing me over the phone.

When I answered the phone, you Mr. Traffic policeman asked me my name, then proceed to asked me the following in the worst possible attitude of abusive power:
Do you drive a white Honda CRV? I answered, Who is this?
Are you driving your car? I answered, Who is this? (again)
Is it you driving your car or is it somebody else, where are you? Again I said, if you don't tell me who this is, I am going to hang up...

Then Mr. Transit policeman, (after my reaction to your harassment), you identified yourself, but not without asking me the questions again, then I answered all of them, and you proceed to tell me that you were going to give me a summit for a ticket....

And here's the deal Mr. Transit policeman, if in fact I was parked in a wrong zone, if I was breaking the law, I will take full responsibility of my acts and pay whatever fine I have to, and I know you are only doing your job, but part of being a policeman or a public servant is to give the example of education, politeness and empathy (yeah, well at least in Utopia)...

I wonder Mr. Traffic policeman, why do you have to harass people like that? If I did something wrong, like I mentioned just before, I'll take full responsibility of my acts but there's not need of you to invade my privacy and call me to ask all of these questions like I'm some kind of criminal...

Now Mr. Traffic policeman, I have called your Superior and complained about your procedure, attitude and the way you handle your so call "power of the law". Because Mr. Traffic policeman, if this is the way you treat a good citizen, I don't even want to imagine how you treat criminals, or is it maybe you've watch one too many "Dirty Harry" movies?

Best regards,

Wordless Wednesday

Greetings to you...

Lately I cannot help but noticing how rude people can be.

From when I was a little girl my parents always teach me (and sometimes even forced me) to say hello to people, specially grown ups, to shake their hand or even kiss them if applied, so I guess I'm pretty used to encounter people and greet them. I know you cannot do this with everybody that you encounter during the day, but at least those that you make eye contact with you should, right?

Let me explain when I coming from with this:

I work at a gallery which is part of a souvenir/apparel shoppe building located right in front of the waterfront in downtown George town, Grand Cayman. This is probably the most touristic zone of the whole island (besides the beach), so daily I have to deal with at least 98% of tourist customers.

The gallery is located on the second floor of our building, so as soon as people come up and are at the top of the stair (if there's nobody around), they can see me sitting at my desk usually catching up on my emails, sending my orders, etc...

So as soon as I see them I try to make eye contact and greet them: -"good morning/good afternoon, welcome to the gallery"... Very few people actually acknowledge my greeting and reply to it nicely. But most people act like I talked to them in some weird alien language and their heads might just explode if they look into my alien eyes. So instead they just look down, keep on walking and ignored me before they even dare return the greeting....WTF?

It's not like they need to come right at me and give a kiss or even introduce themselves, but c'mon I am the first person they see up here, and sometimes it even happens with people that are walking right by me and they still don't return my greeting, how rude!

photo source iStockphoto

I don't know if this happens because people feel intimidated when walking into a gallery, like if they talk back they might just break something and will have to pay for it... LOL!

Another scenario is when people are looking at the art and I approach them and say: -"If you have questions or comments about our art, please I'll be glad to help you, so let me know"... Some people react immediately and they say: "Oh, we are just looking and not buying anything". To this I wish I could reply: -"well, it doesn't mean that if you ask me a question or give me your comments I will force you to buy anything". I only wish I could, LOL!

To me by being polite and greeting people you share good energy with them, it's so much more pleasant when people take a second of their very busy minds to share a hello, a smile and maybe even a few minutes to have a random pleasant conversation with a stranger...

Think about, try it and you'll see how much brighter and nicer your interaction with other would be, and if you already do it, know that your greeting or just a smile could make somebody elses day happier!

Happy Tuesday!

60 for 60

Unlike Madonna back in the 80's when she sang "I'm a material girl in a material world" I don't consider myself one of those girls.

Of course I like things. Pretty things, shinny things, useful and not so useful things, sometimes expensive things (actually most of the time) and occasionally even things I don't even really need, but who doesn't right?


But now, when it comes to buying things for other people, that is a completely different story with me... I LOVE to buy people presents, I am a big time giver, and I take pleasure in finding things for people that I know they are going to love and appreciate.

Whenever I go back home to visit I make sure to get gifts for my parents as well as my closest relatives, to me giving people presents is another way to show them how much I care about them, besides the most important presents of love, care, respect, honesty and happiness among others....

This year my mom turns 60 years old and to me that's pretty important milestone, specially cause out of those 60 year she has giving most of them to me, my dad and my brothers....

