Cremes

Yesterday I was surfing the web through Facebook and I stumbled on this youtube video, entitled “Proving that the Bible is Repulsive.” I thought it was really sad. Sad in the way that this person may have skimmed through parts of the Bible and found portions they found objectionable, but really - they missed the whole point. Go ahead and take a few minutes to watch it. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t agree with it, so if you want to skip this after I won’t be offended. But if you pride yourself on keeping an open mind, you might want to read it anyways.

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Been a slow week. Which I guess is pretty awesome, considering all of the crazy things that have been going on lately. Virginia Tech, Johnson Space Center… I’m pretty lucky to have had a boring week, I guess! Definitely wouldn’t want that sort of excitement, but I guess no one ever does. I don’t even want to imagine going through something like that.

So this week we have an appointment with the lawyer. Tomorrow, actually. I’m not sure how all of this is going to work, but hopefully we can get the ball rolling at least. We need to bring her information and pay her, and then from there we’ll see. She can’t file just yet anyways because I’m not going to be able to pick up my medical report until Wednesday, and that is the essential part of the puzzle. So I’m going to have to turn around and go back anyways, unless I can mail it in with anything else that’s left.

So I’ve expanded my enterprise on selling our old junk. I’ve posted movies, XBOX games, and scores of textbooks on half.com, and I’ve made an account on Etsy.com. I’ll try to get to making some cards this week and maybe post them up. I need to keep myself busy while I’m unable to work, and hopefully it’ll be a good secondary income once I start working at a real job. I’ll be sad if they start demanding taxes from eBay sales. Whatever doesn’t sell on eBay I’m going to post on half.com, since it appears to be an unending listing (and a free listing!). Today we grabbed a bunch of CDs from Mike’s parents’ place that we had stored there awhile back, so that I can sell them on eBay or half.com. I’m also thinking about selling some of my old clothes that I was just going to give to Goodwill. Some of them are barely worn! I’m having fun with all of this eBay selling and stuff. It’s nice to have a little income, and something to keep me occupied.

Anyways, hopefully later on in the week I will have more to say about the whole immigration problem, and hopefully it will be some good news!

So the past few days have been kinda topsy-turvy. On Saturday, we got a letter in the mail that threw us for a loop.
Basically the shortened version is that the denied my green card application and I had to be out in 30 days. Of course this was really upsetting news, and I cried for a long time, dreading the possibility of having to move to Canada for an unknown amount of time. So we sort of braced ourselves for the worst over the weekend, and I tried to prepare myself for what we thought we be an inevitable vacation for me. I looked up sublets and jobs and ugh - it was depressing just thinking about it.

Monday we started trying to contact immigration attorneys so that we could fight this, since we thought I had been denied unfairly. It was noon before we could even get in touch with anyone, and so we made a bunch of appointments. One lawyer called Val and she gave me his number because he had more questions that she couldn’t answer. So I talked to him, and my goodness he was rude. He said it was my fault that I got denied (even though I didn’t know what I had done wrong because I followed the information) and he advised me to start all over again with the application, which is sort of dumb because that would set me back months. Then when I asked for clarification, he said that he was trying to give me advice but I wouldn’t listen to him. I was like, whatever! Jerk.

Anyways, we saw two other lawyers, women - much nicer, too - and they said that I wouldn’t have to leave the US and advised very strongly against it. So we’re going to pick one and then go from there. I need to get my medical report done and then I’m going to be ready to fight this thing, and hopefully get my employment authorization back. So far that is the update. It really sucks to be back at square one on the working thing, but I’d rather be bored all the time than lonely in Canada without my hubby. Hopefully by Friday this will all be on the roll and heading towards a resolution.

So I know everyone is curious about my whole deportation dilemma. I just wanted to say thank you for all the emails, facebook posts, phone calls and IMs in support of Mike and me. You guys rock. Next time I get depressed I’ll remember this and smack myself out of it!

I know I owe you all a huge update and you’ll be getting it tomorrow, I swear. Just know that the first attorney we spoke to is very certain we had grounds to reopen the case and have it go smoothly, without me having to leave the United States. More details are forthcoming, I promise!!

