Istanbul hos geldiniz!

Until now, my blog title has been a misnomer, but that is no longer the case. As of this week, I am officially a resident of Istanbul. Istanbul! Even the name sounds exotic. The ordinary day for the ordinary mom can seem mundane, but my life for the past month has been the complete opposite of mundane—try chaotic—and suddenly a routine, humdrum day sounds positively delightful. My life has been so hectic lately that I am writing this blog post at a quarter to midnight while my baby screeches in the background, protesting jet lag, change, and sleep. Oh, my poor, poor son. Do not fight sleep. Sleep is your friend, as I should know. Sleep and I have not been on speaking terms for over a year now, and believe me, life without a good night’s rest is not pretty. Just give it up, love. It will all be for the best. (Apparently, I have no gift for telepathy, as he is still screaming.)

I feel like I should give some sort of account of how we transitioned from life in our cute condo in old-town Alexandria to life in a spacious apartment in the animated center of Istanbul, but I am frankly overwhelmed at the prospect. The middle of June through the beginning of August mostly consisted of a repetitive schedule of organizing household goods, throwing out less-than-essential items, visiting as many friends and family members as possible, applying for diplomatic passports and visas, preparing the house for rent, and trying to use up as many yoga classes as possible. (I wanted my money’s worth! :-P) Then August 6^th came. :profound sigh: Despite my efforts, we were far from prepared for the arrival of the movers, and when they showed up half an hour early that fateful morning, pandemonium ensued. People upstairs, people downstairs, stuffing items into boxes with the rapidity of Olympic track stars, while my husband held our bewildered son, and I tried to be everywhere at once: “Yes! That goes in that box! No! Please don’t put that there. Wait! What happened to those important papers on my desk? Packed already?” And then, when that excessively long and disorganized day was over at last, we moved into a hotel room for a week, which, though expansive for a hotel room was cramped for a 14-month-old, so that within a few days the baby and I had developed a serious and incurable case of cabin fever.

As much as I would like to finish this post, it will have to wait, because (miraculously!) the baby is asleep, which means I can sleep, too! [Posting this the next day . . . more to come once I get wifi.]