CC's Random Thoughts
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Am I supposed to be happy or nervous?
Current Mood:
I got this in my email today:
Application Type: I485 , Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status
Current Status: On August 26, 2005, we transferred your I485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status to an office in CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER for processing. Our office in CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER will send you a written decision as soon as processing is complete. You should receive a notice informing you that your case has been transferred to a local office. Please call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283 to receive information about local office processing times.If you have questions or concerns about your application or the case status results listed above, or if you have not received a decision or advice from USCIS within the projected processing time frame, please contact the National Customer Service Center. National Customer Service Center (800) 375-5283. The projected processing time frame can be found on the receipt notice that you received from the USCIS.
Sincerely,
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
At first I was like, "WOO HOO! It's moving again!" My application hasn't progressed since December of 2004--they're that behind. And then I read the note again and I started to wonder: do all applications get transferred to California? Why California? I live in Memphis. Am I an exception? If so, why are they singling me out?"
Of course, I'm probably just being paranoid, but I've heard enough immigration horror stories so I think a little paranoia is justified :-).
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6:14 AM |
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Sunday, August 28, 2005
He's so sweet
Current Mood: 
Rent time always gets me a little depressed. I hate that "WOO HOO I'm rich--until I pay the rent" feeling.
I'd been pretty blah last night. Steve really went out of his way to make me feel better. The most touching part for me was that he shaved right before bed and put on cologne just in case I felt like snuggling during the night.
Now if you're a guy, that's probably a pretty pointless thing to do: shave before bed. By the time you wake up you've got the shadow on your face and would have to shave all over again. But just on the off-chance that I might want to snuggle during the night, he decided to shave.
And if that wasn't sweet enough, he did this after I'd already fallen asleep. I sort of vaguely remember his coming into bed and waking me up a little by rubbing his cheek against mine, letting me know that he'd shaved and put on my favorite cologne.
Then this morning he made me pancakes. Then he planned what we'd do today that didn't involve too much spending. We watched a movie, bought a couple of new shower caddies, then he worked out with me at the gym. I felt much better at the end of the day :-).Labels: That's My Husband...
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4:30 AM |
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Thursday, August 25, 2005
September already?
Current Mood:
September will be here soon. That means in a few weeks Steve and I will have been married for a year. A year. Man, where did the time go?
How does it feel being married for a year, you might ask. This is going to sound cliche, but it honestly doesn't feel any different from when we were just boyfriend-girlfriend, only that there's a paper that officiates that we're partners for life. Sure, there are more bills to pay and you start worrying about more grownup things like insurance and investments, but that's not necessarily a married thing. That's a "We're living on our own" thing.
Now THAT definitely has its perks :-). Living on our own, I mean :-). You're allowed to not be on your best behavior all the time :-).
I do notice though, that Steve and I already act like an old married couple. You've seen it on TV: a man and a woman both sitting in bed with their legs under the covers, each reading their own materials of interest.
I remember when the realization hit me. I was reading and I suddenly started to laugh.
"What is it?" Steve asked, turning away from his book.
"Do you have ANY idea how old we must look doing what we're doing now?"
He paused, and then, "Nooooooo...!"
It's funny and yet strangely comforting at the same time :-).
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7:21 AM |
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My apologies
Current Mood: 
Sorry about not posting much. My schedule has been a little unusual this week. I started my workday Monday at my typical 5:30am, Tuesday started at 2:30am, Wednesday started at 1am... my body's a little confused right now :-).
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7:11 AM |
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
This is SO me :-)!
Current Mood:
Switch Arlo and Janis' places and that's me and Steve :-).
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2:17 AM |
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Thursday, August 18, 2005
"He's a what?"
Current Mood:
Steve and I were watching CSI last night. Someone in a raccoon suit had been killed on the highway, and the team was able to track down where he lived. His bedroom was full of stuffed toys.
"He's a furry!" Steve said.
"He's a what?"
I learned later that there is a real group of people called "Furries." You know how there's a lot of people that enjoy anime (Japanese animation) and would go to conventions dressed up as cartoon characters? It's kind of like that, only furries wear animal costumes to their conventions. Imagine a ballroom full of team mascots.
Grissom was fascinated by them, and I have to admit, from a psychological perspective, so was I. These are people who find acceptance in a group that believes that it sucks to be human and would rather be animals instead.
I suppose that concept isn't really new. Trekkies, comic fans--I guess everyone has a desire to be someone (or something) else every once in a while. I just find the extent to which furries carry this out a little weird. Sure, I wouldn't mind dressing up as a cheetah on Halloween, but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say I have a cheetah "spirit."
I guess it's just more real for some people than others.Labels: Arts
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6:38 AM |
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Monday, August 15, 2005
Making progress
Current Mood:
Steve and I are making good progress with our ASL :-). Today's sentence in sign:
"Why aren't you watching football?"
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8:07 PM |
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Sunday, August 14, 2005
Quiz time!
Current Mood:
Okay here's that quiz I was telling you about. Match the signs with the proper labels. If you've read the previous entry, all you have to do is apply what you learned. You'd be suprised at how simple ASL can be :-).
Okay, here are the labels:
And here are the pictures:
Think of where the signs are located and the motion of the signs: is it a forward movement? A backward movement? What does it mean when the sign is in the forehead area?
Okay, here are the answers. Which ones did you get right?
- The first picture is "mother."
- The second picture is "was."
- The third picture is "parents." I found it neat that because parents mean male and female, you make the "p" sign touch *both* the forehead and chin :-).
- The fourth sign is "is."
- The last sign is "father."
See? Already you know a little bit of sign language :-)!
