So, am I back?
Ohhhhh yes, I am a slacker. It's been so razzafrackin' mo'foing long since I've blogged here.
So, what happened? Life, I suppose. Michael moved here from Australia, we got married, and I forgot about LJ for nearly two years. I suck, I know.
I haven't been listlessly idling, though. Obviously starting a new life with Michael took priority numero uno for some time. For those of you who were unaware, we didn't do the typical wedding thing. Not only was it not in the budget, but well... we didn't' want the hoopla. So we got married at the courthouse with no friends OR family present. Offend everyone equally, right? Beyond that, neither of us are the religous sort, so a church was completely out of the question. Furthermore, I really hate groups of people and can't stand parties where I'm supposed to be the main attraction. Parties like that have always made me uncomfortable. Thanfully my family and friends know this and wouldn't dream of ever throwing me a party. After Michael and I got married, the long battle to secure his permanent residence status ensued. It took over a year, and that was with an immigration lawyer on our side. There was a huge mix up. We keep waiting around for letters from the INS, keep making phone calls and all to no avail. Eventually we get this letter in the mail saying that his application has been cancelelled because they couldn't contact us, and then accused Michael of moving without reporting it to him. Now, obviously we didn't move, and they DID have our correct address because they made sure that the termination letter got to us. So, I called up a congressman, Dale Kildee, and his office straightened it all out for us. Turns out, since the lawyer was our attourney of record, his office was where all of the papers were being sent to. Ok, fair enough, however the lawyer moved his office to a new building and the INS apparently was thrown for a loop. There's a form to file if the person seeking PR status moves, yet nothing for if a lawyer moves. Fortunately, the congressman's office had quite a bit of pull and faxed everything over for us and got the application re-instated the following day. Weeks later we were in Detroit for the immigration interview. The immigration officer, surprisingly, was great. A very friendly lady. The interview (which the lawyer was present at) was actually not as nerve wracking as I suspected it would be. It was rather nice. So, finally, Michael gets approved! YAY! Permanent resident! We celebrated by going straight to the Detroit Science Center and managed to check out the very cool human body display.
Shortly before Michael recieved his permanent resident status, he landed a programming job. (He had already recieved permission to work.) Things were going rather well. The stress of trying to make ends meet on my part time job alone was gone, and we purchased a newer used car so he could safely make the 70+ mile trip to work. (Yes, that's ONE WAY!) I traded in the ol' Firebird and banked the money in a money market savings account. The plan was to let the cash draw a little interest while we managed the car loan for a year or so in order to build up credit for Michael. Of course, it would also serve as an emergency fund.
During the course of his time working this job, and with the rising cost of gasoline, we were shelling out around $600 a month for fuel. It left little wiggle room. After all of our needs were met and utilities paid, all the extra money went toward over paying the minimum balance on the credit card that was our life line while waiting for the government to get around to doing their damned job. I'm not a big fan of debt, who is? But I often had little choice but to use the credit card. Thankfully I have a good credit score and manage money well and didn't max out the card or run up as much debt as one would imagine.
Only a month before Michael moved here, I got involved with a community project to start up an art council. I wound up being voted Vice Chair, and did a lot of draft and finalizing work on our constitution and bylaws. About a year into it, I became Chair of the council and we re-elected as Chair for another two year term previously this year. Needless to say, my involvement with the council keeps me busy. Near the end of August I finally had enough of my little part time job. So many things had happened in the course of the year that stacked up and stressed me out to the point where I was getting ready to stop functioning. Long story, but, I kept getting sick from having my body weakend by stress, Michael got sick a couple of times, grandpa had brain surgery, had to run Dad to the ER several times, my family is harrowingly needy, there was a child death in the family, I was busy with council business...every thing turned out okay, but I finally 'broke' when my cat Billy passed away. Even though I was taking (and still am taking) medications for my Serotonin Deficancy Sydrome, I was still a bundle of nerves and started having panic attacks. I mention the medication simply because you'd think that in the event of me getting stressed, the SSRI I was on would offer some back up relief. Heck no. I wasn't depressed, yet was finding myself slipping into more and more days of general unhappiness and was having to take Xanax for random panic episodes which seemed to have no rhyme nor reason. (More on that aspect later!) So my cat died, and that was it. I had no time for myself, I had no time or ambition to even make any of my own art. Even though I had started taking violin lessons, which helped to relieve the stress a bit, I was still runing on empty. So, I quit my job. I also purchased a new six string electric violin. I emptied out about $400 of my other savings account to get it. No big, we'd be able to replenish that in time to pay the $750 car insurance bill.
