the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

Mich bought me a new camera as a wedding gift, so y'all can expect more photos here should I be willing to undergo the requisite work to upload and post them. It's a Canon EOS Rebel T3i 600D, which is pretty small and portable for a digital SLR camera. It does not, however, come with memory on board. None. I'll remedy that today so I can start playing with it.

I'll also "need" a greater selection of lenses, of course, and probably a tripod and a remote flash (how exciting!). And a bag to carry everything in, by which point the whole shebang probably won't go with me anywhere because it has become too heavy and bulky to carry around, which is why I've pointedly not bought an SLR-type camera in many years.

But I'm sick of below-average photos.

I'll just have to take photography strolls.

***

I finally lost one of the lenses of my issued glasses--the ones I got so I could read Powerpoint slides during briefings and concourse signs in airports and such. At the same time, I have purchased a pair of reading spectacles as well as a pair of distance glasses (both from ABBA Eye Care); I have the reading ones (and it's so awesome to read normal print again, lemme tell ya) and I'm waiting for the distance ones to arrive. Once I realized I'd finally lost my lens on the issue glasses (and it was, naturally, for my blindest eye), I called around the military community here until I was directed to Fort Carson. Evans Army Medical Center has an optometrist, and they ordered a replacement pair for me. Hopefully, it will arrive before I'm back on a plane to Turkey, should I be able to locate my concourse when the time comes.

***

I've been steadily losing weight since I got home. The reasons for this are a mystery to me. We have been eating out an inordinate amount, since I have several favorite restaurants I want to visit while I'm in town, and I have still been taking it very easy since my back seems to be improving a bit and I want it to continue to improve.

What I'm saying is that I've been a slug. The only factor that has really changed is that I've been drinking seltzer like it's going out of style.

I love this stuff. I developed an inordinate affection for it when I was in Ferrara last summer. Italians not only keep around large, cold bottles of fizzy water for sale, but they seems to prefer it to plain water. Throughout the summer, I probably bought and drank 4-5 liters of water a day because (1) it was hot, and (2) I love the stuff. I can't find it anywhere (even in the commissary) in Izmir, though, and I just don't fancy plain water as much.

Here, I can buy "flavored" 2-liter bottles of Canada Dry Sparkling Seltzer Water for $1 apiece, so I'm going through a couple a day again. (What I cannot buy is small seltzers in convenience stores. If you don't want carbonated syrup water, you're SOL here.)

And so it is, I guess, that I'm steadily losing weight although my diet is otherwise abysmal. I've accidentally dropped over 4 pounds since I arrived. Hunh.

***

All preparations are made for the wedding. We even hired a professional photography firm to capture the occasion for posterity. (We weren't going to, but enough people bitched and complained about not being able to go so the least we could do is take pictures that we broke down. Besides...Mich will be stunning.)

We will have 5 guests, all of whom are Canadian and more or less in the area already so everyone who wants to go and wasn't invited, don't be hatin'. The economy is horrible, this is an expensive trip, and the nuptials will be short and sweet, with little or no traditional pomp. You wouldn't get your money's worth, anyhow.

The only bit we're still working on are the vows. We have to have them to Iain no later than five days prior to the ceremony, which is one week away now.

***

The vows are an interesting exercise.

After almost ten years together, it feels silly and pretentious to say, "I promise to love you in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part," etc. We've already proven we are there for one another. But also...if you think about it, the notion that we control how we feel, now or in the future, is a fantasy. We don't control our feelings; we only control our behaviors.

So I promise to not beat her.

Again.

At chess.

(Yeah. That's a lie.)

***

I've discovered that coffee is no longer hot enough for me. American coffee isn't, anyhow.

We've had a Black and Decker basic drip coffeemaker for years, and it's always been good enough for me, but this time, it was like drinking, well, Leodicea.

After two days, I simply couldn't take it so I picked up a nice new Cuisinart thermal drip pot (with a water purifier and everything ooooh aaaaaaah). Turns out that coffee from the new machine was even colder than from the admittedly past-its-prime Black and Decker machine.

At that point, I went online and looked up "coffeemakers that produce the hottest coffee." Coffee afficiandos ain't playin, y'all. They're all like, my coffee ain't hot! And how do businesses get theirs so hot?!

I don't know where that came from, but it's past now. I think.

That's how we ended up with a Technivorm Mochamaster. It's Scandinavian, and they guarantee that the coffee will be brewed and kept at 200F. Now, it's still not scalding but it's at least warm enough to drink without having to pop every cup into the microwave.

Turkish tea has ruined me. It's strong and it's served boiling. Is it too much to ask that coffee also be served boiling?

Yes. Yes it is.

(If you're American, you're probably dying to make cracks about McDonald's coffee and spilling it in your lap etc. Please...do yourself and everyone else a favor and pass up this golden opportunity to be so predictably "original.")

d