That was awesome.

Holy cow is that guy ever a jerk! I don't comprehend making that original statement he did and then refusing to back it up with solid info. Did he forget where in Detroit he entered?

Hey CBR! Nice to see you!!!

RE the jerk, according to him, it doesn't matter what POE he entered via, as his only point is that JFK isn't the only POE that issues EAD. Apparently, you can get it elsewhere, but no one actually needs to know specifically where.

Lol yea it's just ridiculous. He doesn't sound too bright. Most people on VJ post things to be helpful and share their info. He's obviously just posting to vent the suckiness of his life or something. It's just nonsense.

It's good to see you guys too. I've been lurking now and then to try to keep up but don't really have anything exciting to share. I am uber excited to be leaving in just 2 short weeks for the interview Finalfreakinly!! We're geting married July 18th (changed from the 11th which I might have said somewhere sometime idk). We're honeymooning in Disneyworld & staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort where we got engaged (that is if we can afford to pay for the rest of it lol).

Yay! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!


The guy is a first class ####!!!

next week officially starts 4 pm fridays at my job (it goes from memorial day to labor day)

i am praying that they let us out at that time today, because it is extremely dead here and we are at about 50% attendance...i am so tired from wedding planning that i dont think i can stay awake until 5:30

I'm so glad to hear that both Aly & Susie have finally secured places to live!!! I was getting worried they might end up homeless!

Seriously, guys, that is great news and must be a big relief to you both!!

We're off to look at 4 houses tonight. I have very low expectations.

Well we haven't secured it yet... but we are really really hoping to >< It'll be nice to just know I am going to have a place to live in five weeks' time!!

What's happened to your avatar Aly?? Your bean bag has vanished.

First time you've posted in ages Gillian, and you want to know about Aly's avatar?

What's up with you? How are things going?? Give me the dirt!!!

Yeah, was that your avatar before the beanbag? It looks familiar

Things are going well but I don't have much to say at the moment. My AOS petition was sent to CSC so now I'm back in the waiting game as far as the immigration stuff goes. I'm not working yet so I spend most of my time in the house talking to myself or out shopping talking to myself. My life is about as boring as a life could be right now.

I lurk on here every day (probably too much for my own good) but I really don't have a lot to add to anything. I felt a compulsion to know what happened to Aly's bean bag though.

I just got kinda bored of it - fancied a bit of a change moved my siggie around too

'tis my old one indeedy - and I had another one before this as well

Oh Julez...I deleted something wrong and now your name is in my reply

I´ll explain it to you. He thinks making a whole new thread about something shrinks to posting the title as a statement and he thinks it should be illegal for anyone to ever add something to it cuz it should be left alone as saint as he left it

OMG Marta, that's hilarious!!! Maybe I'll pop over to that thread and insult you in return!!

Why does your week start on Fridays? Speaking of week beginnings. I almost got used to it but sometimes I still get confused when I just glance at the US calendar and see the first day of the week there I automatically assume it should be Monday and then get the dates confused since in reality the first day pictured there is a Sunday. I don´t understand why someone would think first day of the week is a Sunday. In a normal, regular workweek (when people work at an office or somewhere where they don´t have to work weekends) they always start their week on Monday. Sunday is a cherry on top of the cake and so it´s the end of the week not the beginning. Also God worked for six days and the last day he rested. Therefore Christians shouldn´t do any work on Sundays. See, Sunday is the last day not the first day
I hope this isn´t too disturbing for you guys


Maybe you should


Oh that´s good Nothing can badly surprise you and it can just get better from there


Aly lost it Hope she packed it in a box and is bringing it with her

Aly your new apartment looks lovely Have you decorated and re-decorated it 5x in your head already?

So I was wondering, since Aly went to get drunk with STP. How does it feel out of a sudden to have to start calling somebody their real name? I am just so used to calling her STP that I might end up using that when I meet her

Well - as much as we would like to it is only rented so we can't really decorate it But we are going to try and give it a bit of a personal touch - made much easier now Jeremy got his pay rise Of course we still don't have a whole lot of money so our decor may be a bit... eclectic for a while


Hehe - it's not all that bad I knew StP's real name for a long time anyways so it wasn't as weird as meeting elmcitymaven and Poiteen from the UK forum But you get used to it real quick - the wine helps too

but in your head you can do what you want to it and it´s for free


When I meet Pointeen I´ll tell him stop pointing at me Shhhh don´t tell him

What do you talk to yourself about?

Poiteen is a she Shhhh - I won't tell if you won't

You name it, I talk about it.

When was I pointing at you. *Sob*

(the doctor didn't actually look in my medical to make sure, i might be secretly a boy )

That doesn´t make any sense I am pretty sure that when I saw Pointeen between the pics of the visitors on my profile page, there was a blue person next to it...the other people´s persons were pink so I assume who has a pink one is a girl and who has a blue one is a boy

It comes with your name that you Point(een) at me

I will say it again - you crack me up Marta

I think my little guy is sort of clear, cos I haven't specified my gender on my profile.

