That was fast.

Ok, an eventful week so at Christine's request, an update!

I'll start with the followup to the last post. I had my citizenship interview today. I was nervous and excited, didn't really know what to expect. The form I received said to allow 2 hours for the interview (seemed long, since all they do is ask some civics/history questions, make you read a sentence and write a sentence, prove you can speak english, make you prove you're actually married and not a fraud, and some other mundane things).

Interview time was 10:20, and it said not to arrive more than 30 minutes prior. I get there at 10 to 10. I already knew where the building was, and it is about 5 minutes from my work, so no problem there. Walk in, through security, up to the second floor and put my form in a bin - not even a person there to say put that here! by 10am i was already in the interview - it is a legal proceeding, so i swore to tell the truth - no problem. Asked me all the above (you know, between the brackets), while checking things off on my forms (no idea what he was even checking off, it certainly wasn't civics questions) Asked if I'm married, looked over my bills and said no problem there, made sure I'd never stated I was a citizen, or that I'd voted in the US - no and no. He used to work in customs, so we talked alittle shop (being that I'm in anti-money laundering, I know all the schemes they deal with). After the civics questions he asked me where they brewed Labatt's - funny guy! I then had to prove I can read and write - I read, 'It is sunny outside today' and wrote 'I live in Minnesota.' Tough stuff. That was about it, I was done and in the car at 10:15. So it is close to the next ceremony, which is on aug. 15th - i might get into that one, otherwise it will be at the end of september (that is a big one though, downtown MPLS and one of our senators and the US attorney general are speaking at it, so that would be interesting).

So I guess I'm pretty up from that, it was a breeze and I'm almost an American now. Prior to that, a pretty depressing week I guess. I haven't been able to lose any weight in the last month and a half (at least I haven't gained anything) - its still my fault, changing diet can only help so much, I need to start exercising. But on top of that, one of my coworkers is quitting for a better job too, he's pretty much the last to leave of the people that I talk to on a regular basis, so that really sucks. I need a change. I wish i could be a photographer, but where do you even begin?! maybe i'll take some classes, or read some books, but that still leaves me at work most of the time, which is becoming increasingly boring and now with pretty much no one to talk to (at least another guy that is my age) its gonna suck even more. Then of course the bridge collapsed in MPLS on wednesday evening, pretty scary, and definitely tragic, not to mention it will take a good two years + to replace and cause major headaches (i'm thinking for the general public as we live on the southside and don't use it that often). I went down to see the bridge (but couldn't see much) after my citizenship interview this morning to see for myself, and take a few pictures (nothing breathtaking as you can't get close, but you can see them on my facebook). Anyways, that brings me back to my interview this morning.

I don't need to become a citizen, I could live here the rest of my life without it. But I knew I eventually would. My dad asked me to - I can petition for him to become a permanent resident, which is what I am now. He is far from perfect, and I easily could not speak to him for some of the things he has done. But he's still my dad, and maybe he can have some sense of normalcy again - it seems like he is always moving to me and never in one place anymore, although he has changed, he does seem to be happy, and I can do this one thing for him. So he prompted me, but he is not the reason why.

I moved to the US just before sept. 11th. I couldn'tve cared less where we lived, we'd just gotten married, had hardly no money, and chose the cheapest option. I learned what it was to be an American back then though. That they do care when it matters, and take action. Like them or not, they show their cards, and when push comes to shove they make the right moves. I'm not talking about the government, I'm talking about the people. I saw that again on a smaller scale on wednesday night. Americans are about action, and I hope that I can be the same. So I'll be an American and hope that I can live upto what that means.

i got fingerprinted today

just to make sure i'm not a criminal though. i applied for my citizenship a couple of months ago. this is the second time they've finger printed me, the first was with the first round of interviews a few years ago. the whole concept kinda freaks me out; the last time, they inked up all my fingers and it was painstaking to get them right. this time, it was at some processing center in saint paul. it was all electronic, so i thought it was cool and was not as freaked out about it. it was cool to watch my giant finger print roll across the screen. so that is that. my wisdom teeth (or lack thereof) are finally pretty much totally better. i hate how there is nothing there, and i have to squirt the food out of them every time i eat, but i guess i can live with that for awhile. beats having a chipped constantly sore tooth. i also went to the driving range yesterday and hit way too many balls for not having been in 3 weeks. i still have to muster up the courage to actually hit the golf course, but i'll give it a shot soon. oh, i got a new camera lens, and so far i really like it. thats all for now!

pain and vacation

ok, blogging about stuff didn't pan out, it was boring and i've toned it down recently anyways (guess I got everything i wanted).

