Very upset. It has been a while since I have gotten this upset about something while still at work, but this was bound to happen. On Tuesday this week Graciela emailed me saying that she had found a Doctor that was willing to travel to the jail to conduct Alberto’s immigration medical exam. Graciela made sure to warn me that health insurance does not typically cover this exam, and the doctor was estimating charges in the amount of $350. I guess the arrangement with that particular doctor fell through.
So today, Graciela told me about a different doctor who was able to conduct the physical on Friday afternoon so that we could have this taken care of before the hearing on Monday. I guess they wanted to have some progress to report in order to secure the continuance. Anyway, Graciela asked me if Alberto had ever had the chicken pox and if immigration have his passport. According to mi suegra, Alberto had varicella when he was only 1 but it was a mild case. According to the records from when he was enrolled in school in Minnesota, he had also received the varicella vaccine. Actually he received the full battery of vaccinations because his sister didn’t have his records from Mexico and he couldn’t be enrolled in school until they were done. Graciela told me the exam was estimated to cost $400 and I needed to call the clinic right away to arrange for payment. I called and I talked to Sally who told me that prepayment was mandatory for all immigration physicals since health insurance hardly ever covers them. Sally told me they would not go see Alberto for the exam until the prepayment was complete. This is how I got upset. How in the hell am I supposed to prepay a $400 medical exam when I don’t even have $40 between all of my bank accounts combined?! I called my mom and asked the hardest question of them all; can I borrow $400 in order to prepay Alberto’s immigration exam? The exam will take place Friday afternoon and I was able to tell Alberto all this during our Thursday visit. Lance tells me I just purchased a continuance, as if that will make me feel better.
My parents are still in an ugly financial situation. My father is still unemployed and appears to be uninterested in looking for a job. He tried to get my mom to sign the paperwork so he could start taking payouts from his retirement account and she flat out refused. She hasn’t threatened to divorce him lately if he didn’t find a job and start contributing to the household expenses, but I know she’s worried about bills. I hope that my loan doesn’t cause any financial hardships because I know it’ll take me a while to repay what I had to borrow.
Now that I have that out of my system, the most interesting day of the week for me was Wednesday. We had someone at work that is very well versed in the New Leaf program, so I took the time to talk to him about my program. He said that my program is not really physically possible; who can bring their heart rate down from 168 to 131 in fewer than 2 minutes without stopping? I know I can’t do it. So Tom said that I could alter my program even though interval training is good. As long as I spend the same amount of time in each zone that I would if I did the cycle, I would get the same results. He also said that the workouts Sam the sadist gave me is what happens when you take the data from the test and then push calculate in the program. When I get to week nine, I’m supposed to email Tom so that he can fix my workout schedule since I have 4 weeks that do not have an ‘easy’ cardio workout for recovery purposes. Doing things Tom’s way will allow me to read my kindle during my cardio workouts again!
I’m trying to remain positive. I keep telling myself the worst is almost behind us and we will have a decision soon. Alberto says as long as he’s out of jail by the beginning of June he’ll be ok, but then he’ll have been locked up for well over a year. I hope USCIS look at our case and decide that we have suffered enough for whatever sins we have committed. I just want to start out lives over again. I want to rent that cramped apartment and figure out how to buy furniture. I want to see Alberto finish his GED and study to be a mechanic or a chef like he wants to. I want to be stable and happy again. I want my family together again. I want those lazy Sunday nights where we’d bring Chinese food home and watch movies we’d rented. I want the chance to start over. I want Ashley to have her father. I want to have another baby with my husband, a little boy who will pester and annoy his big sister. Maybe I want too much, but I will not give up my dream.
“If you are going through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill
Ciao
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