In Nebraska, when we go to the grocer, we have a selection of fish. Catfish. Swai. Some sort of icky whitefish. Nothing worth eating. The salmon is likely good, but if you really want good, good fish, you have to make a special trip to the fish monger.

We watched a movie on Amazon (can’t remember what) and then we watched part of the festivities in New York City. I began wondering… why is the calendar changing to the New Year party-worthy? I don’t mean to be depressing at all. It’s just that every new year is full of its own challenges. I’ve had some pretty major challenges in the last year; some of them pretty amazing, some of them incomprehensible.

So if every year continues to have its own challenges, I suppose that it’s realizing that you’ve made it through the old year’s challenges or enjoyed the gifts of the previous year, and you’re moving into the unknown, where it can be good or bad; happy or heartbreaking, but hopefully mostly joyful.

Maybe it’s the feeling of comfort of the moment; being in a happy place, with a roof over our heads, access to all of the requirements to live on… plus something more.  And if we’ve started the New Year off in a horrid place, there is always hope for a better tomorrow.

Maybe that is the point.

And getting to see LMFAO performing in Times Square.

I am waving “so-long” to the challenges of 2011 and saying, “Bring on more great things” to 2012.

Happy New Year!

http://thatcloudlookslikearabbit.com/blog/2009/so-here-was-my-morning/

Listen to other cool This Reality Podcasts

I got some nice presents, including a Cuttlebug that I can use with my cardmaking.    TLK and I had fun making cut-out butterflies and frogs, and playing with embossing, which I must say… using a machine to emboss is much easier than hand-embossing… more dramatic and less painful. 

The people at work bought me an ice cream cake and my friend put a banner on my cubicle so everyone knew.    I received flowers from my family in Texas and the funniest card from my family in Kansas.   I put a call into my parents via Skype, but had to leave a message.  Not sure if they’ll hear the voice mail.  My dad says he can’t get through the Italian prompts.. but maybe he can by now. 

We went to Applebees for dinner, which was nice.  They have good steaks and something wonderful called “Peach Sangria”    Yum

Oh, and everyone I knew on FB said, “Happy Birthday”, which was fun. 

Overall, a really good day.   It is good to be 23 again.  “Mommy counts backwards now”.  LOL.

April 1 is the anniversary of our filing of the fiance visa. Gathering all the information together was a nightmare, especially while we were 6 hours apart. It really helped that Ian and I were together last March.. filling out forms, digging up supporting evidence of various things and photocopying what we needed. It would have been a long, drawn-out nightmare otherwise.

And here we are… married, legal residents, just filed our taxes and able to do stuff together after a long 7-month separation.

It’s happy and symbiotic.

His card which authorises him to work for an American employer went to production, his paper which allows him to come back into the US if he has to leave temporarily (for holiday or emergency or what-not) is approved and on the way.

The request to remain (green card approval) has skipped over the interview phase and gone straight to California for approval, which is good.

This is what immigration used to look like.

I can now see a french garden rose and know exactly what it is and differentiate it from all the other roses.   Begonias.   Caladium leaves.   Lisianthius buds.   And my favorite: ranunculus.

I blame Martha Stewart, in a nice, sort of “Thank you for some amazing ideas” sort of way.

Things have been quite busy lately, and maybe a scosh stressful.

Work:  I have been working hard and doing other people’s work and muddling through the afteraffects of redundancies, leavings and other miscellany.   I have my job, but it’s been stressful.   I’ve been letting things get to me.   Sometimes my day seems like a slew of joking around and not taking things seriously, which I could mostly do without.   The key is to keep busy, I think, and work to change my tolerance levels.  

Expecting:  The good news is that we are expecting an alien.. and not what you are thinking.   Ian is moving to the US!   We are mid-visa-process, which involves lots of fun paperwork, mostly on Ian’s part now, and lots of fun waiting.    Our petition, which included proof of who we are, a resume citing where we’ve lived and worked for… ages…., proof of our relationship, photographs, and a couple of handy notes saying, essentially, “Yes, darn it.  We do actually want to get married”, involved a couple weeks of work and over 75 pages of documentation.

The fun part was photocopying everything.   Photocopying machines and I do NOT get along.   I called Ian midway, very perturbed after several paperjams and dealing with feeding irregular sizes of paper, ready to just lose my mind.  He said, “Step back from the machine… keep stepping back….  Now.   Take a deep breath.”    :D  (Fecking photo machines)

We’re watching a site called visajourney.com to see where we stand in the process.   So far, most of the February people signed up for the site have been approved and some March approvals have even rolled in.   April (our month) will not be far behind.

Once the petition is approved, then it’s shipped to London, where Ian fills out another batch of paperwork, I send him a few more things, then he makes medical and interview appointments, gets approval, gets his visa in his passport and then flies over.

[Having seen a window of opportunity to tell his boss about his impending plans, the cat is now out of the bag, in that regard.  It went well, really, although I'm guessing it was a tough conversation.  Ian enjoys his job so much.]

We get married.

We apply for an “adjustment of status” (so he can permanently stay), “advanced leave” (so he can leave the country and be let back in) and permission to work.

We have a wedding to plan, social security cards to get, and someone needs to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road while looking in opposite spots for oncoming traffic.

We are hoping for October.   And it just MAY happen by then, by the look of it.

So, there.   That’s how I’ve been spending my summer so far.    I’m not wishing my life away, but I’m hoping for a speedy summer.    Ok, maybe I am.  

1. “Nothing’s wrong!  Gotta go!”, even in a cheerful tone, will not get prompt them to let you go.  

2. Whatever thing you pick to say is bothering you, doesn’t work as an excuse for why you’re upset.  (“No, what is it really?”)  

3. They want to hear what is bothering you, even though you precursor it all by saying, “I know I’m being stupid, and that’s why I just don’t want to talk about it.  Can we just not talk about it?” 

4. They skip dinner just to listen to your sad, sad (stupid) story and call you back when Skype disconnects… to talk to you from the middle of the street, just to make sure you’re ok.

5. They do everything they can to make it all better.  

(and they say there is not a God.   Wait…  )   (j/k on that one)