2 fridays ago i had all 4 of my wisdom teeth out, 2 of which were already fully in, and on the right side 1 was half in and the other was not in at all. i had chipped one of the left wisdom teeth several weeks ago, which prompted all the extraction madness. so i went to the oral surgeon on may 18th; i was already feeling alittle sick because of a mild infection i had gotten due to the chipped tooth (i wont take the time to explain it).

anyways, saturday night i got really sick, enough that i felt i had to go to the hospital. they sent me home, said it was because of the strong drugs i had gotten and should get better once i drank and ate some more. well, i was sick and in pain all week, went through 3 different antibiotics before finally getting something that helped me (i went to my doctor the third time, and they frankly said they didn't understand why the oral surgeon had given me either of the other two medications - great).

long story short, i almost cancelled our trip to denver (we left saturday through today) - on thursday, i was still feeling that ill. i decided not to, we wouldn't have gotten that much back anyways so it was worth the risk. by friday, i actually ate 2 soft meals, and started to be able to think straight and nausea and fever and pain finally started to go away. by sunday i was feeling about 90% and was really happy we didn't cancel and got away for a few days. we both needed it, as i had felt like crap all week, and rachel bore the brunt of my crabiness.

i ended up losing 15 pounds last week - not the way i'd like to exactly, but i'll take it. that makes 40 on the year, i'm pretty proud! i'd gone to a dietician a couple times earlier this year - it's pretty eye opening when you take the time to figure out just exactly how much you're eating (if you eat too much like i used to). the reason i mention all that is because i was watching the food network while we were in denver one night - it was the pillsbury bakeoff. my dietician was in it, she placed like top 10 with some mexican dish, that was kinda weird and surreal to see someone you know on tv.

ok, so i got to see my dad, which i'd only seen for 2 days in the last 2 years, not enough! we stayed at his condo one night in silverthorne, co - it is pretty nice. he's going to work in florida for a contract now and said he is going to look for a winter home there - must be senioritis or something, but at least we'll have somewhere to stay there if we travel!

other than that, we went to rocky mountain national park one day and drove trail ridge road, the highest paved surface road in the world (i think it was), and the day before we went to colorado springs to the garden of the gods, and to royal gorge, which is a suspension bridge another half hour south of colorado springs. we had lots of fun and i took some nice pictures (i think anyways).

thats it for now!

today

ok, here we go. i'll start by listing things i sold, and things i bought.

technically, this was yesterday, but i sold a lowepro compudaypack for $40. I originally bought it and a wireless microsoft mouse on ebay for $45, and i'm keeping the mouse, so $30 mouse for $5, good deal.

today:

sold my sandisk sansa e270 mp3 player for $125; it had already been replaced by an ipod shuffle - $49. downsizing is always good, and i really like the shuffle. i guess all i really ever wanted was to be randomly entertained.

sold my giottos p-pod (its a monopod for cameras); i bought it because i thought i would use it, but never did. bought for 50-something, sold for $65. alright

bought a bogen/manfrotto knock off tripod with ballhead - i bought something from them before (amvona, ebay merchant), and it was an exact knockoff, just made with bulkier materials. so, it'll weigh 4 pounds instead of 3, but be exactly the same. bogen version - $140; knockoff $42 shipped - less than the monopod i sold, so thats my justification (yeah, silly).

I also looked at the following things online: Crumpler, domke and kata camera and laptop bags, generic army surplus messenger bags, pentax lenses - their 10-17mm fisheye has been looking really nice for a long time, but is quite expensive, pentax flashes (and some cheap sunpak ones), and visited www.joystiq.com for game news (because i like the wii) and www.engadget.com for tech news. i also popped into www.blogmaverick.com for some reading, but not much new.

Tomorrow I am going to read this again and see if my day was the same.

By the way, i do most of that at work, i dont know how i get anything done, but apparently i do alot around there anyways.

tomorrow

so, this is my first post. i don't really care if anyone reads this, but you gotta start somewhere. Lately i've been buying things, selling things, selling things to buy things, justifying this or that. so, tomorrow i am going to write down every product that i look at online at work - Rachel (my wife) suggested i do this, and then look at it and see what i want, why i want it, why i'm looking at it in the first place, and, do i NEED it.

i'm doing it because i think i have a problem. Cameras. Lenses. Camera Bags. Games. MP3 players. PMPs. you name it, i've read about it, and thought about buying it.

ok, on another note, we went to the twins game today. it was fun, there was hardly anyone there - we were the only people in our row, row 3 in the upper deck outfield. Nothing is more liberating than throwing peanut shells all over the floor inside a building. They lost, oh well. We got bored in the 6th, so we went home by way of cheapo used CDs. we picked up a half dozen albums, i hope they're good (Pedro the Lion, Bad Religion, No Use for a Name, Face to Face, All, and Comeback Kid - in case you were wondering).

Thats it, not bad for a first try if i do say so myself.