Two days later, Michael lost his job. Well, wasn't THAT just snazzy? Really, it's a bit of a story behind the loss of his job. Unfortunately, we still don't really know why it happened. Only weeks before they were singing his praises, telling him how glad they were to have him and even gave him a 10% merit raise. Then all of a sudden he's called into the office, told the quality of his work far exceeded their expectations, but well... "You just don't fit in." Talk about a kick in the teeth. But hey, I at least didn't panic. I had that money from selling the car in the bank if we needed it, plus Michael was fully eligible for unemployment. He did get the maximum benefit for unemployment, fortunately. On the down side, because his former employer didn't give any valid reason for firing him the unemployment agency had to 'investigate' which took them about six frigging weeks. On the up side, it only took Michael 16 days to find another job. This one much closer to home, and much better on gasoline since he telecommutes for most of the week. As it turned out, Michael didn't recieve his due unemployment until AFTER he had already gotten a pay check from the new job. Gotta love government .
There were, however, some good times. Michael's mother and step dad visited from Australia and stayed for eight days. We took a much needed weeked trip to the UP. We also managed to become the proud parents of a tiny kitten. My dad removed the tarp from the lawnmower at my grandma's only to find four kittens, four to five weeks old. He didn't want to hurt them while moving the mower so he put on some gloves and put them in a box and moved them about 20 feet away under the edge of my grandpa's parked truck. Mama kitty came and got them, save for one little black and white female. We're not sure why, but we suspect it might have had to do with the fact that there were some people who just HAD to pick her up (being that she was the most colorful, and no, I didn't handle her.) After two days it was evident that the mother had abanonded her, so I get this phone call from Dad blubbering about how she's gonna die. So what could I do? I brought her home and bottle fed her. She is now a very healthy, fluffy and ACTIVE little girl. (She's into EVERYTHING. My gawd, she's about seven months old, I hope she slows down soon and works the kitten out of herself!) Shortly after we got the kitten, dubbed Mu, Billy passed. It was tough, but in a way, having the new kitten eased the grief. It was like one life was exchanged for another. *aahh yes, I love my cats.* My other big male, Navn, got depressed for several weeks after Billy died, but happily, he's back to normal now.
Meh.. at any rate that's all I can think of now as far as major events. Things are moving along much better now. The violin lessons are going well and I'm improving at a fast pace. I've started drawing again.
But, I'm still having panic episodes. I went to the doctor today and she's having me checked for Celiac Disease. I've noticed that my body does NOT respond well to wheat. I've been suspecting some sort of wheat or gluten allergy for some time now, but it took some time to connect the panic episodes with diet. In a way, I almost hope I do have Celiac Sprue just to have a reason for why my body reacts the way it does. But, it'll still be a good thing if I don't have it. Maintaing a gluten-free diet is difficult in respect to missing certain foods. I put myself on a GF diet some time ago and did feel much better and noticed the panic episodes subsiding. So, even if the blood test comes up negative, I likely still have a wheat intolerance. *grumble* There goes the chinese buffet.
So, what happened? Life, I suppose. Michael moved here from Australia, we got married, and I forgot about LJ for nearly two years. I suck, I know.
I haven't been listlessly idling, though. Obviously starting a new life with Michael took priority numero uno for some time. For those of you who were unaware, we didn't do the typical wedding thing. Not only was it not in the budget, but well... we didn't' want the hoopla. So we got married at the courthouse with no friends OR family present. Offend everyone equally, right? Beyond that, neither of us are the religous sort, so a church was completely out of the question. Furthermore, I really hate groups of people and can't stand parties where I'm supposed to be the main attraction. Parties like that have always made me uncomfortable. Thanfully my family and friends know this and wouldn't dream of ever throwing me a party. After Michael and I got married, the long battle to secure his permanent residence status ensued. It took over a year, and that was with an immigration lawyer on our side. There was a huge mix up. We keep waiting around for letters from the INS, keep making phone calls and all to no avail. Eventually we get this letter in the mail saying that his application has been cancelelled because they couldn't contact us, and then accused Michael of moving without reporting it to him. Now, obviously we didn't move, and they DID have our correct address because they made sure that the termination letter got to us. So, I called up a congressman, Dale Kildee, and his office straightened it all out for us. Turns out, since the lawyer was our attourney of record, his office was where all of the papers were being sent to. Ok, fair enough, however the lawyer moved his office to a new building and the INS apparently was thrown for a loop. There's a form to file if the person seeking PR status moves, yet nothing for if a lawyer moves. Fortunately, the congressman's office had quite a bit of pull and faxed everything over for us and got the application re-instated the following day. Weeks later we were in Detroit for the immigration interview. The immigration officer, surprisingly, was great. A very friendly lady. The interview (which the lawyer was present at) was actually not as nerve wracking as I suspected it would be. It was rather nice. So, finally, Michael gets approved! YAY! Permanent resident! We celebrated by going straight to the Detroit Science Center and managed to check out the very cool human body display.
Shortly before Michael recieved his permanent resident status, he landed a programming job. (He had already recieved permission to work.) Things were going rather well. The stress of trying to make ends meet on my part time job alone was gone, and we purchased a newer used car so he could safely make the 70+ mile trip to work. (Yes, that's ONE WAY!) I traded in the ol' Firebird and banked the money in a money market savings account. The plan was to let the cash draw a little interest while we managed the car loan for a year or so in order to build up credit for Michael. Of course, it would also serve as an emergency fund.