My sign on name is Poiteen, which is a phonetic spelling of Poitin, which is an Irish Drink which you can read about here.

my week doesnt start on friday, but we only get off at 4pm on fridays during the summer...no other days, just fridays...so next week will be the first 4pm friday of the season!! woot woot

You think you can trick me with this explanation?

I have been to Ireland but noone ever offered me such a drink there I know what they are trying to cover up They say it´s called that way cuz it was originally made in small pots. I think it´s just a cover up for it being made of pot


Oh So your weekend starts earlier Now where´s the Party, party, party

Hrmmmm Now I am worried... I mean - you certainly *looked* female... but then so do those "ladies" in Thailand...


I always wondered where your name came from but I never got around to asking

I hate this. I hate it - we are just fighting all the time at the moment and I hate it. I feel like I am losing my mind. I keep picking fights and freaking out about things all the time. I am still in a state of limbo. He is meant to be coming out in little over three weeks and we don't have an apartment, let alone the utilities or even a bed. He hasn't even got my dress cleaned. We might have to change his ticket so he is here for a shorter time because he has to work every hour god sends. Until we know if he has to change his ticket we can't sort out transport to and from airports, we can't sort out insurance. I am trying to plan a surprise bachelor party for him and I can't even do that because I don't know what is going on. I can't call out movers for quotes because we have no shipping address...

I am just fed up with everything. I just loathe his work at the moment and wish he had never got his stinking promotion because then at least I might get to see him from time to time and maybe we could do something else like sort all these things out. And then he could still come out at the same time as well.

I know a lot of this is just me getting nervous and panicking, but I just feel so alone at the moment, like I am caught in total limbo, not really feeling settled here, yet at the same time, not having anything concrete at the other end either. I am so nervous and all I want is to just be there so I can get the whole move over and done with and not have to worry about it anymore. I hate feeling like this because it feels like it will never end.

And now he has left on a bad note and we never do that.

Good one Aly.

I'm sorry you guys are fighting and left on a bad note.

Scott and I are going through similar and we hardly ever fight and I also have found myself picking fights and then regretting it. So you are not alone in that boat. I really know how you feel; you just want to have everything squared away and planned so that you don't have to worry about it last minute, b/c it feels like you have control over things when they are planned, since really in reality you can't have a lot of control over what's happening in California because you're not there.

All I can say is that this time is going to pass, you guys are going to get through it. Things might not all get settled in the order you want, but they will all come together, I promise.

And really, June 30th is not that far away now! I know it sucks to be told to continue to be patient, but you guys are so close. Everything is going to be okay.

Ditto to what Rachel said. We're doing better now since we do have things planned out & squared away. But a couple months ago when we still didn't have the noa2, I didn't know where I was going to move to or if I'd get to keep my dog, and everything just seemed so up in the air and out of our control we were fighting like crazy. Over the most ridiculous crap too. It's like all our frustrations and anger were trying to get out any way they could and every little disagreement gave them their opportunity to rear their ugly heads! Once I moved, we got our interview date, set up our wedding date, set up our honeymoon etc everything just calmed down.

You will get through this as Rachel said and you guys can get back to normal. You're just really stressed out right now and this process has been going on for too long. All those things you have that still need resolution are the problem. They will get figured out...things always do. Maybe if you write them all down...make lists of what needs resolving, you can get them out of your head for a bit. I try to visualize the problems leaving my brain and sitting on the paper so I don't have to constantly think about them. Probably sounds silly, but sometimes it works for me. Then you can visually check them off as they get accomplished.

In the meantime, try to focus on what you love about Jeremy and all the things you're looking forward to when you move here. You can't do anything about most of those issues from where you are anyway.

I feel for you Jeraly, I really do know what you're going through!

Thanks guys - it's reading posts like these that make me feel like perhaps I am not going insane after all and that it's perfectly normal(!). I mean come on - I'm having doubts here about passing the mental health part of the medical I feel so shot away.

I led down on my bed and let myself calm down a bit. Decided I was being horrible a) because of my stupid AS because I am due on c) because I was awake at 6am and d) because of all the other stupid things I can't sort out even though I want to. I had a good bawl to myself (still kinda am), tried to stop myself from hyperventilating (which I did - yay me ) and tried to think rationally (which is a real challenge at the moment). I decided that I am tired, hormonal and emotional and lashed out over stupid things that I can't do anything about. Neither can Jeremy but he makes a good scapegoat as he is there and therefore can obviously magic everything into place(!). I realised that I married this guy for a reason and that I feel really bad at leaving on a bad note because we have NEVER done that before. I decided that it doesn't matter than I haven't sorted anything out today other than my insurance - I have another two days this weekend to do that, and what matters most right now is that I feel better. So I put the heating on for an hour so I can have an early bubble bath to chill out. I laid out some fresh PJs and I am going to have a nice bath and try to forget about the stupid stuff.

