busybusy always busy

last week was crazy! the week before i put up my ghost tower at cannons elementary school. check nicholas’ blog for some pix-

did i mention my computer is M.I.A. somewhere in the universe being “repaired” by apple.

so photo documentation of all this stuff is forth coming except for bayram during which everyone was too busy eating and tearing open presents to remember to take pictures (sorry anne and baba who specifically asked for photos i’ll put my dress back on and pix message you)

ok where to start.

last monday?

monday through wednesday i was busy putting together my sketchbook for the sketchbook show both alix and arielle are participating in. the theme for the 500 books sent out by arthouse (formerly of decatur georgia, now based in atlanta, excuse me hotlanta) is fear. i am very affraid of moths. i am mottephobic. it’s gotten better, maybe even because of this time spent drawing transfering reading and writing about moths. i realized the overwhelming feeling of isolation and helplessness comes from the fact that i am so conditioned to drawing and making stuff on my computer. i forgot what else to make marks with besides the pen tool, copy and pasting, and various filters. i remember there are things out there like china markers, conte crayon, water color pencils, and erasers. omg. once i remembered i began plowing through the sketch book making four larger sketchy collagey pieces that fold out from the books smaller pages. yes.

also of note, monday was the birthday of the sunshine of my life ms. arley rose torsone! she is an incredible source of light and love and inspiration to my lamelame life. dare i say she is one of my heros. you are the greatest arlbot! i love you! happy happy dearest! i dreamt of you last night and MISS YOU SO!

tuesday:

sketchbook all day. i discovered a new incarnation of my fear of commitment- adhesives. i put off sticking anything to anything until tomorrow.

open knit. awesome! this group is different everytime and i have to say it’s wonderful. if you haven’t come to check it out please do so. i think we have a lot of fun. some where in the recent past nicholas taught me to crochet, and so i crocheted (cheater!) during this session. i think i am getting the hang of single needlery. also delish pizza from venus pie (sorry pie guy, maybe now you can really see that the yanks do in fact SUCK! GO SOX!)

sent good thoughts to my friend techis all day today. i love you chiqui! thank you for setting me straight the other week. i hope you are doing good.

wednesday: made a last big push, commited to rubber cement and a gluestick for my sketchbook and was generally pleased with what i had in the end. nicholas asked me why i chose newsprint. it feels a little mothy no? also i braved my fears and pulled a particularly large moth from nicholas’ van’s dashboard to be bagged and sewn to the cover. and i did that all by myself. alix and i made a mad rush for the post office inside a hardware store and then the ups store. WE SENT OURS OUT IN TIME! YESEXCELLENT!

hooray! the show opens on the 10/27 in hotlanta. go to www.thesketchbookproject.com for more info. later that evening the monthly advisory meeting, i made a pretty terrible stir fry (fresh veigtables do indeed rule) got really bummed out, took a long hot shower, busted out some clean soft sheets, and just put myself to bed.

thursday: woke up early and bopped around town shopping for everyone’s end of ramadan, eid or in turkish BAYRAM! presents. this took a long time. it’s difficult, trying to find awesome presents for seven people. but i think it went alright. presents. presents. presents. sometimes they are what you want for the person, sometimes they are what you think the person wants, sometimes they are just really fun things. i tried to do a combo of all three. before i set out to make a lot of food, i had fish tacos from taco dog. they were delicious. i figured i should have a full stomach before setting the menu for the next day. it didn’t really help me much.

text message from alex did help motivate me! thanks science!

stayed up till 4:30 making pumpkin pie, baklava, cold leek salad, and prepping the spinach pie. i lost my mind somewhere in there, and made a pretty janky pie crust.

however, rachel and i sampled the edge that decided to fall off, and it was indeed tastey.

also thursday was my hatice hala’s birthday! happy birthday hala! i thought of you a lot while cooking! i love you!

friday: BAYRAM!!!!!! i got up at 8 am and made the spinach pies, then set out to make pide bread. apparently i can not read or decifer numbers before 10 am because i messed up the recipe twice. with no more yeast i took a little break and hit up ingles for some fleischman’s and a loaf of flax seed bread (just in case). also stopped by the oasis tastey beverage mart for some additional presents (none for me however!)

third time really is a charm because the bread recipe worked out, so i made some menemen eggs and put on my new pretty dress, and called everyone up to get the party started!

i kissed everyone and hugged everyone and then we set forth to consume!

we ate a lot, i drank a lot of tea (mm!), i burnt the leeks, we exchanged gifts, and had a lot of fun. i have to say that i missed my family a lot, a whole LOT(my mom burnt her eggs that morning too… i may truely be an annac BTW) but my fake family here in spartanburg did a bang up job making up for it. thank you betsy stephen alix arielle rachel and nicholas for a really wonderful and dare i say special day. granted i was a little late on the bayram breakfast (we ate at 3:30 ha!) and the food was just alright (the ladies in my family have me beat for sure!) i had a lot of fun. it was sweet and so thank you thank you!

also of note, i remembered how much i like diagrams after seeing some of nicholas’, i regretted not taking my life a little more seriously, and considered writing several letters of apology (one maybe coming you way so stay tuned!) as penance for my lack of legitimacy.

i took a real holiday saturday and sunday (in some places of the world eid/ bayram lasts for three days and so i milked that all weekend) went to open knit at barnes and noble and had a really great time. i’ve been kind of knitted out recently but i remembered sitting with kathy and toby that i do indeed love to knit. i love the tactile experience of it. i forgot but know i remember. later rachel and i tried on fake glasses, i got really killer books out of the library (eva hesse!), read some too devistating poems by richard siken (thanks rachel!) i went big ball bowling for the first time and sucked at it (surprised?), ate an especially sweet and salty late night waffle at papa’s (tastey!) slept in something serious on sunday, did some laundry, and hit up a noise show in asheville. today is monday and i am back at it. watch me go to home depot. watch me get cracking. artjail is back WITH A VENGENCE! ok except maybe breaks for the sox who by the way are in it neck deep as well.

thanks again to my hububble family. i guess i love you or something. whatever.

HEARTS!