Happy Birthday!

Marcelo and Márcio, my eternal loves!

That handsome boy holding a cute baby is my brother Marcelo and his baby Márcio! What a gift from God! 

Today is Marcelo's birthday and he is turning 30. He got old! Now he is a father, he has his own family and above all that he is the maturest man I ever met. In fact, he was born like this!

Marcelo has faced many hard moments in his life and he goes through those odd moments with sad eyes and a shy smile on his face, trying to get sunny days, out of the mess, with his sharp sense of humor. He does that because he isn't the type of a guy who complains or complains in vain. He talks about the immediate problem until he is satisfied or until he find time to fix it. Just a good observer can notice in his shy eyes that things are kind of complicate for his side. 

Marcelo is a constructor. He has this power to build and improve things and lives of everybody around him and he always maintains it. He constructs out of nothing and he makes his way through every single barrier. It has been this way since he was a little boy. He realized he was on his own at very early age. 

What is funny is that he loves a problem because he knows he can solve anything... From a broken shower to a broken heart. Once he told me that the time he thinks about our mother's issues is when he is taking a shower, meaning that even when he is taking a shower he doesn't relax.

Thanks to his organization skills he's able to administrate his store, his wife's clinic, my brother's finance, my nephew's sanity, my mother's issues and my annoyances with perfection. Of course we all fight with him, and of course we all don't know how to live without him.

Well, I love you Uru. You mean everything to me. I'm so proud of you and so happy to see how well you turned into adulthood.Welcome bro! (I'm glad you didn't publish Chevetão's videos...they would contradict me!)

To finish this love declaration I just need to thank you for that piece of cuteness called Márcio. Thanks for giving us one more reason to keep us going on.

Happy Birthday 

my baby!

Feliz Aniversário!

Small doses of great things

I just realized how hard is to get back to old habits when we "forget" about them if there is a way of forgetting something that we use to rely on? And also I realized that once away for too long from old habits, it gets harder to get back to it in a regular basis as I like to. I may apply this "realization" in other fields of my life...

I really enjoy blogging or writing and I kept doing that, I just didn't hit the "publish post" orange button and I've cluttered, in a good way, my draft box with many many unpublished posts.

Looking at my Posting box, I noticed that Blogger has saved automatically zillions of posts that are waiting patiently to be finished, or edited, or published or deleted. I just had no idea how things got this far! How did I get into this procrastinate stage? How did I get into 44? How did I get into this crazy anxiety? Oh boy! Just kidding!

I have so many different thoughts in my mind lately and so little patient to deal with them or to give them the necessary attention... They are urging to get out in the form of thoughts and get into the form of done. My mind also has saved many post into some files. Files that must be checked and/or rechecked. I need to treat my mind as I treat my closet: keep what fits, donate what is in good shape but I don't need anymore and trash what is in terrible shape. That's a good cleaning up for a new year that just started!

Since I got back from Brasil, wow long time ago, I'm living more than away from everything and everybody. I traveled, I got sick, I got well, got sick again, traveled, worked, studied, got sick, worked, studied, went to the hospital, rested to recover, still resting to recover from many emotional and physical stresses... I mean, nothing out of my normality!

Emotional stress is really what put me in bed. It makes me so weak that I can't move, adding to it the usual daily pain from fibromyalgia and you can have a nice pic of what my days are being. Thank God I don't care much about all that and I set my circus around me to be able to keep going. Is it easy? Of course not, but what is easy anyway?

Being away from home for long and without having any clue when I'm going be back, added layers to already existent ones. I'm able to understand better things that were unclear before, and the most important, I'm learning how to let it go as a great part of my well-being. I know my limits now and I just don't fight against it anymore. It was kind of easy to figure it out, mainly because this exhaustive fighting put me in bed for days.

Now is like, if I can't deal with I simply let it go. No arguing with myself. No empty discussions.

Well, I managed to put few unpublished posts together to make this one and also I programed others to be published ahead. They are all done, just waiting to come out on the specific day I set them up.

Most of the posts will be just pics, what is an effort to keep my Blog updated. I really didn't like to be away that long.