So besides going home to spend the day with her (and I know that will be the best gift) I've also decided to buy her 60 birthday present!!! Of course the presents are small tokens of my love and how much I think of her daily, some things I will buy and others I will make myself.

I started buying the presents last week and I hope to be done before April 20th (her birthday is the 25th), so far I got about 26 things and this coming week we'll be getting some more stuff....

Now I can't wait to go back home and see her opening 60 presents... All of these present I will be giving her don't come close to ALL that she has done for me, so I hope to make her day extra special!

Flower Power Friday

As of today I've decided to finish the week and start the weekend with a beautiful display of a tropical flower from the island, and there's no better place to start than my own back yard, right?

About 2 years ago we got a little piece of branch from a tree that some people know as Frangipani  and others as Plumeria. Ours was on a flower pot for a while and gave lots of leaves but didn't grow much, then we decided to move it.

when it was in the pot

Despite the fact that our piece of land is very rocky (and every time we decided to plant something, we have to make a big enough hole, fill it up with good dirt and hope for the plant/tree is going to have enough space to develop the roots and survive) we planted the Frangipani in the back yard.

Time went by... probably a good 8 to 10 months since we put it in the dirt, at first it seems like we were successful and it was doing pretty good, then it started loosing all of the leaves and at some point it looked like one stick with two branches and I thought we lost it....

But then something started to change, at the very tip of the branches we started to notice some growth...

this is how it looked at the begining

then it started growing super fast

yesterday a.m. it looked like this

Finally here's the first beautiful flower... taa-daa!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

the luck of us animal lovers

Back in the year of 1988 and during a St. Patrick's Day I was particularly very lucky and blessed although I don't think it had anything to do with the Irish celebration, shamrock, leprechauns or drinking beer.

Instead on that day back in '88 I received a wonderful gift from nature, my first Dog, Ozzie.

Ozzie was an American cocker spaniel, the sweetest most loving dog anybody could ask for. His mom Candy was our neighbors dog and after years of nagging my mom about getting us a dog she finally answered: "well one day when Candy has puppies you can ask the neighbors for one" (she wasn't expecting that to really happen at all), a few years later in 1988 our wish came true.

Growing up I couldn't ask for a better dog, he was a very happy dog, active, super loyal and protective but never tried to harm anybody. He would go to our beach house and take a few hours ride in the car like a champ...

Before Ozzie became part of our family my mom and dad were not very fond of dogs, but just a few months later after we got him, they felt madly in love with him and they even put an old couch in their room so he could sleep there with them.

During the 16 yrs that Ozzie was with us, he always slept in their room, and during the day or morning when he wanted to sleep late, he will literally knock on my bedroom door for me to open and then he will come in and sleep with me...

His last years with us he was already blind but never lost his happiness and love for any of us, he would spend his last days sleeping and moving from one side to the other and by this time he had his own bed, so it was easy for him to find it.

I remember during those times when he was blind, sometimes he would have trouble getting to his food, his bed or just trying to get around the house, I would clip the leash on him and immediately he knew I was his eyes, his attitude would change completely as if he knew he could trust on me 100% to get him where he needed to go, I made me feel so good to be able to lend him my eyes- I miss him!

Ozzie Patrick (that was the second name I gave him because of the day he was born) died very quietly and peacefully in his sleep one morning in 2004. At the time I already lived away from home, but I was visiting about 3 months before he passed away, that's when I had a chance to say goodbye to him, last time I saw him, when I said good bye I whispered in his ear and reminded him how much I love him and what a great dog he is and how he will always be part of my heart...

And that's why every year in St. Patrick's Day I can't help but think of him, the years of happiness he brought to all of us, all of the wonderful experiences I shared with him, he made my life wonderful just by being there and I was able to hopefully make his a wonderful one as well...

So to me is not the luck of the Irish, but the luck of us animal lovers, to have this amazing bond with them, to open not only the doors of our house but the doors to our heart and soul, they are just amazing, the can teach us so much, we are definitely lucky to be part of this planet with them....

Have a wonderful Thursday!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Lucky Day for all!!!

now time machine issues

There's mystery and magic in everybody's life and maybe if we fail to notice it in our daily life, our subconscious manages to find a way to show it to us in our dreams.

I have to say last night was pretty good on the sleeping part, until this a.m. when after dreaming of a car I was ready to buy (a car that in fact really does exists and I really want now- specially after today's dream). All of a sudden I woke up and I was wide awake. I did not see the time for a while as I didn't want to torture myself with the fact that I had to be up and running before 7am.