Thanks again!! I have the best friends! :D

The last couple days haven’t been so great. Not really sure what’s going on here, but it seems that I’m being conspired against. I went to get my social security card on Wednesday because my EAD card showed up on Tuesday. Of course, they couldn’t just put the order in right away, they needed to mail some documents somewhere and verify my identity. Not like I could have forged any of the documents that I brought in. I’m only getting a social so that I can work, not for the fun of it. Anyways, so that adds an extra 1-2 weeks on getting my number. And then, the library job that was sooooo incredibly awesome disappeared, so I started trying to apply for random places but most of them want the dang number. Why is American society so hellbent on giving out a social every five minutes? It’s no wonder there is so much identity theft. Anyways, so I’m not getting that for awhile, but strangely it puts me on schedule because I didn’t think my EAD would get here so quickly! At least there’s one ray of sunshine.

I’ve applied for three teller positions in local banks so maybe I’ll hear something from them. We’ll see I guess. Eventually, I’m going to apply for a position as Supply Clerk in Harris County (the county that Houston is in) so maybe I’ll get that. It would be in the library administrative offices and it’s full time, so that would be much better than a part time, low wage job. I was going to apply today but it looks as though they need my testing scores on record and I can’t take any tests until Tuesday. Of course, delay me more, why don’tcha. Bah! Oh well, I guess that gives me more time to focus on.. oh I don’t know. eBay? I’ve got 3 bidders that haven’t paid me yet so I’m quickly losing the eBay novelty. It’s going to get annoying if I have to start opening unpaid item reports.

At least it’s the weekend. I’m going to have to invent something for myself to do. I do have my book club on Sunday so I’ve gotta finish reading the book. I’m about halfway through it. It’s a bit longer than the last one, so I doubt I could read it all in 4 days. Well, I could but I’m probably not going to. I’ve also got GRE studying to do, since I’ve gotta take that exam. It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting my masters until next September (2008) so I’ve got plenty of time. I’ll probably take the exam in the fall and then get all of my scholarship applications and things ready around that time. It’ll give me a little over a year to work and get some savings. I was hoping to be able to head back to school this September but I don’t think I would qualify for in-state tuition until October. So close, yet…

Anyways, I should probably shower or something. Man, I look forward to the time when I don’t spend a few hours in pajamas on the couch just surfing the internet. It gets really boring. It’s like having a sick day every day. Eventually you want to have purpose in your life. Anyways, I’ll fill out some applications and maybe even drop them off. Make some cookies. Read. Count the minutes until Mike gets home. Sigh.

So I’ve been keeping busy. I’ve taken to selling a few things on eBay to make a little money. Right now I’m about to have my first auction that didn’t sell. I’ve been lucky so far, but I guess that’s the way things go, sometimes they just don’t sell. If anyone wants a copy of Home Alone 2 for the Super Nintendo, they can go for it. It’s only got 18 hours to go! I’ve already sold one DVD and one game, and another game is ready to be sold. I’m excited about it all, it’s fun to be making money, however slowly it may be. We’ve already made about $20! Well, really since the whole impetus for selling things on eBay was to pay for the second season of Veronica Mars, I’m not ahead yet, but I’m hoping to make a little extra money so that we can afford movies and other entertainment type expenses.

As for real work, I’m still waiting to receive my card, and then after that it’s another 10-14 days before I’ll get my social. I called Harris County’s human resource department to find out if I could apply without the card and social, but they were pretty adamant that I needed both in order to apply. Meh. I just hope that the job I want isn’t gone by the time I’m able to apply. If it is, then I’ll just keep looking, but hopefully I’m not too late. I’m sure there will be several other opportunities but I really wanted this one. Especially since it was at a library and all. And nearby.

Between the library and church volunteering, I’m glad I’ve got something to keep me occupied. And it’s fun work besides. I’ve been enjoying all of this stuff, and if only it kept me busy every day of the week I would be perfectly satisfied. Oh and it would be nice to have a little extra cash, but that’s coming. And the eBay thing is coming along - I only wish that I’d thought of it much earlier. Now if only I could get rid of our second television set…

I am so excited to share this news! I just got an email from USCIS yesterday saying that my card was in production and that I was going to be receiving my EAD within a month! I can’t believe it’s finally time for me to be working and all of that. I’ve been researching for my social security number and all of that, and it turns out that I actually could have applied for it months ago. So I’m going to head to Angelton tomorrow after I’m done at the library with my application and oodles of documents. I also found some job postings online for some good library positions, so I intend to apply for them and find out from the library that I’m volunteering at if there are any more positions available. I’m just really psyched that the pieces are finally falling into place. I’ve been out of work for the past 6 months so it will be great that I’ll finally have something to do with myself. I’m going to be looking up more jobs and perfecting my resume and hopefully I’ll be working really soon.