Groundhog Day

Obviously it's not really Groundhog Day (or else my calendar is REALLY messed up). But it sure feels like the movie. Today has been a waste. A complete waste. Why? Because I have had to redo so many things today that I JUST did less than a month ago.

The biggest one is the student loans. Will I need them? I dunno. But I'd rather apply and get them, and then not use them if it comes down to it. I guess the ultimate peace of mind is worth the temporary annoyance. Anyway, UCL requires all applicants to submit this entire student loan package with your SAR, MPNs, cover letters, counseling clearance, blah, blah, blah. I did this last month, before the requirements had been set for loans this year.

Yeah, I'm sure you're thinking that wasn't a wise decision. But it's not my fault. THEY (meaning UCL) made US applicants do it this way. They said, "Please submit your application and SAR so that it can be ready to go when congress finalizes the requirements." Except, of course, they put "finalise" instead of "finalize." So off my paper application went.



Today, I got an email saying I needed to re-apply for MPNs, redo the counseling, re-submit the credit check. D'oh! Fortunately, everything is electronic this time around, except the cover letter, which I was able to email. So it's done.

Life will be in and out of limbo for the next two weeks until most everything will be pretty close to being finalised (haha--did you like that?). Then we'll just start sifting through everything in full force and start packing like mad. It should be fun.


On a side note, one of my favorite people randomly called me up to go to San Jose/Santa Clara/Palo Alto on Monday. I couldn't go, but I told her early yesterday that we could do it. So we loaded up all the kids (she brought one of her girls and her 2-month-old baby) and went to the big mall and to IKEA. We drove all the way to Santa Clara so she could buy a painting at IKEA and an outfit at Janie and Jack. I love that crazy woman. :)

Baby Steps

This is life now. I was going to crop this photo, but in the end, I'm keeping it. This is the chaos. Fortunately, the bookshelf is clean and dusted, the excess books have been donated, and the small boxes we're not using have been recycled. It IS coming together. It's just a slow process. And it's a balancing act.

Today is 6/17. There is a near concrete plan. I can't get into it yet, mostly because I don't want to jinx anything. But yes, it's all taking shape. If it does actually work out, it will fall into place beautifully.

I can say that we should have everything shipped out by the end of July. I'm really hoping we can do it close to our 10-year informal reunion. There's a good chance (in the high 90s percentage-wise) that it will be that last weekend.



On another positive front, I got an email today that said the kids' passports are on their way. They're in San Jose now, so I bet I get them tomorrow. That's one less thing to stress about.

We still haven't heard anything about housing, but I read something online from someone who applied to one of the grad housing places we applied to, and he said he heard within a month. So I'm pretty confident we'll know one way or the other before we leave.


It really makes no difference. I booked our temporary accommodation at the Marriott already, so in the event that we have to house hunt, we will have a semi-cheap place to stay for up to 9 days.

Since I booked something, yes, we have dates now. I can't share them yet, because like I said, I don't want to jinx anything. But soon. I have a REALLY good feeling about our dates.

I Am Different Than You Are

This is so very, very true. And believe it or not, I am really very comfortable with who I am. I recognize both my strengths and weaknesses. Yes, I'm sometimes rash, I'm strong-willed and very sharp tongued. I can be brutally honest, and I do have a temper. If I don't like people, I will tell them. I dislike weakness, and the biggest weakness to me is stupidity. I will exploit that. But on the other side of that coin, if you earn it, I am intensely loyal. I will bend over backward to accommodate the people I care about. If I don't like you, you will know. And I'm probably a helluva lot smarter than you think I am.

I've wrestled with the tone of this blog and the tone of my everyday conversations. I'm fluent in sarcasm. I'm a storyteller, so sometimes details are amplified. When I say something is "the worst" or "the most amazing thing ever," I naturally assume people will pick up on the hyperbole. The older I get, the more I realize this isn't the case. That sucks.

Who wants to feel like they're constantly explaining aspects of their personalities? Not me. So I thought maybe I shouldn't be so. . .me. . .when dealing with 99% of the population.

But where's the fun in that?

So no, I won't be changing the way I come across. If it bothers people, oh well. Because it's impossible to like everyone. There is no law that says we must have a relationship with any given person. And I'm not one for forcing relationships. It's not my style. :)

Sometimes Everything Just Has to Stop

International moves, especially those done without the backing of a company, are stressful. Surprise, surprise. It always seems like I'm taking two steps forward and one step back. It's still progress, but sometimes it's frustrating and disheartening. Does that mean this isn't the way things should be? No. Because things are the way they are, and they couldn't be any other way.

We've had to change our plans completely. We won't be going to Southern California at all before we leave (at least not for more than a night), and after looking at airfare, we might just fly out of San Francisco. I'm very ok with this for a number of reasons. Sure, it'll make certain things more of a hassle, and it will involve lots of driving back and forth, but everything will work out in the end.


But enough about moving right now. Because there will be post after post about it. We needed a break from it, so we took it. One of M's coworkers offered us her seasonal pass to Yosemite. It's only $20 to get in, but it was still a very sweet gesture. We've been wanting to take the kids during the high waterfall season, and I'm so glad we did. They were NOT disappointed.


We didn't end up driving up to Mariposa Grove, but we can always go back in a few weeks. The important thing was to make sure the kids saw the falls before they dried up. It was a really nice day weather-wise, and I'm glad we went.