But then I did it, I looked at the time and to my surprise (or maybe not) it happened again, the same thing that is being happening to me later and for a while, the time was 3:33 am.


I don't know how to explain this phenomenon or the reason behind it, is it normal that most of the time during the day when I look at the time is either 10:10, 1:11, 5:55, 6:06, 12:12??? (you get the idea).

So last night after I saw the time it was, I just lay down in bed staring at the ceiling and with the constant idea of buying this car and finding a way to sell my very recent purchased one to get this other one....

After a while of doing nothing on the bed (counting some sheep, singing, praying, etc), I decided to turn to one side and to pursuit more sleep, but not without torturing myself and look at the time, guess what time it was then? 4:44... What's up with that?

Does this happens to anybody else out there or does anyone knows the meaning (if any) of this??? If you do I would appreciate you sharing some of that info with me, hopefully this means really really good news, LOL!

broken dream machine

It's not fair when dreams play tricks on us, when they wait until the very last day of the week (and sometimes even jump to the very early hours of Monday), and by the time you wake up to face the week you are simply exhausted already!

Well, the first hurricane of my season was here last night, or was it very early this morning? not sure, but it felt very real.

unfortunately this was not on my dreams last night

I was getting sand bags for the doors, already seeing flooding in some areas, wind picking up pretty bad and of course there was also a window that somebody forgot to close the hurricane shutters (from the outside) and we realized it right at the time when it was very dangerous to go out, go figure!

Just writing and thinking about all that happened in this crazy dream makes me tired.

And the thing is, I am sure this comes from the very deep end of my brain, where the constant stress of this annual season (for one of "nature's finest" natural disasters) always lingers. I know we are more than 2 months away from the official start of the season, but still I can't help but think that we are getting closer and we are drifting farther from the very quiet, almost non existent 2009 season (insert -relief sight- here).

Oh well, at least it was all a dream and there's night again at the end of this day to make up for my crazy dream, hopefully tonight I will having some sweet dreams...

Have a wonderful week full of wonderful dreams!

Resident family

One of the many traits of the island of Grand Cayman (where I live) is the fact that we have tons and tons of chickens (as well as roosters) pretty much all over the island. You see them walking down the street, in people's gardens, in town, at the beach... you name it, but they are all wild!

So, since we built and moved to our house about 2 years ago we've always had chickens all over our yard and since our house is up in stilts then you see them from the balcony all over.

A while ago I decided to buy wild bird seeds and feed some of the chickens that are around the garden, but every time I would go out on the balcony, all of the chickens down there would disappear into the bushes
(eventually they would come out to eat the seeds).

Well, I guess I've been feeding them long enough that finally today for the first time when they saw me come out on the balcony they did not run away, and while I was trowing seeds at them they were not intimidated or running into the bush, they are finally used to me, now they know I'm so kind of species that is not there to harm them but to actually feed them!

Also today to my surprise we have a whole family of chickens; with a mother hen, a father rooster and 12 lovely chicks all feeding peacefully in my yard, how cool!

Have a wonderful weekend!

melancholic Friday

 photo found on a friend's Facebook Wall

my heart floods with melancholy when I think of my cat Tica.
I miss having a cat.

Road or trail?

Not sure which one I am on right now? I should be on the road to recovery but sometimes it just feels more like a trail, one of those where you sure need to carry a "machete" in case you have to clear of the path off some bush that makes you loose your trail.
Of course with my arm situation it's not very likely I can even manage a machete, so that's probably why I feel kind of losing the trail from time to time...Some days I feel pretty good with my arm pain, but then I go to be and I sleep very uncomfortably, from one side to the other, sleeping on my back with a pillow under my legs and always trying to relax my arm.
It sucks having all this problems and also the fact that I can't really exercise much because my arm takes a big toll on my afterward, what to do then? Well, yesterday was my first official physical therapy appointment, and other than getting this big, heavy and hot load of stuff on my back for 15 min, the girl asked me a million questions and then taped (literally) my back under my neck area as well as my arm.
According to the therapist, the tape applied over muscles helps to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused tired muscles, and to support muscles in movement on a 24hr/day basis. It is non-restrictive type of taping which allows for full range of motion.
So my arm kind looks like this today:

This is supposed to take water and stay on until my next appointment next Tuesday.Unfortunately is already peeling off in some areas...
Hopefully soon I'm going to feel like I am not only "on the road" to recovery, but more like on a freeway riding like a dog looking out on the window, feeling the air my ears flapping with the wind and mostly feeling GOOD!!!

