Proof!!

Here's the proof I've got the cutest little grand baby ever.

I am a Grand Diva!

I had the BEST St Patricks Day Ever. EVER. 

 I have always loved St Patrick's Day. It is, to me, the starting of Spring. Sure, the Spring Equinox has not yet arrived on the 17th of March. In hte USA a normal day on St Particks include waking up to the Leprechaun already arrived, leaving footprints of where he'd walk and what he was doing, one year, he was in fact caught in a trap and so his foot prints were with his crutches. He always leaves sprinkles and sparkles everywehre, and of course, Gold Coins (sometimes chololate and sometimes gold Sacagawea dollars) and the green meals. Green Milk. Green clothing... oh the fun! 
 Well, this year and usually since I h ave been here in Turkey, I have not celebrated it at all. I miss it. 
  But, now every year I have another reason to celebrate St Patrick's Day! My daughter, J had her first child! The name is divine and she is so precious. A cousin of mine, A, was so fit to be tied, and being that she lives in Las Vegas, rushed to Ventura Ca to visit her. I was able to speak to my daughter for a bit and her fiancé. All is doing well. S is on her way right now from Abu Dhabi to spend some sister time with J, and my eldest J was trying to get to the baby... I hear they got to see the baby. I am so happy and called my mom who is in Hawaii right now and I was able to get her HELLO GI GI!!! 

Well, Now, I'm a Hot Grand Diva! I am so excited to get to the USA and meet this precious little one. 

Balance

So, I have been thinking about balancing lately. 
We have to do it. Just when things get a crazy in our lives, we think about it and do it more. Noticed that ? I totally do! 

One of the things I have always struggled with is Facebook. I hate it. I love it and hate it. 
I hate it because sometimes it is the only way to communicate with J, J, C, and B... and a few friends I have... I know... I have repeatedly told my friends and the above people that if you have 2 hours on Facebook and know how to use Facebook, you easily know how to use your email... So, I go online and visit a couple of people and message a couple of people and then I log off. 

Balance. 

Now, I have been deciding I am tired of my extra weight so I have been working out lately. I am strating off 30 min a day with Zumba and then some crunches and leg lifts and stretching. Then I will work up to longer Zumba times and work outs. When I get back to the USA I will be able to run everyday. I am excited about it and I will get in shape. 

Balance. 

Eating right has never been a problem for me. I love salads and vegetables and fruits. Mostly vegetables. 
I have stopped eating anything with sugars in it Cold Turkey. 
I have decided I will for a month not eat any sugary or anything I love (with sugar in it) for a month because It has been too long now that I have been eating what I want. It is my second day not eating sugars and I think I am dying. I want a huge peanutbutter cookie. 
I will live. 

Balance.

Now spiritual side of things. I pray and read the scriptures. I really though, have been praying to say, Yes I pray. However, I have to have a better relationship with God, and the best way to do it is to seek him more. So I have decided to put more meaning into my prayers. I also want to seek things that are positive and good. This one is hard for me because I see don't always see positive things in difficult times. 

Balance. 

The most important and final thing that I am working on is my emotional well being and my relationship with my family and fiancé, Long Rock. My kids and family and Long Rock mean everything to me. Marrying Long Rock will bring more balance to my life because we can then look forward to our new life in Las Vegas, we can move and live together and get going on a new life with each other. We will be able to be closer to my children which will give them stability they need and bring us closer.

All of this will bring balance to my life and to the universe. I am so excited to announce we will marry on the 29th of June, 2013.   
Balance helps emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually and makes one whole. When I marry Long Rock. I will be more whole.        

Another Misconception ::: Turkey

I have been posting a lot about Turkey and my adventures here. I have grown to love it here and I have grown to aprreciate the culture here. 
With that said, I wanted to write some more about things that people don't understand or are not aware of here. 

Let's get started! 

Camels are in Turkey. 
NOT! I can assure you that this is a misconception that we Americans might have gotten from "Camel Joe". Remember him? He is a Camel from the cigarettes, "Camels". Now, what is really annoying is that they have what is called a "Turkish Blend of Tobacco and Domestic Tobacco" (from Virginia). What they did with the packaging is added a camel, added an oasis (which are not here in Turkey) and stuck a Pyramid behind a Camel. Say WHAT??? It is CLEAR that the producers ofo this cigarette had never been to Turkey and had NO CLUE that Camels are not here. But why the Pyramid and the Oasis? Because they actually used Turkish paper to roll the cigarettes and they fashioned them out of the "Egyptian Style Cigarettes" which were the fashion in Egypt at the time in stead of rolling your own cigarettes. 

Turkey- Greece... They're the Same
Turkey and Greece are neighbors, but they are not the same. They have different cultures, languages, and music, and there's differences in some of the foods, too. Some are the same, but some are different. When you go to a Greek restaurant, you are not going to a Turkish restaurant. Somethings are similar. The sea side cities in some historical places have mad eit a law to white wash all the buildings. This is also common in some Greece cities too.
There have been Greeks have occupied Turkey and you can see in many of the Historical places. Bodrum is an example. Halicarnassus was an ancient Greek City. 

