Blog

  • What’s Inside The Garage?

    Ferrari In The Repair Department
    Ferrari In The Repair Department

    Yesterday I took my son, Cristian to the Ferrari dealer here in Coral Gables.  He is an exotic car buff and loves taking pictures of these cars. He networks with other kids his age from all over the world on some websites and they share pictures. In fact, he is going to start his own website for this and I am in the process of helping him set it up.

     A good friend’s neighbor is the general manager at The Collection. My friend had told him about his passion for exotic cars. He had told her to tell Cristian to pass by for an inside tour of Ferrari’s, Aston Martin’s, Maserati’s and the like. I finally made an appointment with his secretary to go there. Cristian rides his bike there all the time checking out the scene which is mainly all the spotless, shiny cars on display. But he never saw all the other departments. That is, until yesterday. The manager took us up through a secure elevator to reveal other goodies. There was the repair department, the parking station for used cars waiting for new owners and the cleaning station.   Cristian’s eye’s popped out. He had no idea that these areas existed. All he had seen was the sales department. (more…)

  • The Ferrari Is Moving Along

    Ferrari Coming Out of The Collection in Coral Gables
    Ferrari Coming Out of The Collection in Coral Gables

    A very nice woman and friend on Twitter, Maryan Pelland asked me to do a guest post on her blog last week. This is the first time I was asked to do this. I was so busy in the last week in my focus of  creating  income either with a job(base pay) or  my real estate work(commissions).

    When she reminded me on Tuesday, I went ahead at night to muster the energy to get inspired to write. That was the day before yesterday. It was my first day of giving it a try at a real estate brokerage company. When I got home my mind was dizzy with getting adjusted to someone else’s way of working and office environment.

    So, I relaxed for an hour and here is the post on her Woman Day By Day Blog  that came out of me after my light nap/meditation.  I was kind of proud of it, because my son Cristian is an exotic car buff and I thought he might get a kick out of the Ferrari metaphor. And since Ferrari’s run pretty fast,  I realized very quickly that this was not the best place or opportunity for me to work. At first the painted picture sounded good, but alas…..flaws were revealed pretty quickly.  I am not expecting perfection. It was something of integrity. I could be wrong, but my gut says I am probably right. So I am busy again like a bee, getting the engine ready to move in the direction that will support my household. I continue to trust and I know I will prevail. Probably, this pit stop will lead me to the next one closer to the finish line. (more…)

  • Rainbows, Dreams, Teams and Connections

    Rainbow Outside of Office Today
    Rainbow Outside of Office Today

    I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with one of my mango connections. In the last two weeks, a series of possibilities opened up for me. I believe that they did because I put a very strong intention that I needed something by the end of May to stabilize my income. I have been sending out resumes to various job positions while trying to navigate the REO business.  I was open to working in something outside of the real estate arena as well. But it really irked me that I have all this real estate experience and it was going to waste. It seemed like door after door kept closing on me.

    It is during these times that one tends to get desperate. I wasn’t despairing so much because I have learned to trust my gut(and because writing here has given me more strength to stay positive).  I  also gave myself the gift to feel the pain I was feeling for the loss of Sparky. Maybe that is why the opportunities didn’t happen. Maybe I needed the time to spend with Sparky in these last months and give him tons of love.(even though at times he drove me crazy with that wound). (more…)

  • Memorial Day, Remembering Our Heroes

    Memorial Day
    Memorial Day

    Yesterday, I wrote the title of my blog Mango Connections Falling on My Doorstep. My routine in the morning this past week is getting up to see how many mangoes have fallen on my lawn. Cristian asked me why I gave all the good ones away. I had saved about 10 cracked ones for myself. I told him that there were plenty more on the tree and lots of fruit on the cracked and bruised ones.

    As I opened the door a few minutes ago, there was a big semi broken & bruised mango right on my doorstep this time.  It just made me think, how many families are wishing today,Memorial Day, that their loved ones  who are away at war, arrive at their doorstep no matter how bruised and broken they may be. And most importantly, and the reason why today is a somber day of remembrance, what about the families that have no hope of this because they have already lost a member of their family? (more…)

  • Mango Connections Fall on My Doorstep

    Mangoes From My Two Trees
    Mangoes From My Two Trees

    (Note: May 26th I am starting a category called Mango Connections with this post. I will put posts here of serendipitous events or anything that pops up in someone’s life that is a sign to be led in a new direction. If you have any, I welcome you to post them here. I do believe there are many signs every day in answer to our questions or thoughts. The key is: do we pay attention and believe in them?)

    I just finished sipping a mango shake that Cristian and I made.  Today was a very interesting day. I woke up this Sunday morning to see how many mangoes I had on my lawn. Yesterday it rained all day and I had a box full of mangoes, at least 30 of them. Since last week, the ripe mangoes have been steadily falling, about five per day.

    Now the combination of the ripe mangoes and the downpour of rain caused a box full of fresh ready to eat mangoes.  As I stood out on my lawn grabbing this luscious fruit, I noticed my neighbor across the street with his young daughter. “Want some mangoes?.”  “Sure”, he replied. And off they went with at least a dozen of them. (more…)

  • Angels Watching Over Us – Visible & Invisible

    Angels Always Watch Over US
    Angels Always Watch Over US

    Oprah had a show this week of several people who have provided services and help to people that are in need during these hard times. She named the show every day heroes  One woman was crying at an auction of her house and Marilyn Mock went up to her and asked her why she was crying. Normally, the homeowner who is in foreclosure doesn’t go to these auctions. Usually it is the investors who buy the homes from the bank. When Marilyn found out why this woman was in despair, she went and bid for the house and later gave the title of the  house back to the woman that was crying. Now they are friends.

    Since then, Marilyn has created a foundation called Foreclosure Angel Foundation. The amazing thing about the story is that Marilyn did not go to the auction to invest. She went to accompany her son and watch. I think some big angel was watching over her instead and Marilyn did this beautiful act of kindness. In life you never know what happens and how angels, invisible ones and real human angels happen to show up when you least expect it. It has happened to me many times and these are the moments that I will never forget. They make my life so much richer. I hope one day when I get back on my feet, I can do the same for others.