During the course of his time working this job, and with the rising cost of gasoline, we were shelling out around $600 a month for fuel. It left little wiggle room. After all of our needs were met and utilities paid, all the extra money went toward over paying the minimum balance on the credit card that was our life line while waiting for the government to get around to doing their damned job. I'm not a big fan of debt, who is? But I often had little choice but to use the credit card. Thankfully I have a good credit score and manage money well and didn't max out the card or run up as much debt as one would imagine.
Only a month before Michael moved here, I got involved with a community project to start up an art council. I wound up being voted Vice Chair, and did a lot of draft and finalizing work on our constitution and bylaws. About a year into it, I became Chair of the council and we re-elected as Chair for another two year term previously this year. Needless to say, my involvement with the council keeps me busy. Near the end of August I finally had enough of my little part time job. So many things had happened in the course of the year that stacked up and stressed me out to the point where I was getting ready to stop functioning. Long story, but, I kept getting sick from having my body weakend by stress, Michael got sick a couple of times, grandpa had brain surgery, had to run Dad to the ER several times, my family is harrowingly needy, there was a child death in the family, I was busy with council business...every thing turned out okay, but I finally 'broke' when my cat Billy passed away. Even though I was taking (and still am taking) medications for my Serotonin Deficancy Sydrome, I was still a bundle of nerves and started having panic attacks. I mention the medication simply because you'd think that in the event of me getting stressed, the SSRI I was on would offer some back up relief. Heck no. I wasn't depressed, yet was finding myself slipping into more and more days of general unhappiness and was having to take Xanax for random panic episodes which seemed to have no rhyme nor reason. (More on that aspect later!) So my cat died, and that was it. I had no time for myself, I had no time or ambition to even make any of my own art. Even though I had started taking violin lessons, which helped to relieve the stress a bit, I was still runing on empty. So, I quit my job. I also purchased a new six string electric violin. I emptied out about $400 of my other savings account to get it. No big, we'd be able to replenish that in time to pay the $750 car insurance bill.
Two days later, Michael lost his job. Well, wasn't THAT just snazzy? Really, it's a bit of a story behind the loss of his job. Unfortunately, we still don't really know why it happened. Only weeks before they were singing his praises, telling him how glad they were to have him and even gave him a 10% merit raise. Then all of a sudden he's called into the office, told the quality of his work far exceeded their expectations, but well... "You just don't fit in." Talk about a kick in the teeth. But hey, I at least didn't panic. I had that money from selling the car in the bank if we needed it, plus Michael was fully eligible for unemployment. He did get the maximum benefit for unemployment, fortunately. On the down side, because his former employer didn't give any valid reason for firing him the unemployment agency had to 'investigate' which took them about six frigging weeks. On the up side, it only took Michael 16 days to find another job. This one much closer to home, and much better on gasoline since he telecommutes for most of the week. As it turned out, Michael didn't recieve his due unemployment until AFTER he had already gotten a pay check from the new job. Gotta love government .
There were, however, some good times. Michael's mother and step dad visited from Australia and stayed for eight days. We took a much needed weeked trip to the UP. We also managed to become the proud parents of a tiny kitten. My dad removed the tarp from the lawnmower at my grandma's only to find four kittens, four to five weeks old. He didn't want to hurt them while moving the mower so he put on some gloves and put them in a box and moved them about 20 feet away under the edge of my grandpa's parked truck. Mama kitty came and got them, save for one little black and white female. We're not sure why, but we suspect it might have had to do with the fact that there were some people who just HAD to pick her up (being that she was the most colorful, and no, I didn't handle her.) After two days it was evident that the mother had abanonded her, so I get this phone call from Dad blubbering about how she's gonna die. So what could I do? I brought her home and bottle fed her. She is now a very healthy, fluffy and ACTIVE little girl. (She's into EVERYTHING. My gawd, she's about seven months old, I hope she slows down soon and works the kitten out of herself!) Shortly after we got the kitten, dubbed Mu, Billy passed. It was tough, but in a way, having the new kitten eased the grief. It was like one life was exchanged for another. *aahh yes, I love my cats.* My other big male, Navn, got depressed for several weeks after Billy died, but happily, he's back to normal now.
Meh.. at any rate that's all I can think of now as far as major events. Things are moving along much better now. The violin lessons are going well and I'm improving at a fast pace. I've started drawing again.
But, I'm still having panic episodes. I went to the doctor today and she's having me checked for Celiac Disease. I've noticed that my body does NOT respond well to wheat. I've been suspecting some sort of wheat or gluten allergy for some time now, but it took some time to connect the panic episodes with diet. In a way, I almost hope I do have Celiac Sprue just to have a reason for why my body reacts the way it does. But, it'll still be a good thing if I don't have it. Maintaing a gluten-free diet is difficult in respect to missing certain foods. I put myself on a GF diet some time ago and did feel much better and noticed the panic episodes subsiding. So, even if the blood test comes up negative, I likely still have a wheat intolerance. *grumble* There goes the chinese buffet.