I Almost Forgot to Tell You...

When we left our house at 4:20 a.m. the limo driver was a woman. I don't like being sexist, but there are issues. We always tell the limo dispatcher that we have a lot of luggage. "Send a big car," we say. But I guess there are not many limo drivers in St. Louis who work at O Dark Hundred. So our woman driver kept saying, "Oh you have SO MUCH luggage...oh my...I don't think this car will take all of it. Did you tell the dispatcher?" She just wouldn't let it go. Wringing of hands. WHining. Very annoying. I also must admit that I have gotten used to telling all porters, drivers, passing strangers who remark on the behemoth amount of bags when we travel that "We are in the diplomatic corps and we are going overseas for 3 months" and that seems to calm them down somewhat. I tried one month and then two months, but the magic answer has to be three months! I also tried to tell them we were missionaries going abroad for a year, but I guess they don't expect missionaries to have mountains of luggage. I really didn't think until now that we could have said, in that instance, the bags were packed with medicines and toys for the downtrodden in Bangladesh! Oh well. I like being in the diplomatic corps better anyway.

Another small but funny item. The plane we went on is BIG. I don't know all those numbers like 757, b-30, 608 that they give planes! "Big" will do. In any case, we were in Business class with these amazing seats. We had had seats like these on Qantas to Sydney a couple times. The seats have control boards just like blackberries or cars and the idea is to make you move parts of your body until you are comfortable just by pushing buttons. Did I say there are lots of buttons? For the head, neck, shoulders, back, knees, feet, etc, etc etc. And they envisioned passengers relaxing back and just hitting a button here and there to readjust. Well, I liked the idea but was getting a little irritated because I was resting and punching and nothing was happening. Problem was: I was punching Bos's buttons and he was going up and down back and forth silently, quietly. Did it a few times (it was kinda fun adjusting Bos, frankly) until I got the hang of it. Now it happens only occasionally. Reminded him of our Sleep Number Bed. You know the one I mean. We call it the "pump it up bed". Each side of the bed has a clicker and you are supposed to pick your "number" of how hard you like your side of bed from 1-10. We have one in our daughter's bedroom. Only thing: Betsy and Quinten got the clickers mixed up and ended up pumping up the other one! Then it became a game and when someone got up to go to the bathroom, the other one would either pump their side up/down to surprise each other! (It is kinda fun, truthfully) But I had to stop with Bos's buttons because he was starting to get annoyed. It was getting fun-er for me, quite frankly. Another "oh well"...

Oh -- and I LOVE ISTANBUL!! So cosmopolitan in a foreign way! Our guide (thank you, Michelle) just finished guiding Oprah (yes, that Oprah) and 400 of her workers for 4 days in Istanbul, Kusadasi, and Cappadocia. And we are going all three places. Question: if you know someone who knows someone, does that mean YOU know that someone?? If so, I could tell people I know Oprah! That would be cool!! And the hotel we are staying in, FOur Seasons Istanbul, was once a prison. It definitely is NOT a prison now!! It is not only elegant, but also cute as a bunny rabbit! Terminally cute. Hard to be both at once! And pictures are coming. Bos is out shooting it up right now!!! More later..