Have a fabulous Thursday!

Happy me

As of Sunday afternoon there is a new and improved version of me walking on this earth.

I am a much happier and much more grateful woman, wife, friend and specially sister. My brother and sister in law are finally residents of the same island as me, and although they are going to live in the other opposite extreme of the island, we are now just about 45min or a local phone call away. And as my husband will say, I am a BIG family person... so, yep I AM HAPPY!

 Mau & Gaylene arrived on Sunday March 7th

Now, if only any of my blogger friend will come visit I can be even happier.... LOL!

Ouch! the planet is in pain...

It's so sad and very alarming to see everything that is happening in the world nowadays. Earthquakes, tsunamis, very heavy winters with high inches of snow, floods... you name it.

But this is not really something new, during the entire life time of this planet, things come and go, some affect a lot of people, some don't... Some have taken a big part in the declining of civilizations, some don't.... Many people die daily and not necessary from any other natural disaster but those created by us humane beings (wars, poverty, diseases, crime... etc).

Then there are the Mayans, who were an amazing and very advanced civilization and one of the many wonder they left to humanity was their calendar (which in fact, it's even more accurate than the one our civilization uses).

This calendar is very complex and of course I'm unable to even try to explain everything what it involves, I do know though, that it marks many different events concerning the cosmos and even marks certain phenomenons or events that not only have happened in the past but are still to happen in the future.

And then there's the Winter Solstice Dec. 21st 2012 which marks the end-date of the Calendar. According to what I've read about it:

"At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world's spiritual traditions. Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration."

Now, this doesn't really mean that the world is coming to an end, right? It might to some people after watching the movie 2012, more it gives the information that a old era end and a new begins, taking about nature and tree of life that was so important to the Mayans.

I once read somewhere when I used to live in Tulum, Mexico (where you find lots of Mayans and their cities), that they believed that once us humans loose the connection with the tree of life, that's the end of our civilization... So, maybe that's what it means. (hint, hint: Avatar)

"the tree of Life" photo by Peter Lik

We need to act soon, change our mentality for good and instead of keep abusing the environment we need to start healing the planet, and then way to start is with a different mentality.

Funky Weekend

Friday is here and I will be spending tonight alone as my husband is gone to Cayman Brac for work, unfortunately for me I got to work tomorrow Sat. to have Monday off the spend it with my brother and sister in law, how exciting...

Of course I always have the dogs to keep me company and the video of this adorable Husky to sing me to sleep...

But yeah, have I mentioned I am super excited about my brother coming? I think so, it's kind of like a want to dance down the street just like this...

And then on Sunday night when we have Mau & Gaylene at the house, we will be so happy and celebrating just like this...

Well, maybe not exactly like this, but you get the point, right?
Have a great weekend!

All about tennis

Yeap, while I have tennis elbow on my right arm, meanwhile our dog Sheba loves her tennis ball, here's the proof...

And while I hope to take care of my tennis elbow starting next week Wed. when I have my first physio appointment. I also hope & wish that Sheba will never grow out of her phase of loving to play with her tennis ball, it makes me so happy to see her having so much fun.

It's Thursday so Friday is just around the corner, seize the day!!!

5 days, 4 nights...

until Sunday... but who's counting???  I am.

My brother and his wife are arrive Sunday and they are not coming for a visit but moving here for good, and I guess saying I'm very happy doesn't really cut, it kind of falls more into the category of "dream come true".
Just thinking about having my brother here makes me smile, knowing that he will be driving distance away feels like a dream.
It's been 5 yrs since the last time we lived on the same country, cause we both lived in Cayman Brac at the same time for about 4 months back in 2005, but before that I think it was probably 2001 or 2002?

 

Mau & Me at a National Park in Costa Rica (2001)

Tomorrow is my doctors appointment and I will get the results of the MRI, we shall see what the diagnostic is and hopefully start fixing my arm for good.

Happy Hump Day!

