Well, since no one has started the Monday thread... here goes -
I'm sleepy and sniffly - boo! I'm going to check on motorcycle insurance for my new scooter today as well as do a dance presentation for a local university for their "international week". My usual Monday errands need to get done, hoping to see the dentist for a toothache that started yesterday (reacting to cold liquids) and have 2 new classes starting tonite to teach. I'm ready for bed again!
Have a nice Monday all!

eta: dentist just called - i'm going in at 2:30 to see what's up w/ this toothache!

My week's off to a rough start. I couldn't get the car to start this morning

Luckily, Wadi could give me a ride in our new El Camino! But more repairs to the old Honda? I don't know if we can afford to dump any more money into that thing, but I know we also can't afford another El Camino right now. What to do, what to do?

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Noura I meant to tell you that's a bad azz scooter (haha as if you didn't know already) -- can't wait to see a pic of you on it !

Jenn howwwww do cars always KNOW when we acquire another ride ??? Happened to me, too.... as soon as we bought a second car, guess what suddenly needed repairs.

Oh well you got the interior of the El Jennino lookin foine... you ridin in style, girl !

that is one pimped out ride! think you could hook up my scooter that way?

I'm workin on it.....

ROFLMAO!

That's the most hideous thing I've ever seen. It's perfect for the new El Camino! Where Xhibit - he so needs to pimp *my* ride!

Noura, you will be stoppin traffic when you rock this:

Happy Monday. It was a fast weekend! I worked on Saturday and Sunday was consumed with a house measure and a wedding.

The wedding was for a girl I used to work with a few years ago, we remained friends. She was a beautiful bride! The groom, cried like a baby thru the whole thing and in the reception line, couldn't stop crying! I thought it was romantic and touching, I'm sure all his friends will be calling him a puss.


Hope you all have a great day today. I am not working til 3pm so I have the day to clean house and watch my fish chase each other around the tank. My new betta is not playing nice.

Jackie

that's hawt!!! same color scheme too, i like the way you worked w/ what i've got! is there anywhere i could hang some fuzzy dice? that would really rock it!

Propped up at my desk, medicated to the 9s, throbbing head and ear, but hey I've made it through 3 hours of work so far! Just 7 more hours to go. Gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwd I feel like major pooh. (And no, I'm not talkin 'bout Winnie.)

I just wanted to alert you guys to Limah's interview results. I'm sure she could use some support right now:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=563211

Good morning everyone. Been feeling kinda icky all weekend. Woke up this morning with a little bit of an upset stomach. It's still hanging around, but not much now. It's gloomy and drizzly here. The perfect weather to be at home curled up in a blanket watching movies in between naps. Oh I wish I was home now. We went to Deleware yesterday to go to Best Buy to get a video cam. We ended up buying the Logitech that was $140. Don't know why my husband feels the need to have a cam that expensive, but I guess he doesn't care because I paid for it! I worked last night and Adil talked with his family on-line. I called him at 9 to have him come pick me up early. He told his mother that I needed a ride and that he was going to pick me up in ten minutes. She yelled at him and told him to leave right away and that it's not nice to tell your wife to walk home in the rain or in the dark alone. I love my mother-in-law! Anyway, when we got home he got back on the computer, I baked some oatmeal cookies, and then we talked to his sisters until 10:45. That's all the news I have. I have to work tonight until 10pm. Fun Fun. Well I am going to go get a cup of coffee. Can't stay awake any longer. Need cofffeee. Haved a good day everyone.

Oh, man, cover my eyes!! It is too early in the morning for that pimpmobile .

Nothing much to say here . . . just work! bleh . . . then after this week I might be on the bench for the rest of the year but I am not sure yet. It is either feast or famine around here and no one wants to take on big projects at the end of the budget year .

Has anyone else noticed? The past few days in the ME/NA forum have been pretty tame! I wonder why? Can we keep it this way?

Well, nothing much new. Starting on a new health goal - drink more water. I dug out my old Nalgene bottle from college. It's purple and has a marching Bucky Badger on the front. Ahhh, those were the simpler days.