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5:13 AM |
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Saturday, August 13, 2005
ASL
Current Mood:
ASL stands for "American Sign Language." As far as second languages go, it's actually quite easy to learn. It REALLY helps when you know the signed alphabet. I noticed that many signs use the first letter of that word. For example:
- "parents" is signed using the letter "p"
- "was" is signed with a "w"
- "is" is signed with an "i"
There are lots of other examples, but I think you get my drift :-).
I also learned some pretty interesting rules about signing, specifically about gender and tense:
Yes, there will be a quiz :-).
You think I'm kidding :-). I'm scanning the signs now and later I'll post them and have you guess what you think they mean :-).
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5:57 AM |
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Not quite like CSI
Current Mood: 
I had my first-ever gynecological exam on Thursday.
Yeah, already you know this is going to be good :-).
I know *why* those exams are important. They want to check the skin cells and make sure that cancer's not something I should be worrying about. Steve was even thoughtful to send me an information link to let me know what to expect.
I read the process and I was like, "Oh it sounds just like what they do on CSI...grab a swab, scrape some epithelials, you're done. Sure, I can take that :-)."
FYI for the women who haven't had a gynecological exam before: it's NOT like CSI. Ohoo, no 
.
Then again I guess it was partly my fault. I thought "speculum" meant "small spoon." I dunno, I guess it was the "sp-" part. You know, like "spoon." Or "spatula." The word "speculum" also sounds like it would be something tiny.
Little did I know "speculum" is actually Latin for "big-@$$-duckbill-that-works-like-a-tirejack."
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4:39 AM |
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Friday, August 12, 2005
What I like about Blogrolling
Current Mood:
You know how when you visit people's blogs, there would often be a list of other people's blogs along the margin? And the only way for you to tell whether or not someone had updated his/her blog is to visit it and see if there's anything new.
The thing I like about blogrolling is that you can set it up to do this:
Notice the word "*fresh!*" after the BearAmerica blog and the Snapshots blog? That lets you know that the user just added a new entry :-). It's quite convenient :-).
There is one thing, though: the maximum time allotted for this setting is 48 hours. That means once 48 hours passes from the time someone had updated his/her blog, the *fresh* marking disappears.
It's still a useful tool, though :-).Labels: Blogging
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9:18 AM |
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Sunday, August 07, 2005
Patio concept
Current Mood:
Let me show you what I'm thinking of doing for the patio and let me know what you think :-). Okay, here are pictures of what the patio currently looks like:
Left: The patio now; Right: Full view of the patio. The flooring is concrete.
Left: Door leading to patio; Right: The other side of the railing
So if we were going to lay it out as an architectural design, it would look like this:
The green thing on the right is the gardenia plant. That'd be the only thing we'd keep.
My concept is to make the patio look like a small Italian garden. I want it to end up looking a little bit like this:
I'd like the green field to be grass, but I don't really think that's possible considering we're on the third floor :-). Steve said we could put down fake grass instead.
Then on top of the grass there'll be a stone pathway leading to a terracotta pot fountain (which serves as the patio's focal point).
Along one side of the path there'll be three fake potted cypress trees (cypress trees are common in many Tuscany pictures and adds to the Italian look). On the other side there'll be planters attached to the railing where we'll have Italian herbs: oregano, basil, things like that :-).
We'll also have a bistro set on the patio so we can sit down and enjoy the view :-). I'm flexible with the layout of the set, though. Whatever works :-). It could be laid out like this:
Or like this (which is probably the best use of space)...
And then, to finish the look, we're going to get fake vine to wrap around the white columns so we can have a more old-world feel :-). I also figure that vines would be a good introduction to the patio (the column is the first thing you see when you head out there).
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9:49 AM |
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Saturday, August 06, 2005
Aww... :-)
Current Mood:
Steve and the doggies fell asleep together this afternoon. They all looked so cute I had to take a few pictures :-).
The little green bear on the floor is Katya's. She would often carry that bear around like a little puppy :-).
Labels: That's My Husband...
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8:52 PM |
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A little bit every day
Current Mood:
Just recently, Steve and I discovered that Gil Grissom, the lead guy on CSI (played by William Petersen), has hearing difficulties because of otosclerosis. That's what Steve has.
Steve had the surgery that would make his hearing a little better, but it's only temporary. There is no cure for otosclerosis.
On a few CSI episodes, Gil Grissom uses sign language. I've always wanted to learn sign language ever since I learned the signed alphabet on Sesame Street. Gil Grissom makes sign language look cool :-).
Steve and I have a couple of books on signing. He and I are going to study a little bit each day. I'm excited about it :-). He and I already know a few gestures (just the important stuff--you know, "pizza," "chicken," "spaghetti," things like that ;-)), but I'm excited about us finally taking steps to learn to be able to actually have conversations in sign language. As Gil Grissom says in one of the episodes, "If the world can't adapt to you, you adapt to it."Labels: Arts
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5:05 AM |
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
More Team America
Current Mood: 
Some of our favorite Team America lines:
- "I have worked years on this pran. It is a vewy pwecise and compricated pran."
- "Inevitabre! Things are inevitabry going to change! God#^&%it, open your *%&ing ears!"
- "I sense I'm going down!"
- (in an American accent) "Derka derka muhammad jihad."
Labels: Arts
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6:57 AM |
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005
New shirts
Current Mood:
Steve and I went to Best Buy Saturday so he could buy the latest Ghost in the Shell episode. The special edition came in a neat tin box and also comes with a t-shirt. He let me have the shirt :-).
Then we went to Value City. Steve wanted to look for Dallas Cowboys jerseys. There weren't any Cowboy jerseys, but there WAS a Brett Favre jersey. I'm a Brett Favre fan :-). Not just because he's a great player, but he's also been through a lot in his personal life and has still managed not to become embittered :-).
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6:18 PM |
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