Sleepless

Today unfortunately I'm not writing about the movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the one where they finally meet at the top of some building in Seattle... I am writing about last night.
Pretty much my entire life, sleeping is something that has come natural to me, I have it down to a science (or at least used to), if I am good at something sleeping will be on that list.
But now with this situation I have on my arm it's very difficult for me to feel comfortable and find a right way to sleep, I have a hard time sleeping on my right side cause of the pain of my neck, shoulder and now the elbow. Last night my tennis elbow situation took a big toll on me, I was awake most of the night in pain, finally got up to look for some pain killers, my lovely husband rubbed my arm to release some of the pain (and it helped), finally the pain killers kicked in and I felt sleep past 3 o'clock, of course by 6:30 am when I had to get up to go to work I was finally enjoying my sleep... ugh!
It's Tuesday and my next doctor's appointment is on Thursday and finally next week I am starting physio therapy on the arm, looking forward to get my arm in good shape and my sleeping back.... Have a nice day!

ill communication

In a time when it's so easy to stay in touch, via regular land line telephone, cell phone, email, facebook, twitter and even air mail (that's if you actually have the time or care enough to sit down and write a letter), it really upsets me when people don't know when to draw the line...

But not only staying in touch is at the palm of our hands, now a days with the type cell phone people have, it's so easy to find out any breaking news just by accessing the internet in any of the many places that offer internet wi-fi connections for free...

One of these weekends I went out to dinner with my husband to a nice Indian Restaurant here on the island, half way during our meal, a couple (that looked like they were on a date) sat on a table pretty closed to us and for a good 10 minutes from the time they sat, the girl did not put down her blackberry but kept on texting or maybe even surfing the web, I find this not only offensive but rude.

I have had some verbal encounters with my husband about this situations (when they apply to us), I'm personally not much on the phone, never the less texting, in fact texting to me is one of the most annoying forms of communications, if you want to talk to me, call me or email me but don't text... I had this one boss that used to confront (and maybe still does) people on text, but the worst part of it was, that her spelling was so bad, it was very difficult to even understand what she meant... what a waste of time!

And don't even get me started on people that are texting while driving, that is the worst kind!!!

 

We have this friend of ours (a couple) that are constantly on line twittering their way around life, telling people what they are doing, with whom, why, how they feel about it and so on... the very few times we go out with them, they are checking their phones a few times during the dinner. In fact, I have found myself on the table talking or telling a story and then realizing nobody is paying attention to me but a few of their friends around the world already probably know what I just had for dinner because of their tweets, crazy!

So people, I know it's easy to communicate this way, but what about the good ol' "one on one" interaction, for some people nowadays look like it's better to communicate via email/text/tweeter/facebook with somebody that is miles away, than why those who are just next to them... 

Verbal communication is one of the very few things that make us different than animals, but I am sure that doesn't mean we communicate better than many other species out there...

I know we here communicate via blog comments, but if you are ever close to me in person, please pretty please, leave you pda, iphone or blackberry in your pocket for use during those "solo" times with yourself and let's enjoy some nice, pleasant conversation in person, alright?

Cheers, have a great week!

Funny Friday

MRI

This morning I had an MRI done to find out for sure what's really going on with my neck/shoulder/arm situation.

This was a very interesting experience to say the least, but definitely not something I want to do again (unless I really have to).

In my case, the test today was done on an MRI "open" machine like the one shown in this picture

(In fact this is probably just how I looked while doing it- but only with out the pink pants, LOL!)

Because of the area they needed to get info on me was the spine/neck/shoulder area I was not allowed to move my head of even swallow.

And here's the thing about swallowing, it something so mechanical for your body to do, that you don't even have to think about it at all, but once somebody says to you that u are not allowed to swallow, then it's a whole different ball park, you just feel the constant urge to do it, right? Well at least in my case that's what happened.

The MRI took about 30 minutes, with 4 to 5 minutes intervals of pictures and during this times is when I couldn't move or swallow, the first 4 minute interval I felt really uncomfortable and at some point thought I was going to loose it, so I tried to get very relaxed by praying and meditating, and that way I managed...

In the case of the results, well I got them already on a CD that I need to take next week to my next doctor's appointment, hopefully they will get to the bottom of this situation to start getting it resolved, looking forward to some real relief.

cognitus interruptus

According to Urband Dictionary

cognitus interruptus (which was the word of the day for yesterday- my birthday) A disruption of the normal thought process, normally by an external distraction. This occurs most often at times where mental focus is a necessity. Cognitus interruptus sometimes leads to procrastination, leading to further cognitus interruptus and creating a cycle.

Coincidence? or is it that maybe because I'm a year older that I have less inspiration for posts. Today I woke up after some very weird dreams, besides being exhausted I also realized that I don't have anything to post about, so I guess I'm going to have to resort to tell you about my day yesterday...

It was like any other Tuesday, with the difference that I got a call from most of my family members and some of my closest friends from back home (and that definitely doesn't happen everyday) and they at night I had a lovely Sushi dinner with my husband.

