D is for Department of Homeland Security

Somehow, I'd made it the first 29 years of my life without ever informing the federal government of my detailed life plans. Clearly, I was overdue.

The Department of Homeland Security and I have become somewhat intimately acquainted over the last few months. I've spent hours and hours poring over documentation and rules and regulations, and I've filled out forms in triplicate. I've read other people's stories, I've gathered documentation, provided evidence of a continuing relationship and statements of intent to marry, and goodness knows, I've thought long and hard about all this.

So now I'm tangled up in a bureaucratic process that stresses me out, primarily because it's out of my control. From those who have gone before me, I'm picking up a wealth of acronyms and knowledge of the process. I'm biding my time and waiting to see what happens.

If you had told me a year ago that this is how I would spend 2005, I would've laughed at you. I can't wait to see what 2006 has to offer.