Well, I hope it isn't too late to wish everybody a great 2010. Thank you for the emails and best wishes. They really mean a lot to me!

Pink Ipê, Tabebuia, is one of the wonders of my place!
One of the most beautiful trees I ever saw!
It reminds me who I am and where I belong to!

Leandro and Maria Luíza. I love you guys!

Having breakfast on the floor.
Of course my mother wasn't around.
She would never allow such a thing.
The mattress on the living room floor?
If she dreams of it...
Don't worry mom, we are just having fun!

Movie night at Municipal Old Market. A cult place now in Uberlândia!

Beautiful hot nights of winter....
It sounds strange, I agree!

My dearest cousin/best-friend-forever André

My surprise birthday's party!
It was soooooooo cool!!

"Dada, Dadá, Tia Dadá
The best of your birthday,
is that you are here!
Congratulations
Your family who loves you"

Vegetable Pie that I LOVE very much, made by my mother!

Marcos, my brother, playing with his lovely kids!

Maria is flying high!

Márcio, the baby, kicked Marly and we got crazy to feel it!
Some got crazier than others I can say... :)

Marcelo and Leandro attacking Marly's birthday cake

The beauties!
My mother, Auntie Vera, SIL Márcia, Coisinha,
Maria Luíza, Moi-même, SIL Marly and Márcio

Maria Luíza and I having dinner at my dearest
best-friend-forever/"twin"sister Claúdia!

Maria Luíza helping my mother with the cooking, better, with the chopping!

What can I do? I must carry books around...

Thanks for the massage sweety!
My legs were in deep need of it!

Tubal Vilela Square, downtown , Uberlândia.
I just love how this city keeps the atmosphere of a small town.

13 de Maio St, where I learned
how to walk,
how to ride a bike,
how to fly.

My SIL Márcia and my mother in an event at Maria Luíza's school

Ah Tupaciguara...
your sons and daughters leave you, but you don't leave us!

I had a wonderful childhood!
This tree watched everything closely!

One of Márcia's specialties: beans!
It's sooooooooo delicious!

Oh God, I love this dish! It's simple, therefore very tasty!

Maria Luíza playing grow up!
The funniest thing is...
I have a lot to learn from her!

"Festa Junina", at Maria's school.
It's a celebration that takes place only in June
to celebrate saints
Anthony, John and Peter
with lots of traditional foods, drinks and a theatrical dance
inherited from the French called quadrilha (a type of square dance).

Sunday at 6:30AM, end of the night, at the Bueno Brandão St, Tupaciguara.
My friends and I didn't sleep all night long.
Just having fun!
We ended up at the bakery to have breakfast.
That day, we got home around 9 am! We are in shape!

The beginning of the night!
Clockwise: Me, Helenise, Maria Cecília and Daniela!
Thank you guys for the wonderful time!

Traveling, Staying, Missing

I started writing this post in Brasil and I didn't finish it. It's very hard for me to finish things when I'm there. I try to take control of my time, but in a way or another I end up with my To-Do list just the way I left it.

Every single time I go to Brasil, I make the commitment to do every single thing I wanna do and guess what? I don't do it! I don't visit the friends I wanna visit, I don't eat the food I wanna eat, I don't go to manicure/pedicure as often as I wanna go and so on. I neglected even some doctors. I feel as my time doesn't belong to me over there. I never get it!

So, since I'm home now, I'll finish the post below that I've started long ago.

Wow, I don't remember being this long without posting anything.
Well, let me see...

My nephew was born on 21st, one day after my birthday and just like my oldest nephew and my niece, he was born on 21st, but in different month. What is amazing about it, is that my father passed away on 21st and this day, of all months, was a very sad day for me, but now, those beautiful human beings came to cheer this day up. Thanks guys!

My nephew is so so cute! I really mean it! He seduced and seduces everybody around him for real. Everybody says that Márcio, my nephew, was born "already raised" because he seems that he is 3 months old already!

