March 2006 Archives

...is the number of days that have passed since December 1st, when I first sent in our visa petition. Ninety days later came word that further evidence was needed. Then we waited 12 days , for clarification on what was needed. It took me five days to compile the additional evidence, and then, after I sent the packet back, it was another nine days before there was any acknowledgment of its receipt. Then six more days of processing before today. We got approval of our petition today, finally. Thankfully. The waiting is really brutal.

This is a big step, but it isn't the end of the process. Today is day 118, and on average, it'll take another 75 days, complete with more paperwork, a medical exam, and an interview, for the visa to be granted.

But we're moving on now to the next step. There's nothing like a little progress to make you feel a little less helpless.

Is it too late to be posting winter pictures from Saskatchewan? They're a month old now -- just slightly older than my new first cousin, once removed, or my cousin-child, as I've been calling her for the entire month of her out-of-body existence. I met her yesterday for the first time. She's very cute and very snuggly. But babies are on my list of things that I don't really need right now. Yeah.

So I've got all these winter shots. This isn't really surprising, is it? I always take tons more pictures than I post. Editing is a good thing, but I always wind up with lots of perfectly nice shots that never get printed, displayed, or even remembered.

In Austin, of course, it has been approaching 90°F, and bone-dry up until the last few days. That's not just Austin, though -- it's been incredibly dry all over the state, so when the wildfires started, they spread faster than they could be contained. Which is the way of wildfires, I suppose. Claudia heard somewhere that 2% of the land area of Texas has burned since the beginning of the year.

And then this weekend, the rain came, along with cooler weather. It's wildflower season, but most of the flowers aren't out yet, for all the dry weather. Perhaps the rain will jumpstart them now. I took a few shots of flowers and raindrops while I was out with my family, but I haven't looked at them yet. They're springy, though, and I still have winter shots to get out of my system.

The downside to the rain, much needed and much appreciated by me in general, is that it has made the roads dangerously slick. This morning, in the six minutes between the time I passed an intersection on Lamar once and then returned, there were cops blocking the intersection from traffic. When I passed the two traffic-keeping cop cars and saw the busted up cop car past the intersection, I had a cynical thought about how fast cops respond to cop accidents. And then I saw the other vehicle in the collision, an SUV that had rolled onto its side. There were several people helping with the accident already; a few were holding the drivers' side doors open, and another guy was taking stuff out of the back. I think they were all trying to get someone out of the wreck. It made me very thankful for my safety, and a little more careful with my driving on the slick roads.

I've been behind on updating, and on my Lenten donations, as well. My grandmother seems to have been reading my weblog lately, and she suggested a charity for my consideration: Rach, how about sending one of your small donations to Boles Children's Home, 7065 Love, Quinlan, TX 75474. In case you don't remember, it is the home where I, my sister and brothers lived in the 40's and 50's. Even the smallest amount would be of help to them in their effort to help children. Boles Children's Home has a website -- who knew? -- so I sent them a donation today, $100 in memory of my grandfather who died a couple of summers ago, to help catch up from the days I missed.

A chilly wind is blowing in through my open window. It makes me happy.

After a very stressful day of talking about the possibility of potentially discussing wedding plans someday, the following conversation ensued:

Rachel: It just helps me put it into perspective.
Scott: In which perspective?
Scott: Neo-cubism?
Rachel: Wow, a neo-cubist wedding. That'd be cool.
Scott: A little bit disconcerting
Rachel: but cool.
Scott: Instead of a wedding photographer, we can get wedding painters
Scott: several of them
Rachel: That'd be awesome. They could paint canvases full of squares.
Rachel: And we could show our kids someday. "See there? That's Daddy. Isn't he handsome?"
Scott : Well, we could have some neo-cubists, and some romantics, and some of whatever the hell Escher and Dali are.
Rachel: Dali's a surrealist, I think. I'm not sure what Escher is.
Scott: That would be way cooler than paying someone a couple grand to take pictures.
Rachel: Totally.
Rachel: Maybe we should just paint our own wedding pictures.
Rachel: That'd be cheaper.
Scott: except we can't see us
Rachel: We can imagine us.
Scott: My imagination, not so good. In case you forgot
Rachel: heh.

