:: instant gratification ::

It's hard to believe that I will use the words "green card" in a post that begins with the subject heading "instant gratification."

But I will.


Around sunset, I met my friend Kim at the end of Market Street for a little erev Rosh Hashanah ritual. This traditional ritual of emptying pockets into the water is nothing I used to do while I was growing up, but being far away from any family, you end up making up your own traditions just to have something to hold onto that reminds you of where you come from.

So I arrived with apples, honey, dates, a pomegranate and a print-out of the prayers that go with these in a bag (along with the gratuitous strawberries & raspberries), explained what we were going to do to Kim, and after we had dinner, we went by the water and began talking about all the baggage/worries/faults/mistakes we'd like to atone for and leave behind, and writing these onto little pieces of paper, which we rolled up into even smaller bits. There was something so satisfying already about stuffing our pockets with articulations of what we've been holding on to for too long.

And the flicking them off and blowing them away into the water part? Ineffably fulfilling.

One of the things I let go of was any doubt I had about receiving my green card this year (I think in school years, so...in 2009). I think I get into a cycle about bitching about it, expressing all my anger and documenting all my stories about the lalaland of the INS so that I begin nourishing this doubt without even noticing.

So I wrote "Any doubt that I have about getting my green card in 2009" on a piece of paper, rolled it up into a tiny bit the wind could take away, stuffed it into my pocket, walked up to the pier, and tossed it into the ocean along with all the other unhealthy shit I've been living with, sometimes unwittingly.


Today, I got an email from my lawyer. It said:

Good news, we just received the approval notice for your I-140,
immigrant visa petition
[that's a fancy way of saying my application for a green card].
This means CIS is now in the final stage of
adjudication for your green card. We will probably receive a request for
the medical exam next. After that, you will probably receive an approval
of your green card in the mail, although, there is a small chance you
may be called for an interview in person. While most employment-based
cases get approved in the mail, they do interview a small percentage of
these cases for quality-control purposes. You can probably expect a
decision on your green card within 4-6 months, maybe even sooner. (I had
another client scheduled for a green card interview within two months of
receiving the I-140 approval).

As for your travel, the issue you had coming back seems to be
county-specific. Like I said, we haven't had anyone else have trouble
with the advance parole. I would check with the countries you plan to
visit to see if there is an issue, because you're only other option
would be to renew your H-1b.





Well.
Whaddya know...

a l a r u m

False fire alarm at 6 am on the ONE DAY I have to sleep in during the week:


Not. Cool.




I'd also like to point out, thanks to a decade of fire/earthquake/hostile intruder drill practice at work, I was the only person who rushed out of the apartment building. I hung out for a few minutes, saw that there was no fire, admired the new moon, which was soooo fucking beautiful it made me forgive the false alarm, went back inside. As I got

(OH. Alarm just went off again. I'm staying right here.)


up to my apartment, two neighbors on my floor appeared. I told them there was no fire and to go back inside. (We've had false alarms before...but not for a while.)

Two minutes later, the alarm was off.


Now, it's back on, and I'm staying put. If I'm wrong, somebody tell my sister on here. She'll tell the moms and pops.


tk

Who. Knew.

Well.

I certainly had NO IDEA that being from Turkey, which has borders with not only Russia but also European and Middle Eastern countries, I am hella qualified to be the next president of the USA.



tk



..

Yes, can we?

Because every bit counts, and sometimes I gotta stretch to make a change.


A Turkish friend said "Wow. What a commitment...and you can't vote" in response to my sending her the link. She was genuinely surprised I am this into it.


I can't afford not to be. "Alien" or not, with rights or not, I do live here.


Do your part, people. Whatever that looks like within your means, and I don't mean monetary means alone.