a little bit famous

Guess what? Last Wednesday I became a little bit famous. It all started with a message from my friend.

Him: Do you know who Mary Wilson is?

Me: No.

Him: Ever heard of The Supremes?

Me: OhmygodyesIlovethemIgrewuponMotownbecauseI'mfromMichigan!!!!

Him: Mary Wilson is one of The Supremes and will be in Izmir tonight. Wanna go?

Me: Well..........Yes!

Fast-forward to 7:05 that evening. I led a group of friends in a frenzied power walk to a local theater in IZMIR to see a free show featuring my childhood hero. (I know that the title "hero" seems to be a bit of a jump seeing as how I didn't know her name earlier in the day. But stop being judgmental.) 

This is me with my other Michigan friend here in Turkey, pre-show.

She didn't let her crazy show as much as I did but trust me,
on the inside she felt the same way that my face looked on the outside.

My group of friends and I took up most of a row in a tightly packed auditorium -- and we sang and clapped along righteously to every beat that Mary produced. We laughed when Mary got really diva-licious (talking about her man-friends and whatnot) and  I'm pretty sure that a few of us got a bit teary eyed during some of her more sentimental tunes. I just want to say that I really appreciate a 69 and a half year old woman who is still wearing glitter and flaunting her sexual prowess. I also want to mention that the interpreter was so uncomfortable with what she was saying that he intentionally mis-translated. 

About eight songs into it, my Michigan friend (Rachael) gave me a fairly forceful shove and told me to get up. Just a few short moments later, this happened:

I wasn't really sure what was going on. But on my 30th birthday (I won't mention which year that happened) I promised myself that I would "do more stuff" without thinking too deeply about it beforehand. For better or worse. And that's how I ended up on stage with a Motown Legend last week.

Just another random night in Turkey.

Pretty things

People have given me a lot of stuff in my days here on planet earth. One thing I got A LOT of last week were personal requests to watch this ice skating routine to Ginuwine. Why does everyone I know need me to watch this? I'm not sure. But just in case you've never been on Facebook before, here it is:

Now if you were in high school during the second half of the 90's like I was, you were probably singing along to "Pony" up until moment 1:43 in this clip. But I'll tell you something: What homey did right around that time actually shocked me out of my sing-along. And I've been known to sing straight through things like unexpected flash mobs and even the occasional car accident. So hat's off to you weird man in the muscle costume, you were able to shut me up.

There are so many things that people feel I need.

Right before I moved to Izmir one of my besties gave me these:

they are sparkly -  like vampires when they are exposed to sunshine

She didn't explain a thing, she just handed them to me and carried on with her conversation about the high temps in Albuquerque, New Mexico in July. I wear the socks regularly and yell at people if they don't comment on them when I intentionally pull up a pant leg to show them off.

Because that's what gangsta's do. Yell. I think.

I had another friend send me a package with this magnet in it.

In case it's hard to tell, several naked people are holding up a disfigured, bloody woman. In the upper left hand corner it simply says, "Home." 

She made the magnet herself. You just can't find this kind of stuff in Turkey so I'm glad that I have it now.

Here are a few things that my sisters sent me.

Highlights include a pen shaped like a dagger that makes a stabbing noise when used, a felt wool heart blessed by a traveling Indian that gives hugs (Amma), a beer koozie that says, "My therapist thinks I'm cool" and a bag of organic herbs that, to the untrained eye, appear to be drugs.

But the HIGHLIGHT of my life was a gift that was left for me in my classroom. I was surprised to receive it, and I'm still unsure of who the benevolent gift giver was.

The gift was the tooth. I already had the pen.

I found it on accident, but I'm positive that it was left intentionally. It was in one of my classroom drawers. Due to a strange series of events, the contents of my drawer were spilled and amongst all of the normal school supplies that were suddenly littered on my floor I found this tooth. I wrapped it up in a piece of paper and I'm waiting to pass it on to someone special.

Please don't tell anyone, I want it to be a surprise.

I ate India

I just got back from two weeks in India and when I got dressed for work this morning I felt surprised that my clothes didn't fit. So I did the math and calculated that I ate approximately nine meals worth of food each day while I was away. Basically, I ate India.

Never ending thali plates.

I don't regret my choices because Indian food is delicious/nonexistent in Turkey. I needed to get in as much as I could in my limited amount of time. It didn't help that the clothing that I wore throughout my Indian travels were more like pajamas then anything else -- so I didn't recognize the damage until I was home. But I'm OK with my decisions to eat each meal as if it were my last as a prisoner on death row. Indian food delights me.

Also, I feel like I really blend in India.

blending

I want you to take these things into account:

#1 The food agrees with me (obvi)
#2 I love being barefoot
#3 Coconut oil works wonders on my hair

Unfortunately, the folks that actually live in India may not agree with me, in terms of my blendability that is. I mean they liked me, don't get me wrong. Everywhere I went people stopped and asked for photos with me and my friends. I felt SUPER popular. It is probably the closest I'll ever get to being famous, minus being famous, plus being pale.

and 

and

and

You can hardly tell from the photo, but Krishna really liked me. 

All of this notoriety made me want to dig into pop culture a little bit so I bought a couple posters -- one of Ganesha, one of Vijay.

Ganesha is a god, Vijay is a movie star. I had a lot of BK (BK = Background Knowledge for everyone out there who is not an elementary school student or teacher) on Ganesha already but Vijay is still a bit of a mystery. I'm not sure if there is any connection, but in my research (i.e. asking my friend Charlotte) I did come across a music video that stars a guy that resembles him. It even COULD be him. I have no idea, but the video is really good.

That's as far as I got in my quest for Vijay knowledge.

Overall, my trip to Kerala was perfect. Delish food, amazingly kind people, fab travel companions and utter beauty everywhere I looked.

Until we meet again, fair India

PS: As a side note, I didn't find anything to be really strange/random/wtf-y while I was on my Indian holiday. I mean having folks follow me around with cameras is not something that I experience on a regular basis, but I'm not going to kid anyone -- I loved the attention.

I did however, immediately notice upon my arrival to Istanbul three airport employees pulling a large plastic bonsai tree on a cart around the Duty Free shopping area. In circles. They passed me four times within the span of 20 minutes, each time with a look of sheer determination upon their faces. And with a small inward chuckle, I noted to myself that it felt good to be home.