Some overdue updates AKA General Ramblings

Walk to Rivendell.
I found a kind of cool (but admittedly geeky) group of walkers who have actually mapped out the journeys of the hobbits et al from the Lord of the Rings. They’ve got a great supportive and caring group on Yahoo! that I’m now very happy to be part of. It’s kind of neat to see where I’ve gotten to. I’m a geek. Get over it. And I’m finally out of the Shire! I figure if it gives me a concrete goal to work towards, that’s a very useful thing. I’ve walked over 50 miles already this year. That’s over 80km for all you non-American readers! Walking is good for me, good for my weight loss and good for my stress levels. It just eats up a lot of my stitching time!

Permanent Residency
We’re in the final stages of gathering everything we’ll need. I’m still trying to get my long form birth certificate from the Ontario government, but there’s been problems. I’m waiting for the letter that’s supposed to tell me what they are. Uggghhh... The joy of dealing with government agencies. We did get Brian’s though with no problem. Once we have all of it, we file, and then wait. And no, we have no idea how long the wait will be. According the their website they are currently processing “Current” applications for our category, but who knows what that means. I do know we’ll have to go for an interview and get fingerprinted before it will be finalized. At that point, we can legally live in either country, and work for whomever we darn well please. We don’t plan to stay on Long Island. We’ve made some great friends here, but the cost of living is just too high. It’s not worth it. We don’t have any specific plans on where we’d like to go, other than Brian doesn’t want California and I’m not keen on Florida. Ideally we’d like something in the midwest, but we’ll probably end up back in New Jersey or Pennsylvannia. You have to go where the work is.

Brian’s Writing
Is really picking up steam. Thanks to some very good needling from Joe, his next module has to be done by about 3:30 this afternoon. The first playtest is Saturday. Then one re-write, a second playtest (which I had better get to do!) and it gets submitted. He gets such pleasure out of it, I love to see when he’s just in that groove. I know it’s a hard thing for others in non-creative fields to understand how satisfying it can be. It just fills a need in him that makes him feel so good. I need to encourage this, so even after we get the Permanent Residency and he can work, the plan is for him to get something part-time and continue writing. I know it’s not exactly traditional, but I’m very grateful we’re in the position where we can do that. We could be better off financially with Brian working full time and miserable, but I’d rather we enjoyed our lives. We’re not lacking in any of the essentials. We have a nice apartment and a new car. We have friends who come over every week and have fun. We can splurge on some things when we want to, or decide in time and plan ahead for bigger cost items. We won’t be taking a lot of glamorous vacations, or travelling nearly as much as we’d like, but we’ve got time for that.

Having kids
This topic comes up way more often than I’d like. Butt out! It’s our decision when and if we decide to have kids. No one else’s. And we’re certainly not doing it because it’s what others have assumed we should do. I’m thrilled for our friends who are parents, and love hearing about all the kids. I’m certainly not against our having kids. But it will be on our schedule, not anyone elses. We've never done anything the traditional way, so why would we start now. (Other than the wedding itself. Did I really promise to obey him?) :)


I guess that’s all for now. Take care, stay safe and hug someone you love today.