25 Random Facts about my trip to Turkey

1. A kitty sat next to me on a flight

2. Turkish Air has good service and decent food.

3. A film about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper is as interesting as it sounds.

4. I sat in a middle seat that split down the center. When the girl on my left leaned back to sleep half of my seat went back with hers. No, it was not comfortable.

5. My friend Hiroko speaks at least 5 languages and reads 4 kinds of alphabets.

6. She reads right to left, left to right and up to down.

7. and plays piano and sings beautifully.

8. I'm not jealous at all.

9. Hazelnuts are a gift from God. (learned from an ad by the Turkish Hazelnut Producers)

10. No one in the world should be denied the benefits of hazelnuts. (from same ad)

11. People love to sing in their own language

12. CNN scares me. I've grown accustomed to subdued European news reporting

13. I was paged at the airport as Mr. Augustine Nancy

14. 3 times.

15. My duffle bag ripped open right after I checked in.

16. The plastic bag they stuck it in also ripped, but nothing fell out

17. I wish I spoke Turkish (and Arabic, and Farsi, and Russian)

18. Mark and I passed each other going opposite directions in planes somewhere southwest of Istanbul.

19. Our brilliant plan to switch places being home with the kids by flying on the the same day fell apart when I missed my connection in Istanbul and had to stay the night there, leaving the kids alone.

20. I learned my kids don't need me as much as I need them.

21. It is hard to enjoy a free night in a hotel when you are thinking about your kids being alone.

22. It is also hard to enjoy a free night in a hotel when the wake up call rings at 2:30am, 3:30am and 4:00am when you really wanted to get up at 4:30am.

23. The Istanbul airport has 2 Starbucks. Is that right?

24. Turkey leads the world in pickled products

25. It is good to be home.

Will the Gaffs Ever Cease?

Okay, so I was at Will's high school, outside the homeroom teacher's door, waiting with other parents and students to go in and receive report cards. Will was a few blocks away at the music conservatory about to perform with a jazz piano group. As the wait grew longer those of us in the hallway got antsy and started complaining about how much time the teacher was taking. I mentioned that Will had a concert now. The chatting stopped. One mother gasped and put her hand on her mouth. A young girl cried, "No!". I thought their reactions were somewhat overdramatic. Actually, I had mispronounced "concert" and said instead, "Will has a cancer, now." We cleared up the misunderstanding. But I still missed Will's concert.

Two weeks ago at church we had put up blank sheets of paper on the walls for people to draw little pictures of things they are thankful for. As I was explaining the exercise I wanted to say, "You don't have to create a work of art". Instead I said, "You don't have to creat a goat of art."

I don't really speak English that well either.