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The Brooklyn Funk Essentials is a band formed by Turkish immigrants to NYC.   The lyrics in one of their songs goes, "I get high from the view of Istanbul at night."  Damn I hear that.

The Galata tower was built in 1328 and was originally called "The Tower of Christ."   Its views of Istanbul are breathtaking.  Not only are all these sites beholdable from one location, but there were three firework displays over the course of the evening.

The Galata Tower

View of SultanAhmet and Suleiyman Mosques

The Bosphorus Bridge in the distance, which glows in everchanging rainbow colors through the night, linking Asia to Europe.

The Topkalpi Palace dominates the horizon.  Formerly the home to the Sultans and the center of the Ottoman Empire, it housed 5,000 people.

The Hagia Sophia overlooking the Golden Horn Bay.

Just to help illustrate the difficulty I have had in sleeping because of the noise and commotion, here is a picture of my street while I was walking home last night- very dead for 1:00 a.m. Sunday night/Monday morning.

Finally, a picture of my kitty Safeesh, who is sleeping on my desk while I type with her tail wrapped around my wrist.  :-)

she was somehow in love with her bikini

he was somehow in love with her soul

 Topkapi palace during the day.   Recall: home to the Sultans, center of the Ottoman Empire, home to 5,000 people.

 

View across the Bosphorus to the beginning of Asia.

 

Galata tower during the day.

 

Galata neighborhood #1

 

Galata neighbrohood #2

Once arrived in Monterey, I splattered splashed onto the scene  having only forgotten about three really key belongings in various, far-flung geographical locations along the way.

SPLAT

Take a deep breath over beer with the homies.

pull it together a little

Dine and laugh with friends and let things fall into place.

Starring:

 

Miss Maggie of da Vine

and

 

Cheries Rider

 

At last.

 

It was a night to celebrate love in marriage.

 

 

 

and dance.

Somehow almost every vantage point on this city is breathtaking.

During my last drink over Istanbul, sipping a glass of cold rucca,  I realized time is passing.    

 There is no time to lose.

Even though I have to leave beautiful Turkey at this time, my world is forever expanded for having been here.   My experiences in Istanbul have enriched my lifetime with vibrant color. 

 Cheers.

 

She believed the universe to be  benevolent.

She felt protected by the energy that connects everything.

The road ahead still had big flowers and color.

  

Around the corner there was friendship and lights .  Everything was still possible, and nothing was lost.

 

from the airplane  into northdakota  i surveyed the farms that stretched in a patchwork design over the flatest stretch of land imagineable. 

 

during my flight, I was so tired and going in and mostly out of consciousness, that  i responded to the German attendants with  'merci,"  and "teşekkürler,..."  When I got off the plane i absentmindedly told the pilot and air hostesses "görüşürüz."   (Turkish for see you later) It took me weeks to get comfortable even saying thankyou in turkish in the first place,  but in the end it came from my sleepy  subconscious default instinct.   

 

my grandparents, my parents, and my brother were all there to meet me at the airport. laughs and lots of food ensued.    sometimes they asked about egypt, whoops they mean turkey, but mostly we are all just in the present moment. singing impromptu songs about the heimlich maneuvre.  Granny Flo and grama Vi really shone improving the verses.

 

I miss my kitty and wonder how she is doing at nights alone.   I wish I could go for the brown bathrobe I left in Istanbul. and as i sip a glass of chilled wine and watch the shadows of the big maple trees cast across the green,  green north dakota grass, I contemplate this force that separates me from the people i love. i love them so much, why must we separate? again and again.  even the most special ones and I?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

sat in the library gazing at the short stack of my corrected Arabic quizzes. 

began to feel appreciation for my path, all that I have experienced along the way. 

worked on my to-do list which seemed to grow at a breathtaking rate.

wrote to my beautiful and wonderful girlfriends, and recieved a hypnotic  image from one of them on my phone.

recalled a conversation with one of my dearest friends at a pivotal moment on the concept of  "amour propre"  or self-love, which seemed like good timing again

finished some work that satisfied me

rode ma cherie home on the bike path along the sea, effortlessly speeding along , in the perfect evening air, remarking how the sound of the lapping waves is so much more pronounced at night.

and lo, the

dour attitude whose pallor has clung to my perspective started to thin

concept of  isolation began to be revealed as an illusion 

my

loving roommate was home to greet me

green attic room seemed so cozy

and

I am so grateful for all that I have.

image from IHT

In the early morning at 4:45 my alarm went off and I thought it was just plain ridiculous.

"Maybe I won't even go." 

But somehow Maggie was  up in the night  to tell me I had to do this. 

My girlfriend who is a linguist in the airforce texted me to say she was on her way to pick me up at my doorstep.  We whisked away through the predawn in her convertible BMW as she punched away on her GPS  until we found Dmitry in the dark waiting for us on a street corner.  I just shivered and  sipped electrolytes for the next hour and talked about the cold. 

As the team huddled together at the starting line, the countdown began.  I hit my MP3, which was dead.  Great. 

Such a dense crowd of people shuffled out onto the trail that it was packed like watch your step.   In no time the elite runners had looped back and flew by us.  They were beautiful.   I realized I had merely put my battery in backwards, and a drumline hit that sent my first endorphine rush through my body.   As we massed through downtown Monterey towards the ocean in the thousands, the seagulls flew over our heads in excited formations.   The sea of people before me overtook the underground tunnel  wherein a bagpiper echoed in kilts.  I felt the tremendous support from the community and for eachother, in a fun and healthy event,  and the sun finally split through the clouds, in more ways than one.  

~

A tear came to my eye at the finish, and we sipped a beer at 10:30 in the morning. 

Dima a.k.a. Courtney

 

Cracks me up. 

Go Seda!

 

Me (fresh out of bed)  and Agent A

   

The sweet team , to strike again.

Goodbye to November and the year that came before it.  Goodbye to the autumn, the winter rains have come.  

Thank you for my family, for my spirit, for my health and the health of my loved ones.

... and thank you for the Poetry of Khalil Gibran...

   

Winter


Come close to me, oh companion of my full life;
Come close to me and let not Winter's touch
Enter between us. Sit by me before the hearth,
For fire is the only fruit of Winter.


Speak to me of the glory of your heart, for
That is greater than the shrieking elements
Beyond our door.
Bind the door and seal the transoms, for the
Angry countenance of the heaven depresses my
Spirit, and the face of our snow-laden fields
Makes my soul cry.


Feed the lamp with oil and let it not dim, and
Place it by you, so I can read with tears what
Your life with me has written upon your face.


Bring Autumn's wine. Let us drink and sing the
Song of remembrance to Spring's carefree sowing,
And Summer's watchful tending, and Autumn's
Reward in harvest.


Come close to me, oh beloved of my soul; the
Fire is cooling and fleeing under the ashes.
Embrace me, for I fear loneliness; the lamp is
Dim, and the wine which we pressed is closing
Our eyes. Let us look upon each other before
They are shut.
Find me with your arms and embrace me; let
Slumber then embrace our souls as one.
Kiss me, my beloved, for Winter has stolen
All but our moving lips.


You are close by me, My Forever.
How deep and wide will be the ocean of Slumber,
And how recent was the dawn!