Claudia's friend Liz was in town from Syracuse this weekend, and Sunday, we went to McKinney Falls State Park, which is one of my favorite places in this part of the state. There were three of us, and the combined entrance fee was $12, so I wound up buying an annual pass, which cost $60 but saved us that $12.

...It made sense in my head, anyway.

Actually, I'm hoping having a state park pass will be a good impetus for going hiking more often than I have been. There are lots of great parks in the hill country, and I'll enjoy dragging people out to explore them with me.

In other news, a weekend and a couple of weekdays passed, and I haven't posted anything in a while. In that time, though, I've donated to:

• The Kelly Davidson Foundation, a charity that provides resources and support for families struggling with pediatric cancer;


• Austin Partners in Education, which provides mentoring, tutoring, and volunteering opportunities in Austin schools;


• and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides education, support, and research funding for cancer.
  

My goal so far has been to find great local charities here in Austin, but not necessarily ones confined to Austin. I've got a few more in mind, but I'd appreciate suggestions, if anyone has any.

Today, I sent $10 to SafePlace, a safe place for people who have been victimized by physical and sexual abuse. They help people get back on their feet by providing them with a place to stay, then providing support and resources to create independent lives.

*****

Also, in visa news, for those who might be interested, Scott and I sent in our K-1 application on December 1st, for the part that has to be processed by USCIS in California, so we've been waiting for about three months to hear what came of it. This morning, I got an e-mail that I've been sent a request for evidence. This could be any number of things -- a form field I forgot to fill or more proof that we've met in person in the last two years (if three sets of boarding passes and a photo of us together isn't enough) -- so I'm waiting to get the letter that tells me what they need.

That is a bit of a bummer, because I was hoping for an approval, of course, but it's just a little bump in the road, and it shouldn't be hard to provide whatever evidence they need.

The good news is that, well, they haven't lost our case or anything, and based on what I've read, once I send in the evidence, we should hopefully get an approval back pretty quickly. After that, our case gets sent to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire, and then on to the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, where Scott will have to go for an interview before he can get his visa.

They don't make it easy, do they? If we're lucky, he'll be able to interview by late May or early June. It could take a little longer than that, though -- we'll see!

I skipped my breakfast tacos again this morning, in favor of raisin bran and soymilk. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my little breakfast taco luxury. But raisin bran is better for me than potato and egg tacos, and it's certainly cheaper.

My donation of the day goes to Caritas of Austin, a local charity that helps with food and rent and support for families in need. I sent them $10, which was too low to warrant a pre-selected amount button. It won't make much of a dent in anyone's rent, but hopefully it'll help buy some food and supplies. It's a good organization -- I see them involved in lots of local work.

I haven't observed Lent in, well, ever, I think. I once gave up meat for Lent, when I was fifteen or so, but that was because it was a fixed length of time that I thought I could survive, and not for any sense of sacrifice. I was an awful vegetarian in those days, too; I ate more potatoes than a person should eat in a year, and not a whole lot else.

It's Ash Wednesday today, and I've been toying with the idea of acknowledging the season in a more meaningful way this year. I brainstormed a list of things that I could give up, ranging from breakfast tacos (sadly, probably the hardest thing for me to give up, as they're convenient, filling, and very very yummy) to driving to work. And then, after I was done brainstorming ideas and I thought I had chosen my Lenten sacrifice, I came up with another idea.

This year, I'm marking Lent by making a small donation to charities I believe in for each of the forty days. I can't afford to give enough to make a significant difference, but my hope is that every little bit will help. I don't generally have a ton of money left over at the end of the month, so to pay for my donations, I'll be trying to save money in other areas. The truth is, I seldom know where my money goes; at least this month, I hope to know.

I'll be attempting to post daily as well, at least to mention to which charity my day's donation is going. I'm not sure that I'm even aware of forty charities, so please feel free to post the names of worthwhile ones to my comments.

***

Today, I skipped my morning breakfast tacos, and I received my $6 compensation check for jury duty in the mail. That's $10, which I sent to Austin Habitat for Humanity.