Just to keep things on normal level, I'm sick. I got a flu, but not the swine one, just a normal flu that is letting me lazy and I just want to be in bed in a dark room and in silence. The fever is high, but I'm already medicated. It will be over soon. The annoying about it, it's that here in my hometown, people are going nuts because of the swine flu and nobody can sneeze or cough around anymore. I mean, polite sneezing or coughing with your hand blocking the virus to get out of your mouth. If you initiate a sneeze, people immediately give you a weird look.

I'm staying at my mother's because I don't want my newborn nephew and my sister-in-law to get any sick. You know she is nursing.

Anyway, here in Minas Gerais, my state, there is no winter whatsoever. It's hotter now than Nigeria was and I do mean it. Winter now just means one thing: dry season! Days seem even hotter than 15 years ago when I was living in this town. All that my dilemma about what to pack was a really a waste of time. If I could anticipate such a weather I'd pack much lighter . In this 25 days I'm here, I didn't wear any long sleeve yet, just summer dresses and I'm so very sure I will not wear any.

Well, things are pretty ok over here. I have spent a lot of time with my sweet niece Maria Luíza. In fact we are together as rice and beans. We get along very very well and she is definitely my pal. I love the way she talks and conduce herself. It's a little lady and not just a 6 years old girl. Oh boy, I have a lot to learn from her.

Besides my cold, I'm not spending much time at my brother's simply because I have no practice or skills whatsoever with babies. So, if I can't help I think is better not to disturb. I became the delivery lady though. Everything the ladies in charge of taking care of the babe and Marly, my mother and my sister-in-law Márcia, need they ask me and I'm ready to go... or to come.

My fever is a little higher now. Better take a rest.

My fever lasted about a week. It was a hard time for me because I couldn't even read, but also I had a wonderful nurse who took a good care of me. Thanks Maria Luíza! Yes, my niece was there by my side all the time. One afternoon, she was sweeter than ever and I spent all afternoon long resting my head on her lap. We watched Barbie's movies, cartoons. She made me juice, fed me and overcame me with her caress and love! What a doll!

Maria Luíza and I had a great time. Even though we didn't do almost anything on your list, we did a lot. The time to say goodbye was pretty hard on both of us. I couldn't see her eyes full of tears...oh poor thing. She was trying her best to keep me there at least until her birthday now in September 21st. I wish I could!

From Brasil I went to Paris for about 5 days. It was amazing without being redundant. I guess going to Paris is always a amazing experience. I have been there a couple of times and I don't need map anymore to go where I wanna go. This time I stayed in the Quartier Latin, in front L'Université Paris-Sorbonne. From my window, almost covering it as near it was, there was the majestic dome of its chapel. The Théâtre L'Odéon was just 2 blocks away as the Panthéon and the Jardin du Luxembourg also around the corner.

I had a wonderful time there. As it's summer time almost all small museums and galleries are closed for vacation. French style! So, I spent my time going to bistrots to have a glass of champagne at sunset time, then I take time to walk by the Seine river without any rush. Also I spent a lot of time reading in those little charming cafés where you can stay for hours and nobody will disturb asking you to leave.

I didn't go to any tourist spot this time, besides la Cathédrale Notre Dame. I go there every time I'm in Paris firstly to thank God for such a wonderful life and also to feel the smell of centuries of burnt candles. I love it so much. As soon as I step into it, I close my eyes and I let that very particular smell get into my heart. It takes me back in time in seconds. The smell will always be there, impregnated on those secular walls that have been the silent witness of history. I just love it.

Besides many other places, I also went to Centre Pompidou, but it isn't a touristic stroll for me. It's pleasure and work and a must go. I spent the whole day there looking and appreciating Modern and Contemporaneous Art exhibitions.

I told you, I really had a great time there. I will post pictures soon.
I'm finishing my unpacking task, organizing my closet, my house and my academic life and I'm almost getting over of the jet-leg.

Getting rid of the jet-leg seems easy comparing to the knot I have in my heart for missing my nephews and my niece. Guys, you are so especial to me! I love you with all my life, heart and soul!

Get Together!

I'm still packing. I mean, it's all planned but still packing. It's the make-myself-very-tired plan. In a weird way, it works.

I'm so excited but I already miss my Taiwanese family. I got so attached to the Mania Spa girls that they became my family as much as I love them!

