so we’re heading back stateside in about a day! It hasn’t really hit me yet, and of course I haven’t packed yet but it’s only sat night so that’s fine. i’ve been a bit consumed with work and my turk and our kitten went down to izmir. we won’t see our little kiki for nearly a month! the house has been so empty these last few days without talha working till 6am and mini jumping on the kitchen counters, cuddling us or clawing our toes while we sleep.

but turk will be home soon, and though I’ve been wanting to blog post for days my brain is sleepy and my fingers are typed out from a week of typing emails to customers. blargh! but soon…family! friends! our second wedding, the first one on US soil. sister’s bday! Cali! SF! more !!

maybe i’ll post a picture. i love that I’ve lived in two cities with beautiful red bridges. and the two bridges in istanbul do SF one better…they are constantly changing colors all night.

We first saw minik with her 4 brothers and sisters in a box on a window sill the second week  of April, last year. We figured, since their eyes were just recently opened and bright blue, that they must have been born around the first of April. And isn’t April first an appropriate birthday for our little black and white dummyface? oh how we love her! I’ve been looking thru old pictures as the rain pours down outside (april showers bring may flowers don’t ya know) and she was such a little butterball then. We adopted her at the beginning of June but every day can be a kitten celebration. happy day little kiki. <3

then…have your cat jump in the box.

aka Jeepers creepers where’d you get those peepers!

so after the late night/early morning craziness that is the oscars I went into a post-oscar -nominated -film- watching -depression and filled up on tv and work. ha, of course I wasn’t actually depressed but I do find it hard to figure out what movie to watch right after the oscars. I like having the goal of watching as many as I can.

however we’ve been up to some fun lately, in addition to the ever-present work (but I work from home, so no complaints for the most part). Here are a few things off the top of my head, with the most recent one first:

-made home made falafel. oh lordee that was tasty and yes we ate too much. this time I even added in potatoes just like my fave falafel place in SF.

-went down to Izmir to see Talha’s good friend Sami get married to a lovely lady named Burcu. It was a lovely ceremony and she walked down the aisle to Bittersweet Symphony. Also I got to get a new dress and get made up and that’s always nice too.

-watched Jean Dujardin play the French cowboy in Lucky Luke, a stylized silly film. It was fun to see him talking AND the cartoon was a favorite of the turk’s when he was a little turk.

-minik-always adorable, even though she loves to beg constantly for food and hop on the kitchen counter.

ah huzzah, Hollywood’s annual celebrate themselves party is coming close and I can’t wait, even though I will be tuning in at 3am Istanbul time.

It would be fun to have one of my oscar parties like I used to have in SF and in LA growing up, but alas, tonight it will be a party of me, the turk and the kitten, who is already wearing her tuxedo. We had pizza for dinner as is the tradition, but I suspect coffee will have to be consumed in order to stay up late. Now that I’m working I have trouble staying up much later than midnight. Also because i’m an old lady now. :p

but oscars! and billy crystal is back! and I’ve seen pretty much ALL of the nominated films, except for the foreign ones. I’m about to watch Hugo and then I’ll be all set with the 9 best pictures. I feel that it’s The Artist’s year, but the films were all pretty darn good. I would particularily like seeing Gary Oldman win, but Brad Pitt would be well deserved as well.I think it’s silly how the ‘best’ one is chosen out of entirely different roles and movies, but I shouldn’t take it so seriously. I love movies and the oscars celebrate movies, so bring it on!

I hope I can stay up till best picture is announced. Right now all the stars are getting their hair and makeup done I bet, and are all in a twitter about walking the red carpet in a few hours.

Happy oscar parties everyone! Who do you think will win? Where do you think the surprises/upsets will be? will minik or talha win the oscar pool or will I take home the winnings?

from minik on her first valentine’s day! also hearts to my husband. <3 <3 <3

The snow came back to Istanbul last night after a few days of rain and coldish weather (including one day of spring even!). It’s so nice to see the rooftops all covered in white snow, and the hills across the bosphorus are a winter wonderland. It’s also even more fun than when it’s raining to work inside all day.

Minik is begging for food unaware of the fact that there is snow outside or that all her street cat cousins are outside in the cold. poor womples and doggies! She went on the balcony today and snow flakes landed on her black fur and it was so cute, like flakes of dandruff. she didn’t seem to notice and then ran inside. The other day she spent a bit of time sitting on one of her chairs and watching the snow flakes flurry around. I too love watching it fall outside. It doesn’t really fall, it just seems to float and frolic all about in every which way, silent and soft even when it’s blowing hard. We’re lucky that we don’t have to commute to work as I’m sure it wouldn’t be so fun to be out and on the bus/walking in it for extended periods of time. but still, so lovely!

We watched a beşiktaş game tonight and they were playing in the east of Turkiye, and the field was heated but there was snow piled up all around the sides. Whenever we had a corner kick our players had to dig into the snow to kick the ball and it was probably pretty cold. We managed to draw the game so we’ll take that after three straight stupid losses. snow! right now I can’t even see the Asian continent!

*sung to the tune of ‘let it snow’ that is jammed in our brain every time we wake up and see white rooftops. talha was singing jingle bells earlier because of it.

last night when I went to sleep I saw falling snow behind my eyelids.