Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Holiday Cheer.

Yeah, I know the holidays are almost over. As usual, I never got around to mailing any cards (I forgot to even buy the cards this year, ha!) and the annual quintessential holiday email I send will probably be postponed until the week of January 5th.
Attention shoppers, Z is very lazy and busy this year, plus she's running around planning parties and gifts for 1179 children (seriously, the holiday parties at school were great but they really took their toll on me), plus a book fair involving over 60 publishers, plus getting together a gazillion documents for our trip to Austria (I swear, the only thing the Embassy did not ask for the visa documents was the color of my mom's underwear) plus getting tickets and dealing with everyone who canceled out at the last minute for our trip to Mount Ida plus getting gifts for my own children (Arda got an Ibanez GRG Micro electric guitar that he has asked for the past two years, as well as a sketching set, Tunca got my camera plus a little robot that, well, just walks) while having a grand time with my newest find, the Rowenta Lissima Clip and Press.
I am a bit scared that this blog will morph into a shopping frenzied mom's list of her endless endeavors into the shallow world of capitalism. Might happen, sooner or later, because the "purpose" of zymzym is my attempts at forcing myself to write. The countless stories and the two novels I started then dumped prove that I am not a long project oriented person but a shallow one with the attention span of a sparrow. Or a guppy.
Anyways, tomorrow we leave at 6AM to try and get on the boat to Bandırma to reach Mount Ida at a reasonable time for us to comfortably celebrate the arrival of the new year with our closest friends at Zeytinbağı, a nice little hotel on the outskirts of the mountains. But the boats have been canceled for the past two days due to storms and we are actually having a hard time deciding what route to take.
Anyways.
Happy new year everyone!
PTA members standing guard for the gifts.
All we need are earphones for Arda and earplugs for us now.
My new favorite gizmo.

Friday, December 12, 2008

The meltdown.

Turkish holidays are grand. After a 9 day holiday in November, we braced ourselves for the celebration of Eid, a Muslim holiday, for another 9 days, packed with activities. Most people go on a vacation of some sort, some overseas, some south to the Mediterranean, but we make do with short getaways during Easter, winter break and spring break since Burak works with an European schedule.

The first few days we managed fine, with lots of crafts and restaurants and family visits. Burak's birthday allowed us to keep them busy making lots and lots of cards and origami ("here mom, I made an elephant for dad but it turned out to be a boat") and sporadic food experiments (yes, we did the mentos & diet coke experiment in our backyard and dudes, it's awesome!) Then we went to a basketball game (well, we first took the kids to Asmalımescit and Pera area and walked around a bit), and the anticipation of that kept them excited and busy. Then we tricked them into staying at home for a few hours with the promise of a movie - at night and 7+ rating (they really did get a kick out of all the swearing in AROG, a Turkish comedy of some sort). But today, after all our plans fell thru and their cousin was late for a playdate and all my efforts (puzzles, more crafts, a 2 liter diet coke bottle and two packs of mentos, the computer games, 7 songs on Guitar Hero, cookies, more cookies, decorating the cookies, letting them clean up the mess from the cookies by licking the freaking table and giggling endlessly, then burning the cookies and letting them experiment with the burnt cookies) failed at keeping them entertained, I gave up.

I yelled at them after they started screaming into each others ears with makeshift loudspeakers, and they were very loud. I asked them over and over and over and over again to stop screaming, then they started to wrestle and screamed again and I had my first official meltdown of the holiday season.

So I decided to get my hair colored again, this time, back to its original brown. So there. I am the mother of two little boys, who seem to be having a great time screaming and giggling and doing silly stuf, just like they're supposed to be doing, and I just could not handle it anymore. So I want my hair back to its original color. That should do the trick.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Dream

While speaking to my mom today, she said, "we all had dreams, and somehow we had to compromise and make do with whatever life dealt us. What's important is not to get bitter about it and move on."

She's so cool. And deep. I wanted to write something about dreams, and hopes and something deep.

Here's what came up:
I promise not to get bitter if I don't get it, though.

Now, I am not that big a fan of Scandinavian design, though some stuff from Eva just blew my mind.

How appropriate is this for Turkish culture? Bring your own grill.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tunca's World

Here's a new picture he drew:

Istanbul, on a good day

Istanbul can be heaven.

When I get a cab just as I step outside, and catch the boat to Eminönü without waiting, and it's mellow and cool at the same time... When dolphins swim along the boat and everyone just forgets about the looming economic doom and their general state of dispair for just a few moments. When I chat with strangers about cookie recipes while looking at baking supplies and Christmas decorations (right before a Muslim holiday, too). When I dance without noticing to some Turkish pop tune and noone stares at me as though I am crazy (people usually do, especially when I dance when I'm driving and stuck in traffic) and some even smile.

When I miss the boat on the way back, and just when I am about to complain and wait for the next boat, I realize that the usual blue green waters of the Bosphorus has turned purple and the sky is both blue and grey and pink and burgundy and an old man squeals with delight when a seagull grabs his sandwich on the boat.,

Istanbul can be heaven.