our artistic home

The due date is February 6th - but I've been expecting our son every day since the 37th week began.  It's an amazing thing to comprehend: he's coming.  I don't let myself get too excited for trips and different events because things change, things get cancelled - but in this case, Teoman is coming.  Maybe today, maybe in two weeks - but surely he is coming.  It's exciting to have something so sure to hope for.

I've been walking to meet Tolga at his work.  I concentrate really hard so that I don't waddle, but it's getting harder these days.  The roads are icy too.  It's not like America where sidewalks are mandatorily cleaned and salted - here it's at your own risk.  My Anne makes Gokhan walk with me to be sure I am safe.

Yesterday, I met Tolga halfway and we took a cap to Kizilay.  Tolga got his salary and was going to buy me a surprise - a sort of birthing gift I guess.  I suppose he could have surprised me when I got home, but I also call him Mr. Instant.  He got his salary and wanted to immediately get the gift.  He kept his mouth closed about where we were going until we arrived at a music store.  I haven't really seen many music stores around here, and I saw guitars in the window.  Inside, in the back room though, they had pianos.  That's when I started getting really excited.  They had real pianos.  We weren't planning on getting a real piano for many practical reasons, but it was a real piano store.  I had said one day I would get a digital piano on a solid stand - one that looked and felt like a real piano, but was 1/4 of the price, easily portable, and not as finicky.  I didn't need any fancy tones or digital tricks - just something that sounded like a piano, but I could plug earphones into it if I wanted to practice quietly.

We found a piano for a better price than we had thought, and thus had enough left over to buy a guitar.  They delivered the piano that night.  Tolga told his parents that he had bought me a gift and it would be delivered.  Baba immediately guessed, "Is it a piano?"

They set the piano up, and I played some classics from the music book I had bought.  Baba grabbed Annne's hand and danced.