Turkey doesn't have different religions
This is really truly false. There are Synagoges here. There are Churches here and there are loads of Mosques. In fact, many Jewish were invited to seek sanction here in Turkey and safely during WWII. 

The Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and that is why it is Istanbul 
 This is another misconception of Turkey. 
Before the fall of the Great Roman (or Byzantine) Empire, Muslims and Christians and a small amount of Jews lived peacefully side by side in Constantinople (which is now Istanbul) The fall of the Byzantine Empire was slow and metitculous. People like to think that it was the Seljuck Turks, however, if you were to read about "The Fourth Crusade", you would understand better, the demise of the Roman or Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Turks came and accounts of the treatment of the people of Istanbul uppon arriving were horrid. In fact, many Soliders wrote accounts  of weeping and disbelief that the "Great Byznatine Empire" could treat it's citizens in the captial with great disregard to their lives. The city, by the time the Seljuk over threw the city, was in shambles. 
Here is a starting point of where to read about The Fourth Crusade 

I think that will do for now. If I hear of more Misconceptions of Turkey, I will be happy to post them here. 

Until next time::: I'm out!           
     

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

How are your St Patricks Day weekend???
Mine? It ended with the most amazing gift ever. My Grand Daughter was born!!!
I'm so exited to meet her, I just can't wait to get back to the USA to hold her.
It doesn't feel like things are going fast enough. Hopefully I can find a way to warp speed into coming back.

Planning!

I've not been online for a while because I've been planning my wedding!!
Yay!
We are going to have a part Traditional Turkish Wedding and Part Our Own Wedding. We've decided to omit a couple of things about our wedding that we don't want that are Traditional for Turkey. One of the things we've already omitted is the Fiancé Ceremony. We omitted this because we felt it was not only a bit sanctimonious but it was one more ceremony that not only we had to fork out money for but we felt it was a professional way to ask for money too.
We do to want to do that. The other one we're omitting is the "Kına Gece" or Henna Night. We've decided that that was another tradition to omit. First of all because my side if the family isn't here to celebrate it with me, and "hand over" me to the Groom, second because my groom doesn't want to do it and last because that is another expenditure we just didn't want to do. The last one is we are not hiring gypsies to serenade me until I come out and meet my groom. His family finds it annoying. And it's silly because I love in the same building as his mom and dad.
We are though having a Turkish Judge, The Red Book and inviting lots of people

We're excited.

Have you ever

So, I've got a certain family member.
We have never really gotten on at all. When we were kids we fought and when we got older it just got worse.
This person wasn't ever really nice to me and I've always tried my best to be nice to her. To no avail.
When I was younger she stole my Social Security Number. She did a lot of crimes with it and did in fact had been arrested under my name several times. This has been a great stress to me. What is worse is a few years ago she had with her father, took my name, social security number and went to a public records place, obtained a birth certificate, went to a city DMV and obtained a picture ID. She then went to a Deptartment where she was able to get free rent paid for, under all my name etc.
She clot fraud with her father in this way; her father was living with her. They were living in his sister's home. So, her aunt was collecting rent under my name, getting money from the State, her father,, her aunt and herself all knew what she was doing and all benefitting from this.
She also stole some checks and with a picture ID of my name and with my Social Security Number, cashed checks.
She's over dosed on Drugs and used my name at hospitals for drugs, and hospital fees, of more than 90,000 Dollars.

Now this person has discovered Facebook. I laugh at her profile picture because she does in fact use a mug shot of her from 15 years ago. And I think that is just so, oh my hell funny.
She requested me as her friend honestly, I want nothing to do with her.
But I accepted her as friends of mine and blocked her from seeing things on my account. But, I feel bad. I want to block her but I've already added her as a friend.
She has weaseled herself into my life in a very uncomfortable way.
I did write her. I told her that is being friends on Facebook is not an invitation to my life. I told her I have no trust in her.
And she wrote me and said "(name of friend) said you're getting married and was wondering if I was going. But I didn't get an invitation". I wrote her back with "I'm not feeling inclined to tell you when I marry because I only invite people to my wedding that I can somewhat trust." She said that certain family members said I was thinking about marriage but not made any set plans.
I said, "I've got plans for the future but none of those plans includes you, I'm sorry if you think it's rude but you never were nice to me and you never did anything that earned my trust nor desire to include you in my life."
I don't know how anyone else would do in my situation.
I have spoken with lawyers about changing my Social Security Number and basically, in the 28 years this lawyer has tried only one person was ever allowed to change it. Apparently Judges feel that getting your identity stolen isn't reason enough to change their numbers. However, former Mafia hitmen are able to have their identity changed. Ok. So they are being chased by the Mafia. But you know identity fraud is not taken very seriously. It's a huge violation. And when it's a family it's really a deeper wound.
Well, I just hope I don't regret adding her.
Have a great week, my readers.