And I texted Jeremy to say sorry because I felt awful. I told him that I was finding it really hard to cope and I just wasn't doing a very good job of it. He doesn't know I didn't sleep well, nor that I am due on (though he could prolly guess ) and he got up really early so he could see me for a little bit before he had to work. This is what he texted back:



So I basically just completely lashed out at him after he got up really early to see me. And he is still nice about it. So I cried a bit more And still am - think I am going to go have that bath now

Awww That´s so sweet Aly Enjoy your bubblebath But you guys already picked the apartment right? So all you need to do is to pay some deposit or something to get it no? Everything will be fine you will see

So now USCIS is oficially slacking behind with my AP Other March guys are already either getting AOS interview letters or just plain approvals without an interview and I can´t even get an AP

Yeah - well it all works differently there it seems - you have to fill out an application to rent, then you have to call to make sure they know you are interested etc etc - it seems really weird and I think the fact that it is different is also stressing me out - here you just kinda apply and that's it but... He only sent the app off yesterday as the guy he gave it to didn't hand it over to the people who need it so... Still at keeping fingers crossed stage...

I know one of my friends filed AOS in December and got approved already I couldn't believe she got it so fast!!

Yeah I wonder why so many things in USA have to be so complicated. Well why would it be easy, when it can be complicated right? Even when you wanna buy a s....d phone, they wanna run a credit check on you. Jeez

OMG - StP has her POE today!! WOOHOOOOOO!!!!

That is so exciting!!

Are you feeling better today Aly? I'm glad to hear Jeremy was very understanding.

Welcome to USA STP

Yeah - I peak and trough - I managed to explain myself a bit better to him today - I let him know that normally I can keep my AS tendencies in check but at the moment I seem to fly off the handle at every little ridiculous thing. It's really frustrating that something I thought I had under control has seemingly got worse - I know it will pass but it is annoying all the same... sometimes I find though that just acknowledging the problem will stop me from being like it - he knows why I do it and... there is some weird logic there I am sure ><

BUT! We got an e-mail from the apartment guy today and Jeremy is seeing him on Tuesday - it's looking good! He is going to call him later then text me - I told him to try and get the guy to confirm whether or not we can have the apartment, just so we know - apartment guy (that's his name, honest) wants to meet with Jeremy so Jeremy can ask him any questions (sounds a bit weird?) so I am *hoping* it is just to clarify things and sign a contract!!!

Fingers crossed for me guys!!

Here is the email:

Ha What if Jeremy has no questions? Will they just stare at each other?

Maybe... hopefully not for too long or they might fall in love and move into the apartment together

Would there still be space for you?

maybe on the sofa!!!

If not, you can sleep on our sofa

*fanfare*

I am here

no problems at LAX... there was a lengthy queue to go through non-USC immigration, and while Dave first queued with me so we could stick together, I soon made him go through the USC line so he could get our bags off the carousel before they were dumped somewhere (which later happened to the people ahead of me in line so go me )
and we didn't need any of our elaborate plans to find each other after immigration because the baggage claim was about ten feet beyond the immigration counters and I could see Dave the whole time

had a nice officer... not effusive, but friendly and efficient; he asked for the MBE and told me we had to marry within 90 days (gee, really? ), but although I asked for the work stamp he didn't seem to have even heard of it, I don't think... he looked confused for a moment, and then said 'no, this visa is to allow you to enter the States for marriage purposes only', and I said yes, I understood that, but I knew of people who had been given the stamp at JFK and I had been advised to ask at point of entry, and he sort of shrugged, and said 'no, we don't do that here' (shades of Sneakers, for anyone who's seen it: 'We are the United States government. We don't DO that sort of thing' )
however, I did get a 'welcome to America' (though no streamers or balloons ) so I think I was even, and I don't want to get a job anyway

the only hassles we had were later down the track at the domestic terminal... don't know if it had anything to do Memorial Day weekend, but it was crowded to all hell - lines doubling back on lines right out the door of the terminal, no one knowing where to go, etc... we came close as dammit to missing our flight onwards to Houston but then some lady directed us into a line about a fifth as long as the main one and we made it with a couple of minutes to spare

it's hot here
I can't sleep all that well (which is why I'm up at 5am - I've been awake since before 4am )
but I've met Dave's parents, which was lovely - they left us a rose, and a welcome home banner across the mantelpiece; SO nice - and seen his son again, who I still like a lot (which is pretty handy, really )
and we've done some grocery shopping and got a whole batch of random things at Big Lots; both places had far too much choice for me and I didn't recognise hardly any of the brands but it was still fun


Marta, you continue to make me laugh, you gorgeous girl

and Aly, glad to hear things are looking up after a bit of a dip... stick with it! you're SO close
and I say get the moving people out to do quotes anyway; they don't need a street address to do a quote, and you know the general area where you'll be
hope to hear exciting apartment news soon!!


*hugs for everyone on the thread*

Welcome to the US StP.