Last night they all came to my house to a little get together party. We had fun! Among wine and cheeses we spent a great time together, took lots of pictures and played with Mei-Hua's girls!

Thanks girls! Thank you for friendship, for your love, for your caress and thank you so much for taking care of my health with such attention!

I love you all! See you guys in August!

Mei-Hua and Ci!
Thanks Ci for massaging me every week for 1 year!

Cheers! Let's celebrate!

My beautiful Mania's girls!

Let's get together when I get back!
There is KTV on my building!

My babe is gonna have a babe!

My babe is gonna have a babe!
Marcelo my little brother, Marly my sil and Márcio my nephew!

The Machado Family

Vô Ribeiro and Vó Cotinha! Their 50th anniversary!

Last week in Tupaciguara,my hometown, a great event was performed by the Machado family. It was our 2nd great reunion. The first one was in 2006 and I was there to enjoy my aunties and uncles and cousins that I love so very much! Oh God they are the funniest ever! Unfortunately I couldn’t go this time.

According to Zezé, a cousin of mine and the reunion organizer, Márcio my nephew will be the 160th member in direct line of Vó Cotinha and Vô Ribeiro, our grandparents. (Vó is short for vovó and it means grandmother. Vô is short for vovô and it means grandfather in Portuguese). My father is/was the youngest male and the first one to go...

My grandparents, paternal ones, had 9 kids and those 9 kids multiplied good!

We are that kind of family that visit each other often, go to birthday parties of the 5th or 6th generation and we call them cousin, because they are cousins of course! We know their full names, we know even the in-laws of the cousins.

I was blessed enough to have all my aunties, uncles and 1st generation cousins very close to me, physically and emotionally when I was growing up! During the time I lived in Tupaciguara, my home was in the same block as my grandparents and this was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I will never forget the flavor of Vó Cotinnha's meals. I will never forget the sound producing by my Vô Ribeiro making butter from scratch. I will never forget... So many delicious memories!

My relatives, especially my aunties, they made my childhood unforgettable! In a bunch of 6 aunties and 2 uncles you can find every type of personality but if there is something that link all of them it is their comic vein! It's impossible not to laugh really good when joining they companion or when they are all together! They are so funny and they love to embarrass themselves in a naive, agreeable way that is so unique! They are really the best!

I got few pics from the last reunion and I mixed them with pics from passed ones. It was a very enjoyable experience for me, to mix those especial moments in my life!

Well, we are just great in every single sense!

Sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daugthers-in-law and great-grandkids
of my grandparents

Sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daugthers-in-law and grandkids

of my grandparents

From left to right: Uncle Joubert and his wife auntie Maria,
Uncle Didin and his wife auntie Teresinha,
Uncle Milote, Auntie Amélia,
Auntie Hortência and Luci, my mother.

Reunion 2006
From left to right: Auntie Ione, Auntie Amélia, Uncle Milote,
Uncle Waldemar and his wife auntie Aparecida,
Uncle Didin and his wife auntie Teresinha, auntie Hortência,
Auntie Maria and her husband uncle Joubert and Luci, my mother

Reunion 2006
Almost everybody!

Reunion 1984! My grandparents 60th anniversary

Reunion 1974! My grandparents 50th anniversary.
My grandparents and their grandkids and great-grandkids

Reunion 1975! My grandparents 50th anniversary.
My grandparents and their kids and sons/daughters-in-laws

My father's siblings are:
- Auntie Nida,
(she passed away 12 years ago)
-Auntie Amélia
-Auntie Aparecida
-Auntie Ione
-Auntie Teresinha
-Auntie Hortência
-Uncle Milote
-Uncle Joubert

Happy Birthday!

Leandro, my super-nice-cool nephew!

This guy is the coolest!
Really! It isn't because he is my nephew, it's because he is really proud to be himself in a very cool way!
He is the sweetest young man I ever met! His smile can melt everyone's heart and he gave us a lot of proves for that, right Leandro?!

Leandro plays piano and now he is exploring guitar and he is succeeding greatly!