Besides the wonderful calls and dinner, my Facebook wall was packed with wonderful messages; some people sending me many blessings, wishes of a happy day, and some even wishing me many more wonderful years to come. But one thing nobody wished me was inspiration, which makes me suspect this might be the main reason of the writers block I feel today...

The good news is that this coming weekend I have a trip planned to one my favorite places in the world, Cayman Brac, and liked I mentioned on this post I haven't been there in more than 1 year, so besides getting some well deserved R&R, I'm sure it would help with my inspiration situation. Not sure if my husband is going to come with me as he is still on stand by for an afternoon flight, but I really, really hope he does...

Tomorrow is my MRI appointment so that might be another topic for posting purposes, meanwhile this shall do... Happy Hump Day!

it's my party...

 My 6th Birthday

On a day like today (only Wednesday), but in the year 1977 approximately around 11:30am, I was seeing the light of day for the very first time ever, probably crying my lungs out cause "it's my party, and I cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to... you would cry too if it happens to you", right?

Now, 33 years later, I'm still here but not really crying, more like wondering where have all the years gone, I have lived as best as I can, and to this point I know for a fact that "growing up is mandatory, but growing old is optional", life and specially God has been so, so good to me that it's impossible to even try to complain because I've been blessed for 32 wonderful year...

This year is different though, or should I say 32 was the different year? This birthday marks the first year of my life that I am actually in some way different. I am a married woman now, last time I celebrated my birthday I was single, and now this year I'm married, so I guess this year is sort of a milestone for me.

Anyway, today is just another day, I have to work and life goes on with me being 33 and all... I usually don't really celebrate very much on my birthday, most of my family (well actually all, besides my husband and my 2 dogs) are not close enough for me to want to throw a big party, specially on a Tuesday, but we are going out to have some delicious Sushi dinner, so that's plenty celebration for me!

As for friends, I have very few on the island that actually deserve that special title, but at least there's Facebook and blogger to get some nice greetings from friends that will make my day extraordinary...

So on a day like today, I would like to share my favorite quote and it goes like this:

"Dream as if you'll forever.

Live as if you'll die today"

33 reasons

to be thankful for...

1. Waking up every day
2. Having God in my life and in my heart
3. My body
4. My mind and soul
5. My past, present and future...
6. Family
7. My wonderful husband
8. My pets (past and present ones) and other animals
9. Spirituality
10. Health
11. Happiness
12. Feelings
13. Traveling
14. Ideas
15. Dreams and goals
16. Fun & being able to laugh about life
17. Inspiration
18. Creativity
19. Hope
20. Companionship
21. Friends & Friendship
22. Abundance & Harmony
23. Love
24. Faith
25. Work
26. Empathy
27. Success
28. Food
29. Coffee & Wine
30. Nature
31. My blog
32. My life
33. Being able to see and enjoy another year...

Of course I have more than 33 reasons to be thankful for, but since tomorrow is my 33rd birthday I'm going to stop there...

It feels just like yesterday when I saw my father turn 33 and I was only 8th, now it's my turn... Dad, I'm catching up with you!!! LOL

After I finished my list, I guess I am most thankful for not having the need to include many of my material possessions, because to be honest, without the stuff on this list, those possessions don't make much sense, right?

Happy Birthday to me!

Week Wrap Up

Friday I went to an orthopedic doctor to get some answers about my right arm, according to his diagnosis I have 3 different situations going on.

1. Carpal syndrome.
2. Tennis elbow.
3. Either a muscle spasm, a pinched nerve or something else on my right shoulder/neck area.

For the 3rd diagnostic, the doctor is not very sure what I have, so I am supposed to get a MRI done to have a better idea of what's next. As for the other 2 situations, I am starting physio therapy in March, can't wait to get some real relief and get my arm sorter out.

Yesterday Saturday, was a very cloudy day, the 19th Annual Humane Society Dog show was going on, but we didn't make it this time. In my case after 10 straight days of work, all I really wanted to do was, sleep in and rest, so we never make it to show that was supposed to start at 9am.

After spending most of the day at home, we ended going to the beach in the afternoon, walked around a little, searching for shells and some other little treasures...

It was sprinkling a little, but that didn't stopped us from finding some nice little shells and if you take your time and look close enough, lot's of things appear...

So even with clouds around us, we managed to have a quiet, enjoyable day.... Pretty good for charging batteries to start another week.

Have a wonderful week!

Mamma Dog

One of our dogs Ditto was initially adopted by my husband Mark a few years before I meet him. Ditto is going to be 10 this year.

