i did a cartwheel for the first time.  it was kind of awesome.  my
mother was so stoked to see me she didn't really even notice, but i
did.  because the floor of Charles de Gaulle is covered with little
bits of lint and some of them got stuck in my ring where it broke two
weeks ago.

we left our hotel in the drizzle.  we walked down the
hill to the water in the rain.  we sailed up the Bospherous in a
downpour.  we hiked up the hill to the fortress in the sleet.  and then
we stood in a blizzard and i looked out at the Black Sea for the first
time.  a tanker that couldn't have been more than 500 meters offshore
materialized out of the gray and slipped silently past, like a shark on
its way to the Istanbul harbors.  she tried to talk me into coming back
under the umbrella, but my eyelashes were full of snowflakes and i was
laughing too hard to do anything except root in my pockets for a tissue.

we
went down to the train-station at night.  we were late because we'd
been walking Istrikral, so we had to sit in the back.  the Spanish were
loudly loudly looking for seats for their children so that they could
see.  the Americans were loudly squeaking their plastic chairs back and
forth as they tried to angle.  the Japanese were taking photographs
with cameras that loudly announced themselves with fake ka-chik
noises.  the music started and it went on and the man sang for an hour
and the drummer never faltered between his/her(?) 38 different rhythms
and there was nothing and people started to stir more loudly.  and then
they came out and adjusted their hats and bowed for twenty minutes, and
my mother and i didn't dare look at each other because the temptation
to be loud would be too strong and we understood just how much they
wanted us to be quiet before they started to whirl.  but the dirvishes
started to whirl and then we were all quiet.

oh, and did i mention that Ireland won 6 Nations?  ERIN GO BRAGH!