1.11.2018

Kurdish soil: S1E1

scenes from the hood


Touched down onto my new HQ earlier this week. Hitting the ground running, I arrived in the evening and was at work the next morning. Memory-bank auto-activation floods my present moment and steers me back to Tunisia; that first impression. Walking atop Tunisian soil. Eyes wide open. Reflecting on that chapter... ah Tunis, you have my heart. So does Istanbul, though. *all the journeys*

Back to present day... I'm in bed. It's 6:30 am. I've been up since 3:30. It's the start of the weekend after my first week living and working in Suli. I'm unpacked. I'm slightly familiarized with my surroundings. I've checked out some neighborhood cats, one of which was hovering dangerously close to the entrance to my apartment building.

I came upon it again this evening coming in after work. Security was playing with it as I approched the building. We exchanged some niceties, and couldn't really understand each other after that, so I left.  When I got to the grocery store I went up and down every aisle, because I just like to. It's strangely soothing. This supermarket is just okay; this is my first impression, and cats are usually involved in neighborhood first impressions. Fact.

got sidetracked with this:  :)

  1. Semicolon. ————-
Meaning: You're trying too hard.
No one uses semicolons in day-to-day casual writing; it's a literary piece of punctuation, not a colloquial one. So using a semicolon in a text shows you've thought out, revised, and overedited your message. That means you're trying too hard, and there's nothing worse than trying too hard. A semicolon in a text message is the equivalent of putting on makeup to go to the gym

https://www.wired.com/2011/06/secret-meanings-text-message-punctuation/


So, yea. I've landed and am taking care of biz. It's best to be logical and just try to keep your shit together and remember to do all the little, unexpected, expected, etc. things you have to do so you can relax and not stress too much while doing them.  Phew.

'The' jetlag hit about 2 nights ago. During the first, I passed out at 8 pm, and woke up at two. Sat and intermittently played on my computer or just sat and listened in the dark to whatever was happening on the outside of my (shut) window- it is quite chilly here right now after all.

The curtains are a bit challenging to navigate. Those cloth-blind thingys... It's frustrating if they don't all turn in unison, and so entanglement ensues. It did give me things to do though during some moments of awake-ness the first night. Somehow I managed to consume 4.5 hours of this heightened activity. Daylight approached- yes it actually did. I saw that sliver of glittering sun peek in thru the window, and through that dangerous crack of cloth-curtain thingy that attempts to destroy my weekend sleep-in mornings.  Must. find. solution. to. this. crisis. IMMEDIATELY. 

Perhaps black-out blinds? A very smart person passed this little nugget on to me on that very first evening. Might be the 1st thing to save up $ for, but my heart was already set on a pressure-cooker. But, a pressure-cooker is a necessity, so this can go to another 'list' of lists I've been constructing since arrival. I simply walk around all day every day with my growing list through the halls, feverously adding to it. It's almost unmanageable at this point, yet I must also include that it's already saved me many times over. I'm really working on my organizational skills in this mutation :)

In conclusion: eyes wide open, with a dreamy-sorta hypno-pompic haze (my scientific mind considers this jetlag(?), whereas my da-kine mind thinks it's just me being me :) Yeah...

Food. I haven't delved into creativity here yet. A colleague walked in the other day and saw my table covered with Cliff Bars and just gave me that look... In that moment I knew I had to start feeding myself properly. Happily, I trotted off to the neighborhood supermarket tonight, after work. I just finished up my culinary survival skills phase to keep afloat during the pre '1-week start of classes' rush to etch into memory banks all the IT stuff with new computers/programs, passwords, etc. Yea THAT phase; it's a large learning curve for my mac-user brain. I did manage to sort through most perceived and real challenged that temporarily distracted me from my goal to just fly-like-an-eagle-to-be-free...

currently listening to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQJ2_T24JqY


My first odyssey to the supermarket let me out of our HQ. It was my first solo odyssey taking the 'alley', which is a completely properly-sized side road honestly. I felt so cool slipping thru there. Alleys are always fascinating, side roads not so much... I met two new kittis on this odyssey. One was coy, and the other rather brash. We'll see what develops.

currently listening to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNG4xKYiLrA

say what you will, but genius, imho

More distractions:
  1. Apostrophe. ————–
Meaning: You pay attention to the little things.
In text land, apostrophes have become endangered species. Youd is just as acceptable at you'd. Id is just as acceptable as I'd. Youre is just as acceptable as you're. (Or, on the Internet, your.)
So when you actually take the time to use an apostrophe, it means something. I like to think it sends a subconscious message that you take the extra time to do things right. And that effort hints that you'd be a real hard-working giver in a relationship – or at least into one extremely memorable sexual escapade.

So, it's 7:30 am, and I'm in a pickle: What to do? Do I suck it up and just get outta bed and make some coffee!!! Yay for blog posts and beds and (new) french press coffee! Seems like old times, just different beds...

or

do I hunker-down and try to catch some more Zzzsssss

What I do know is that I'm concluding now, and I haven't proofed it... And...SEND!

Decision made: I'm opting for coffee!