I do love this guy, from the bottom of my heart and I can give my life to save his without any thought. As I use to say to him, I love him very much not because he is my nephew and it makes us related by blood. Nope, I love him because of him himself, without any redundancy here and any labels!

Leandro was born on 21st.
This was the first clue I got that my life would be changed forever after he came to this blue planet. The 21st, not the same month but still 21st, was the worst day of my life. It was a day chosen by the mysteries of God's work to take my father back to him.
Leandro was born on 21st and made my 21st softener. Thank you my sweet baby!

Le, I love you! I simply love you! You can count on me always and forever and I will not fail on this promise!

Happy Birthday
cool guy!

it's BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

It's a boyyyy!!!
I'm so happyyyyyyy!!


God bless you my little treasure!
I love you so much, so much!!

Back to Taiwan

Having lunch at my mother's!

Some quality time with toothless Maria Luiza!

National Art Museum, Nigeria, Lagos

After 1 month and 1 week out, I'm back to Taiwan. I'm exhausted but extremely happy!
This trip was very important to me, I could see who I truly am and what is my role in this world. I do hope I'm right about it. You know, sometimes our heart and our intuition fail us good! Or we don't understand correctly and clearly the message...
I'm pretty sure I found my inner world in this surprise self-discovery trip to Africa.

To be able to free myself completely, I made 2 hard decisions: I put my academic life on hold and I didn't take ANY of my 14 daily medicines. Am I in trouble? Of course I'm but so what? The biggest trouble is my academic life, I do have a lot to catch up and I do hope I can do it. I even don't know where to start reading/writing but I will find my way out for sure.
Now, the biggest surprise ever! A kind of miracle materialized just in front of my nose! I didn't have/suffer/feel absolutely anything in my stay in Nigeria! I was medicine free and absolutely nothing happened! I even forgot that I'm use to them, or almost all of them, for about 32 years. It was like those pills didn't belong to me.
What I felt was as if I had a good and strong health! I'm surprise until now...And if it wasn't enough of good surprises, the blood tests I took in Brasil came out all good, not "just" good but perfect!

I must confess that I was worried with my irresponsibility! Once, about 12 years ago, I was asked by a physician to stop taking any medicine for 3 months and it wasn't an enjoyable thing to see. I became completely unplugged. I have no will even to take a shower. So I knew how serious my decision was and even knowing it, I decided to take the risk. Thank God there is no regrets!

However being the freak that I'm, as soon as I got in Brasil I did all the ordinary blood tests I'm used to do and my thyroid hormones were perfect for the first time EVER. Unbelievable! Really, it is something to think about! How come I kept myself away from all those drugs I was supposed to believe that are the reason to keep me alive and...

Well, what I know is that I got back in Brasil and in Taiwan and guess what? Of course, I'm sick! I got a terrible cold that is pushing me back to bed every single day since I arrived. I don't get the picture!

Talking about picture, I'll blog later about my trip to Nigeria and Brasil with a quick stop in Amsterdam under a freezing day of -2C.

I do miss Nigeria very very much! Everything was just perfect, I couldn't ask for more. And in Brasil as usual, I had no time to do all I wanted to do, but I'm not complaining at all. I got used to it, to have my list of errands sabotaged!
Talking to old friends, playing with my super cute niece Maria Luiza, having lunch with all my family together, going to the beach for New Year, getting a tan in Flórianopolis, facing mic for the 1st time ever, eating akara, sleeping any time I felt sleepy... what a wonderful way to spend vacation!

I just want to thank God for this wonderful long trip. Everything went smooth with so many joy and happiness. I really felt very blessed.

I took tons of pictures and I'll post some of them as soon as I get my academic life on schedule. I also have numerous emails waiting for my reply! I didn't check or answer any email since I left Taiwan and I'm afraid even to look at my Inbox. It will take a lot of time to answer, but I gotta do what I gotta do!

I hope it isn't too late to wish everybody a great 2009!

Happy New Year!
(Solar Calendar)

Happy Chinese New Year!
(Lunar Calendar)

Mama fixing my bracelet!

On the beach in Lagos, for New Year!

Surrounded by kids! I laughed good!

Those kids are irresistible!