Up, up, up

So I'm trying to stay positive and up, and it's not really working. But who wants to read a blog post from a Negative Nelly? This might be bland and dry, because I'm sticking to the facts of the day and not really going off on my usual tangents.

We went to a egg hunt that my dad's wife's old playgroup put on. It was just at a neighborhood park, not unlike the one that's by my house. But my neighborhood certainly doesn't have this in the middle of it:


We tried to get a pic of all the kids together, but that wasn't happening. So I had to take individual ones. By the time I got to Miss S, her face was covered in green frosting from her cupcake. So I threw the pic through Photoshop and got this:


No more frosting! Not bad. I'm learning.

Mini-Minion has a lot to learn about egg hunts. First of all, she's still completely uninterested in most other kids. She likes her cousins back at home, and that's pretty much so it. The cousin closest in age to her is basically the only child she has taken much of an interest in other than Mr. A obviously. So she mostly did her own thing.

Second of all, she doesn't get the concept of putting eggs in her basket. She kept throwing them BACK into the bushes. Mr. A had to keep giving her his eggs (well, not KEEP giving them, because she wasn't asking), and she would cart them around for a little bit. In the end, I think she ended up with one. I think.

(Mini-Minion and her discarded eggs)

Mr. A was very popular today, as usual. He's a pretty good sport about younger kids. He ended up pulling the little ones around in a wagon toward the end of the day.


On the way home, Mini-Minon threw a fit for a million different little reasons until her savior (Mr. A) came to the rescue. No, she's not really pulling his hair. It's a game they play.


And at the very end of the day, I didn't eat dinner until 10PM, Mini-Minion and Mr. A fought me on bedtime for two hours, I'm down 7 posts at work, I'm dead tired from getting up at six, working, dealing with the kids, going to sleep after midnight, and starting all over again, and I'm starting to just not care anymore. But as I was uploading my pictures, I saw this, and it made things a little better.

(During their 5-minute game of "I love yooooooou.")

So much for no tangents.

Passport Progress & Half-Eaten Cookies

So my dad's wife made these adorable cookies for Easter. She really did a good job. Until this happened:


That does NOT say Mini-Minion on it, yet she got to it anyway. Little bite marks on the egg and bunny. The other bunny has. . .sharpie. . .on it. Because that is just logical. Mini-Minion is NEVER allowed to have crayons, pencils or pens. And this is why.


This afternoon, the kids pushed the various tricycles and cars up the little hill on the side yard and raced them down. It was all great fun, I'm sure. We were a little paranoid, because down the street is a nature preserve (kind of a sketchy thing in Florida if you think about the wildlife here). It practically runs up against the backyard. Anyway, early this afternoon, we had a little friend in the form of a black snake come to visit the backyard. It swam in the pool for a bit, annoyed the dog, and decided this wasn't the place.


Yesterday, I sent an email to the German Consulate in San Francisco, hoping to ease my passport application process by getting in writing that there were no other documents I need to apply for a passport. I did the same thing for my dad before he applied in Miami, and the vice-consul sent an email saying everything was in order, which was REALLY helpful when Dad applied.


I got an email back today saying:

"if you do have a chance, could you please scan the below mentioned documents and have them sent to this E-Mail-Address?
It seems very likely that you still hold German citizenship. Please also indicate if and when your father joined the US Army.
Sincerely,
Mr. XYZ
Vice Consul
German Consulate General"


Yes, I still hold German citizenship. My father currently has a German passport. He has never been in the military. But hey, this is positive. So I'll scan everything and send it over, and hopefully it will facilitate the entire thing. *Fingers crossed!* I'm hoping to get everything scanned tonight and sent tomorrow. Maybe they'll get back to me next week, and I can print these emails and take them with me for my appointment. If I have some sort of written confirmation from the vice-consul, I doubt it will take much time at the consulate.


I'm obsessing. But I've got a lot riding on this. Five years of my life boils down to two appointments. One is already done (Dad's) and now I've got mine in 19 days. Nineteen days. And because I'm already on a 19-day tour, I know how fast 19 days can go.

(That's marker on her face.)

Four days down, 15 more to go. . .One last picture of my self-proclaimed April Fool:

Welcome to Sunny Florida

This is a fit, Mini-Minion style:


Life is so hard when you're two. :)

So we've been in Orlando for an entire day now (or almost an entire day). I've decided I don't like the time difference when M is still in California. Mostly because when he's there, I'm aware that I'm not on "normal" time. It's a mind thing.

Flying over by myself with the kids was miserable. Not because of them. They were great. But I thought it would be best for Mini-Minion to be in her car seat on the plane, but lugging the car seat, two carry-on suitcases, a backpack and the stroller all over three airports really wasn't all that much fun.

Still, we made it. The kids have adjusted fairly well to the time difference. Mini-Minion was alseep by 9PM Florida time, which is pretty darn good.

They're having fun with the kids who are technically their aunt and uncle. That's strange, but it is what it is. Mr. A and J have been running around screaming their fool heads off all day. They always play well together.


Mini-Minion is a bit more happy to play with Miss S, but she's waaaaay more interested in the dog, who I think she would willingly be tied to if given the opportunity.


So ends our first day in Orlando, and our third away from home. Three down, sixteen left to go. Sigh.