After I met Mark (and Ditto) he once told me that Ditto's mom lives in town, she belong to a man that walks around town and you can see her with him all the time.

 Ditto

Finally one day I saw her and ever since them I see her around from time to time, I don't know her name but Ditto sure looks a lot like her, only she has shorter legs...

Yesterday morning I saw the man walking by my work building so I run outside to see if I could catch a glimpse of Ditto's Mom, and there she was, so I got my camera and asked ones of my coworkers to take a picture of me with her, here she is:

Isn't she sweet? She is definitely getting old and gray all over, she has got to be at least 11 yrs old.

Mark & I have talked about how nice it would be to bring Ditto into town one day and introduce each other, we would love to see both of their reactions and if they would recognized each other... We should definitely do it one day.

Have a nice Thursday!!!

Year of the Tiger

This year on Feb. 14th while most of the world was celebrating the very commercialized Valentines Day, people in China were celebrating the beginning of another lunar calendar that this year is named after the Tiger.

For those who don't follow the Chinese Calendar or their horoscope predictions (like I do), here's a little information of what it is based on.

According to what I have read the legend goes something like this:

The Jade Emperor (Emperor of Heaven) decided to call for a contest: a race! All the animals of the kingdom were invited to participate in this event that incidentally took place during the emperor's birthday. There will only be 12 winners. In order to win and gain a permanent place in the Zodiac Years, the animals must cross a swift current river and reach the designated spot on the shore.

While we are all aware of the hatred between a cat and a rat, these two animals were actually very good friends once. Good friends they may be, but these two animals are the worst swimmers in the animal kingdom. Although bad swimmers, they were both intelligent. They decided that the best and fastest way to cross the river is to hop on the back of the ox. The ox, being a naïve and good-natured animal, agreed to carry them across. However, when there is a carrot dangling in front, it is sometimes difficult to stick to friendship and the crafty rat decides that in order to win, it must do something and promptly pushed the cat into the river. Because of this, the cat had never forgiven the rat, and no doubt, hated the water too. After the ox had crossed the river, the rat jumped ahead and reached the shore first, and it cleverly claimed first place in the race! 

Following closely behind was the strong ox, and it was named the 2nd animal in the zodiac. After the ox, came the tiger, panting away while explaining to the emperor just how difficult it was to cross the river with the heavy currents pushing it downstream all the time. But with powerful strength, it made to shore and was named the 3rd animal in the cycle. 

Suddenly, from a distance came a thumping sound and out pop the rabbit. It explained how it crossed the river: by jumping from one stone to another in a nimble fashion. Halfway through, it almost lost the race but the rabbit was lucky enough to grab hold of a floating log that later washed him to shore. For that, it became the 4th animal in the zodiac cycle. Coming in 5th place was the gallant dragon, flying and belching fire into the air. Of course the Emperor was deeply curious as to why a strong and flying creature such as the dragon should fail to reach first. The mighty dragon explained that he had to stop and make rain to help all the people and creatures of the earth, therefore he was held back a little. Then on his way to the finish line, he saw a little helpless rabbit clinging on to a log so he did a good deed and gave a puff of breath to the poor creature so that it could land on the shore. The emperor was very pleased with the actions of the dragon and he was added into the zodiac cycle. As soon as he had done so, a galloping sound was heard and the horse appeared. Hidden on the horse's hoof is the slimy sneaky snake whose sudden appearance gave the horse a fright thus making it fall back and gave the snake 6th spot whilst the horse took the 7th.

Not long after that, a little distance away, the sheep, monkey and rooster came to the shore. These three creatures helped each other to get to where they are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took the other two animals with it. Together, the sheep and the monkey cleared the weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got the raft to the shore. Because of their combined efforts, the Emperor was very pleased and promptly named the sheep as the 8th creature, the monkey as the 9th, and the rooster the 10th.

The 11th animal is the dog. His explanation for being late although he was supposed to be the best swimmer amongst the rest was that he needed a good bath after a long spell, and the fresh water from the river was too big a temptation. For that, he almost didn't make it to finish line. Just as the emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal was heard from a little pig. The term "lazy pig" is due here as the pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell asleep. After the nap, the pig continued the race and was named the 12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle.

I was born (according to the Chinese Horoscope) on the Year of the Fire Snake and my husband was born on the Year of the Metal Rat. According to most of the predictions of the horoscope this year is going to be a good quiet year for both of our signs.

Dunno what your signs are or if you have ever followed this horoscope, but one thing I'm sure of is that this is more that the constellation zodiac as I have been following both for many year, and the Chinese one is definitely the way to go.

