Good news, better news and other news

The papers didn't come in time, of course. On Monday afternoon, after I realized the mail had brought nothing but the usual bills, mortgage offers and flyers, I spent 90 minutes on the phone with increasingly "higher up" INS people via their call centre and was told there was absolutely zip they could do for me.

It will also give you great comfort to know that the INS person in, say ... Chicago - can't access the computer system of the person in Baltimore, for example. So while the customer service peon was able to tell me that my petition had been approved, the actual INS officer I spoke with some time later was unable to see that same information. In fact, she was only able to see older info that showed my application still pending. Nice to know that Dept of Homel@nd Security has intra-operability. Shhh. Don't let Al Qaeda know.

I pretty much dissolved into tears when I got off the phone. Fortunately for me, it was time to leave work, so I scrambled out of there before I broke down.

The better news - and the good news - are that my papers did come Wednesday and the document allows me to cross the border multiple times until July of next year! Hopefully by then, I'll have my green card but I'm not holding my breath. It seems that I filed at a popular time, as the sabre-rattling of the various Houses of government regarding immigration, has finally got a lot of procrastinators off their collective asses. Yay.

The other good news - or not, depending on your perspective, is that the bris was postponed. My sister in law is not Jewish and by Jewish law, the baby (Judaism goes by matrilineal lines) is not Jewish until he undergoes conversion. Supposedly the rabbis are meeting on Monday to discuss what needs to be done - obviously my brother wants this done right, so we are all waiting patiently. I am not sure what converting of a newborn entails - some googling revealed a dip in the mikvah after the bris but Mindy may know more.
So we wait.

And I will be able to go, without issue - I am so happy about that! The thought of missing my nephew's bris had me completely broken down, seriously.

Imri still isn't sleeping through the night. Nothing new there. If anything, its gotten worse, probably due to teething. Jr is being a shit. Nothing new there. I'm about done with him. John is being a twat, especially in regards to Jr. That comes and goes and is getting old. Very effing old.

But we did have a nice time at the town fair. Imri seemed to enjoy himself but it was very loud and that seemed to make him very quiet. He is not normally quiet these days - in fact, he has taken to shrieking very loudly, especially when he isn't getting the attention His Highness feels is his due. Oy. But he seemed to like the rides. It turned out to be a nice 5th of July for us all, even if I did have helmet hair.