Monday is stalking me...

Last week was busy at work which helped me get my mind off of the deplorable behavior and general attitude of the DHS.  I refuse to dedicate every waking minute of my life to loathing them; it would give them too much power.  Ashley has been sick so I’m getting less sleep than normal, which amounts to about 4 hours a night if that.  I much prefer insomnia to sleeping too much, but it seems I may never find a happy middle ground.

On Tuesday I won a raffle at work for 4 free tickets to Disney on Ice.  I was happy to have won them, but they were for Thursday evening which would mean I’d have to skip my visit with Alberto that day.  At least I had the opportunity to tell Alberto in person on Tuesday, since he hardly ever calls me.  Since I had 4 tickets, I invited my mom and my niece to join Ashley and me.  I figured my poor sister-in-law would be too exhausted to enjoy the show since she is 6 months pregnant with her third child.  I really enjoyed the show and so did the girls. Our seats were awesome; we were on the lower level and 13 rows from the stage.  I definitely want to go again next year, so I better start saving now. 

‘Gourmet’ hot dog dinner - $30, cotton candy - $12, 2 t-shirts - $40, popcorn - $10, Rapunzel doll - $30, Rapunzel hair set - $16, parking - $5, listening to your child exclaim, “Mamí! Mamí!  Look at the princesses!  So pretty!” – priceless.  There are some things money can’t buy.  For everything else there’s a lifetime of debt on a high interest credit card. 

Seriously, that’s almost a $150 for a couple of lukewarm hot dogs that the girls wouldn’t even eat and a few souvenirs!  Yes, it was a cool show and we all enjoyed it, but how much would it have cost us if we’d bought the tickets too?  I shudder just thinking about it.

Wednesday was the Early Childhood Screening to see if Ashley will be ready to attend Kindergarten when she turns 5.  The screener said there were several instances where she was almost positive that my daughter was being sassy when she gave a wrong answer.  I’m not surprised at all; sassy should have been her middle name.  Either way she passed the screening and the screener sympathized with me.  She said that she believes Ashley to be exceedingly stubborn and I have her sympathy.  Nice.  That just verifies what the pediatrician told me two years ago; Ashley is going to be trouble because she is very smart.  I will just have to encourage Ashley to pursue her interests that don’t involve destruction and mayhem.  Does this mean if Alberto and I have a boy he’s going to be the same, worse, or the opposite?  I’m almost afraid of the possibilities!

On Friday I emailed Lance and company to see if we had heard anything regarding the waiver and application status.  Lance responded that the DHS is demanding an additional $40 for biometrics before they will begin processing the waiver.  Wait, what?  I’ve already paid for biometrics once before but Lance’s argument that we shouldn’t have to pay again was rejected.  I guess I should be happy that I had the money on hand to pay out, but this is getting beyond ridiculous.  I just want this to get going so we can keep moving forward.  I don’t want my husband staying in jail longer just so we can bicker over $40.  I don’t like having to tell him about these little incidentals, but I feel that he needs to know everything that is happening so that he knows we’re not twiddling our thumbs.

On Saturday I had to work mandatory overtime in the afternoon, so there wasn’t much fun that day.  We stayed home.  Ashley played her Leapster Explorer and I did ridiculous amounts of laundry.  That was an inspired Christmas Gift and I am so glad ‘Santa’ picked it out for her.  I am so happy that she likes her games, it’s much better for her to play that then watching TV. It helps too when I have to go shopping for something because she can sit in the car and play her game instead of trying to hide from me while knocking over displays.  Since she had been so good for me, I stopped at the store on the way home from worked and purchased a new game: Mr. Pencil saves Doodleburg.  It was an instant hit!  It teaches about shapes and colors as well as how to use shapes to make pictures.  Games can be educational, but I am looking forward to spring and summer to force her outside for play.

Sunday was visiting day again, and Ashley actually talked with Alberto for several minutes.  It’s kind of difficult to understand her babble/talk stories, but it makes him happy to listen to her.  She told him that she was sick last night and that Mamí let her take a shower afterwards.  She also talked about Rapunzel and Flynn from Disney on Ice, and that we bought ‘Cat in Boots’ at the store. Since we hadn’t seen him on Thursday, I had more to talk about than usual.  He was still marginally upset about the DHS’s newest underhanded tactic, filing new charges to keep him in custody even if the Riot 2 conviction is not a CIMT, but he was feeling better knowing that our next hearing isn’t far off.  I also told him we were expecting to get receipts from Immigration for the I-485 and I-601 filings any day now.  I also told him that Lance said not to worry about the Waiver Interview because he (Alberto) would be prepared.  I didn’t tell him about the Early Childhood Screening because I had written him a letter about it a few days prior and he’d only gotten it that morning.

That brings me to today.  I stopped by Lance’s office early in the morning to drop off the cashier’s check for $40 payable to the Department of Homeland Security, aka the Department for Human Suffering, and still made it to work 30 minutes early.  I emailed Lance when I got to the office to make sure he knew that I dropped off the check and to see if there was anything else we needed for the waiver.  He said we have what we need so far and to just keep gathering evidence as it occurs to me.  Later in the day I got an email from Graciela with an I-797C Notice of Action.  It was the receipt for the I-485 Application to Adjust Status and the $1,070 filing fee.  It felt good to receive it even though I know that piece of paper really doesn’t mean anything.  It did get me thinking about the last Notice of Action I received from when the I-130 and I129F were approved.  I pulled up my scanned copies and noticed something odd.  The date the USCIS received those petitions was March 10, 2008.  The date of the approval notice was March 11, 2010.  The date of our next hearing is March 12, 2012, so I’m hoping this is an omen of good things to come.  I certainly don’t want to maintain status quo for another 2 years and a day.  Date coincidences happen to me a lot, for example, Ashley arrived exactly 9 months to the day after we were married. 

I need to call the doctor in the morning and see if they can get Ashley in since her cough has taken a turn for the worse.

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Robert McCloskey

Ciao