Dear Grandmother,

First of all, thank you. Thank you for everything. It's hard to explain all of the things that I'm thankful for, so I'll try reverse chronological order.

Thank you for waiting for us. I know you were in pain for a long time, and I knew you were ready to go, so thank you. Thanks for enduring it for a bit longer until we arrived to see you this summer.

Thank you for winning the last game of cribbage that we got to play. I thought I was hot stuff when I beat you two days before that, but in classic Nancy Ann fashion, you were tough till the end and put me in my place. I always loved that about you. You could dish it out and you could take it. You calmly listened to my trash talk, then creamed me the very next game. I should have known better than to think that I could best you in cards.

Thanks for getting email. It was fun to send you letters from abroad and getting replies asking when I was coming home. I loved imagining the giant pile of free AOL discs on your desk that you kept to keep your Internet running.

Thanks for throwing me to the wolves at the Fon du Luth Casino. Those old ladies taught me the hard way about taking the dealer's ten.

Thanks for imprinting crazy images in my head like the "Grandma Nancy Ash" and "Lil' Toot."

Thanks for full cookie jars, Sunday dinners, trips to the races and humoring my imagination at the Lester Park Greenhouse as I pretended to be a jungle explorer.

Thanks for the pumpkin story and for exposing me to AM radio and true country and western music as we drove around town on one crazy adventure after another.

Thanks for not believing me when I broke my leg (kidding, i'm over it) and thanks for spoiling me rotten when I was the only grandchild.

Thanks for everything Grandmother, Granny, Gram, Fancy Nancy... I love you and I'm going to miss you more than I realize.

Gratefully yours,
jason

Dear Taking a Shower in America,

You are so awesome!  This is going to be a gushy love letter, but I just have to say it out loud.  Taking a Shower in America, you are so dreamy! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 


I love the way I can turn your hot water on and it comes right out of the tap!  I love your water pressure!  But most of all, I love how I can let the water wash all over me and swallow up mouthfuls without fear of typhoid, giardia or cholera!  What a treat!


Squeakily clean,
jason
xoxo

Dear Turkish Bath,

First of all, thanks yet again for a fantastic experience.  I'm so glad that you don't meet the stereotypical view of what many must think you are.  You did not feature a swarthy, mustachioed Turk twisting and contorting me into a world of pain.  You did not feature a room full of sweaty, dodgy men with eyes darting to and fro.  And you most certainly were not a gateway into Istanbul's dark world of hashish and crooked deals.

On the other hand, you were everything I hoped you would be.  I'm glad that we trusted your out-of-the-way location behind Suleymaniye Mosque.  It contributed to the privacy and peace we were looking for.  I'm grateful that your staff was kind and helpful.  The wooden slippers you gave us to help us from slipping on the marble floors of the hammam were well-intended, even if I thought they would cause me to topple over and meet my doom, rather than slip.

The 100 degree temperature in the hammam was just right, as we let the stresses of the year sweat out of our bodies.  Laying on the heated marble for forty minutes may have just a bit too long, but nobody passed out.  When the scrubbers came in a greeted us with a cascade of freezing cold water and a friendly laugh and smile, we again knew we'd chosen the right place.

And then we got down to business.  A great exfoliating scrub, hard but not too hard.  A luxurious, foamy soap down and massage, again hard but not too hard.  Another rinse, a quick dry, wrapped up like burritos and an apple tea to relax and it was over.

Hard to believe that ninety minutes had gone so quickly, but when we left, we were rejuvenated, happy and ready to continue our exploration of a great city.

Scrubbed and happy,
jason