Saturday, May 21, 2011

I think I wiped out a rain forest somewhere...

Well, supposedly the world is set to start ending at 6pm tonight.  I figured I should at least get one last blog post in to leave my legacy.   Though I guess if the world's ending it's not really going to matter anyway.

Hm.   Anyway...

It's finally sunny here for the first time in what seemed like forever (but really it was 5 days of rain).   Weather conditions can really get me down if it's gray for too long.   And it was especially tricky this week to have the weather getting me down.  Why?   Well.  I'll tell you.

After a loooooooooong (I'd add more "o's" but that's an obnoxious amount already) time, I was finally able to submit all of the evidence to the lawyer for Jamesson and I.

And at this point in my blog post, you might either be saying "Hey! That's great news!"  Or you might be saying "What the heck are you talking about??"   I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but we're engaged. (Yippeee!) And because the world works the way it does right now,  Jamesson is not allowed to marry me, until Uncle Sam says "welcome to my country."  

And how does one get an invitation into Uncle Sam's country?  

A lot of paperwork.

The first step in a process that I still don't know all the ins and outs of but thank God my aunt was able to recommend a good lawyer that does and is helping us, is to get together a lot of evidence of our relationship to submit with the application.   We had to gather documents, passports, birth certificates, drivers licenses, tax info, e-mails, photos that are dated and labeled with the names of anyone else included in the photos, letters (plus envelopes), emails, chat conversations, phone bills, affidavits from people who know us, proof of insurance, wedding plans (for a wedding that we're still not sure if Jamesson will make it to), and a slough of other items to say that we a too legit to quit.

So now you know how I've been spending the last few months of my life.  With a lot of paper cuts. BUT the good, no...the great, no....the FANTASTIC news is that FINALLY we had all the evidence we needed gathered and I handed the very large stack over to the lawyer on Thursday.  It was a big relief.  However, now we start the waiting game.

How does it work?  

We wait; for an undisclosed amount of time.

Know any card games?
Saturday, May 14, 2011

And the beat goes on...

Right before I left for Ireland,  I decided that my life was missing something.

Well, it was missing Jamesson...but even more than that, it was missing a small musical instrument in the shape of a ukulele.  It was....a ukulele.

So one night at 11pm, when I seem to get most of my whims (read: really good ideas), I purchased a ukulele.   I left to go on vacation before it came, so luckily when I got home, and was visciously thrown back into the cruel monstrous claws of reality,  I had a nice little wooden ukulele with a turtle on it to cheer me up.    I immediately sought pedagogy from the teacher that is available 24/7, dear to my heart, and known as Google.   And thus began my musical journey.

I quickly picked up the 4 easy chords, which translates to me picking up 80% of pop music, which means that I'm no pro, but I can strum up a couple of ukulele storms including, but not limited to Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Home on the Range.   I also am very very proud to say that I can now play one of my favorite Noah and the Whale Songs- 5 Years Time.

Look out Ukulele World! I'm heading straight to the top!  Just as soon as I can figure out how to strum and sing at the same time.

When Irish eyes are smiling.

So I went to Ireland.

Oh. Em. Gee.  It was magical.

What can I even begin to say about this?   Alot, actually.   For brevity's sake I will merely touch on the important parts.   The first being that I would move there in a heartbeat (as long as Jamesson isn't too far behind in meeting me there).   Just about everything was right up my alley.  The fun people, the sense of humor, the bright colors and the amazing historical places.    There were a few things that were not so up my alley, but I'd be willing to overlook them- mainly the fact that Budweiser is one of their top selections for beer, and the fact that many Irish girls have been delusional in thinking that leggings are pants.  They're not pants.  Stop acting like they are.  I think if Ireland and I sit down and have a good heart-to-heart, we can work out both of these things.

Overall though, Ireland was such a great country to visit, and the company made it that much more wonderful.   We drove to Dublin, went to the Guinness factory (where I'm going to try and convince Jamesson we need to move to), we ate incredible food and our weight in chocolate, made friends with the locals, saw some amazing natural scenery and landscapes (pretty much everywhere, but especially at the Cliffs of Moher.  And we completely exhausted the word "cute" because everything is adorable in Ireland.  Everything.

One great thing about going to Ireland with 4 art majors is that we all very much had the same goal in mind-  Get.  Good.  Pictures.     Generally, we'd park the car somewhere to get out and see something, and then 4 girls would all walk sort of in the same direction, but all stop at different points along the path (which was never well defined) in order to take pictures of whatever caught one's eye.

I'm pretty sure I got around 400 or 500 pictures, but feel free to take a gander at whichever photographs catch your eye!  And please, if any of you readers out there stumble across a big bag of money and don't know what to do with it, feel free to send some of it my way so that Jamesson and I can move to Ireland immediately.






Links to Facebook Photo albums:
Day 1: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.541424170316.2038915.85500234&l=4253ee7d61

Cheers!