If you would like more information on this type of horoscope check the wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac which also has the list of the animals by year and element.

Let me know your thoughts, and regardless of your sign, I hope you enjoy the year to the fullest!
Happy Belated Chinese New Year 2010!

Yesterday's future

For those who read my post from yesterday, you might have noticed that you were taken to the future, all the way to December 14th 2010... Now I have changed it to the original date.

My blog is acting crazy as I originally published that post when I was in FL... maybe I was so tired that it posted on the date of Feb. 14th 2009 (I didn't even have my blog back then).

Last night when I got home I decided to check if I had any comments and I couldn't even find the post. I finally found it, so I re-published it and now it appears in the future... crazy!

This shows how tired I am from those 4 days of the Miami Boat Show... I didn't take many pictures but I have a couple I will post tomorrow.

Well, I'm finally back to Grand Cayman, the weather is so nice and sunny, being around low 50's for a few days was pretty hard, can't even imagine what other people in the Northern parts of the world as experiencing right now, but one thing that I'm sure of is the fact that I am glad to be back in the tropics and that I live here permanently.... aaaahhhhh!

So for those who didn't read yesterday's post with the wrong date, do it now in the present and enjoy!

Have a fab week!!!

Happy V-day!

I'm still in FL and overworked, can't wait to get back home tomorrow and be with my wonderful husband...

A while ago a friend of his made us this funny Jib Jab video and I can't think of a better day to share it... enjoy it and ck out my moves, if you need some pointers let me know... LOL!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Have a Wonderful Valentines Day!

Thursday morning...

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." I'm sure you've heard this song before, but what about this lovely version? I love it...

Well, today this is me, leaving on a Jet Plane to the Big White (literally in some areas of the East Coast States) North, unfortunately I am leaving my hubby behind for a few days until I come back to his arms (but unlike the lyrics of the song, I will leave and come back wearing my wedding ring) just in time for Valentines Day.

I'm really only going as far as Miami (exactly 456miles according to my boarding pass), so it's not going to be white, but it's still North of us... hopefully the cold is not going to be too bad. But, this trip is not "all fun and games", it's an official business trip to go work at the Miami Boat Show 2010 and sell lots and lots of art, wish me luck!

So, I am going to try my best to keep my blog rolling the next few day, but no promises. If I can't make it, I  apologize in advance and promise more great posts to come... Have a great day!!!

Wordless Wednesday

New President

I am so happy to share the news that my home country Costa Rica has a new elected president as of Sunday Feb 7th, 2010.

 

photo by: nacion.com

But that also for the first time in the history of my country, it is a woman who now gets to sit on the presidential chair. Laura Chinchilla of PLN (Partido Liberacion Nacional) won with almost a 47% of the total votes. 

I am very happy and proud to know that the political party that my family has always followed is giving our country this great accomplishment in the 21st century, but mostly I am proud to know that Costa Rica is ready for a different mind set by choosing to be governed and be taken cared of by a woman president. 

 

photo by: cnn.com

I guess it is true what I've read lately in some articles about Costa Rica being a happy country, the past election proves one more time that we do not need military and violence to be able to practice democracy to the fullest, and although we have had tough times with corrupted governments/presidents (like many other countries of the world), we are still proud to go out on the streets, defend out right to choose our government and to always want to best for our people and our country.

 

photo by: nacion.com

I hope God gives the strength and the knowledge to our new President Chinchilla, to always put our country first, to honestly care for her roots, her culture and our people. May this be the beginning of many wonderful opportunities for my country and the continuation of many projects and laws that would help the continued growth of our economy, improvement of social security, continuing the right approach towards sustainable ecology and peace...

 

photo by: nacion.com

Viva Costa Rica! (Long live Costa Rica!).

Family Sunday @ Barkers

Yesterday we took the doggies for a long walk on the beach at Barkers Park, it was a beautiful day full of sun, sand, sea and kite boarders. Here's the proof of what I'm writing is true...

 

at the beginning of the walk

Ditto and the kite boarders

in the middle of the action

coming back from the walk

When we finally got back to the car, we were putting the dogs under a tree and that's when I noticed a wood pecker right in front of me, so I run to get the camera a besides some awesome shots I also shoot and awesome video that I uploaded on www.youtube.com when I got home.

To everybody out there in the northern hemisphere reading my blog, for those that are covered in snow or with very low temperatures, I hope you get a little warmth through the monitor of the computer just by looking at my pictures... Have a nice week!