The State of the Laundry
I was just checking my email, and I noticed that the folder in which I’ve been saving all the messages I wanted to keep is empty. You know, all the ones that reminded me I was a lovely human being and not just a waste of skin. Now I’m going to have to remind myself, and I suck at that. Stupid fucking webmail.
I arrived back in Istanbul about 06:00 two days ago, after a couple of hours of wildly uncomfortable sleep on the overnight bus from G�reme. I hopped in a taxsi to Ortok�y and banged on Toby�s door until he realized I wasn�t just a bad dream and answered it. One of the most welcome sights I have seen since leaving Vancouver was TJ on Tuesday morning, sleepy and hung-over, staggering around his apartment in his saggy boxers and a t-shirt, mumbling something about England beating Croatia. He pulled out the couch and a sleeping bag for me and we both fell back asleep. It felt like I’d been gone for about a year.
I enjoyed the three days I spent in G�reme. The first day was a bit of a write-off, as we arrived in the afternoon after being en route for 17 hours or some stupid thing (five hours of it waiting for a relief driver in Konya, staring blearily at the largest statue of a Whirling Dervish ever invented). I thought I’d want to talk more about the bus ride from hell, but maybe I’ll just let it go forever into the little vault of things that happened that I don’t feel like recounting. The second day was spent doing a whirlwind tour of underground cities and fairy chimneys and pottery factories and Ilhara Valley. It was a fantastic day, and I think everyone on the tour can pat themselves on the back for not killing the most irritating person on the planet, who joined us for the day. Though we might have been doing the world a favour. It’s a good thing we didn’t get to vote on who got ‘pretend’ tortured in the underground city, is all I can say about that. The last day was mostly a laze around the pool, do some souvenir shopping, organize backpack kind of day. Partly due to the massive dinner and two bottles of wine and sitting out on the porch chatting with Tamaryn until 02:30 in the morning.
Later this afternoon Pam and Toby and I are heading back to Ortok�y – we’ve been at Pam’s place since Tuesday afternoon. TJ heads out to London tomorrow, and Pam and I are going to do a little bit of of the Black Sea Coast. I’ve had enough time to upload photos and do my laundry while we’ve been here (I feel like my Grandma every time I write a sentence like this, because every postcard we have ever received from her has included a comment on where they were at laundry-wise. I mean, at home, who fucking cares about your laundry, but when you are travelling, your state of laundry is an accurate reflection of your state of mind. Or something. And mine is all clean.) so this afternoon there is not much to be done but sit around the pool. Pam, on seeing my face and arms on Tuesday commented twice on how unbelievably brown I was (it’s kind of a off-burnt colour with freckles, but who am I to argue). In the last few weeks I have lazed about in the sun in t-shirts and shorts and a two-piece and a one-piece and halter tops, and I realized yesterday morning before I stepped into the shower that I am not tanned so much as I am variegated. So I’ll maybe work on that a little before I come home. It’s good to have goals.