Husband and I watched the Yacobian building last night. It was excellent I need to step up my arabic learnin, or find more egyptian movies with subtitles.

happy monday.......lol i dunno if there is a such thing hehe..........

nothin to report here.....no official plans.....playing with some details......good day yall

yup, it's been noticed

Blah...Monday

After a week of waiting I finally got a response from Cairo....

Dear Sir:

Thank you for your e-mail message.

The case is on the waiting list pending an interview slot. We will contact you once an appointment has been scheduled.

Regards,
Consular Staff

Ok first...I'M NOT A SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second...you have a f-ing calendar in front of you...put him on it anywhere! I don't care where. Flip a coin, roll dice...just pick a day. This really sucks. You know what really gets me? They have the packet 3 for 6 weeks now you would think they could be efficient by doing security checks prior to the interview. Get that shitt out of the way while you're sitting on my case. That would be too efficient I think.

Happy Monday.

The book was good too!

Moody,

I know how you feel. Been through the whole entire gambit with Cairo. I have been "sir" many times. LOL I really KNOW your frustration well, but take it from someone who has been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, washed it so many times it fell apart and became a dust rag... you will have to muster up a whole truckload of patience. Cairo is Cairo and they do things their own way there is NOTHING you can do to sway that. I'm sure if Amy is around somewhere, she can add her testimony too. Cairo schedules interviews once a month. All you can do is check the website. But I'm with you, they're slow as mud and its aggravating when you're lonely and hurting. Our petition landed in Cairo in JANUARY, Moh interviews the end of March and guess what? We're STILL WAITING for the frigging visa.

Jean...

You know I feel bad complaining when I know others have been waiting way longer than myself. One of my coping mechanisms is bitching and moaning. There are so many emotions involved with this that I was not fully prepared for. Loneliness is a big one. I'm not alone but I'm lonely. This weekend I had a full house. I had my kids, my sisters (ages 9-14) and my mom (birth mother) over and I still felt lonely. I ask myself...what would you do if you had never known Mohamed? Well I'd either be in another relationship or actively looking or alone but not waiting for someone. I think the waiting and the unknown is the hardest part of this whole thing.

Yep I feel ya. Sometimes you just need to vent and I am not one who would ever tell you its too much. This is painful. For some more then others. We all handle it differently. I know that lonely feeling. Lately its been crushing and this cat and mouse game of "officer review then finished" is making us both nervous. Vent when you need to. You can message me anytime. There is an end to it eventually, then you get start the whole "adjustment" thing. Whee. Blah. (I'm so bloody tired of the internet and telephone I could scream but it's all we've got.)

Remember the rule of thumb to this process: NEVER COMPARE.

Pain is pain, doesn't matter how long you've been feeling it. Complain all you want kiddo.

I think we all know exactly how you feel. Don't worry about bitching an moaning here, we've all done it. I was so lonely during the visa process too. Having family around helped as a distraction, but that empty feeling *never* went away, even when I was with them. I don't think there's anything to do except just survive, somehow. You *will* get there.

Ahh monday, what a shitty start to the week...Its a miserable looking day here in chicago, and my head is throbbing...has been since last night, even after 6 tylenol...its the kind of headache that makes u want to vomit...blahh...well i woke up nice and early and left to pick up my clothes from the cleaners, only to find a nice yellow spot on my 50$ express white collared shirt...they told me to leave it there so they can attempt to fix it, gosh it pisses me off, ive only worn that shirt once...gotta work tonight, 2-9....so i get to catch days of our lives at 1pm then ill be off....well hope everyone has a little better day than ive been having....


p.s. my mother in laws interview for her visitor visa is tomrorow morning in jordan.....less than 20 hours away....she had a 6 yr visa, came and left 3 times, never overstayed, so im hoping they re issue this one for 6 more years...inshallah i need her here real bad! pray for her please

hopefully they will give her another visit visa!! keepin my fingers crossed for you

Hmmm, what should I have for lunch?

chickennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

CHICKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

Good idea!

lol i love chicken!

Why would you want to keep it this way?

salt n' vinegar chips of course.

My grandpa loves those!

i think ur grandpa & i have a lot in common

Are you 6'2" and do you use Old Spice?

eatin s n' v chips on silver lane

Jenn, I think we need to do the interior of your El Camino in red to go with the air brushed photo on the hood.




Ohhh I hope they get it! What does she look like? My hunny will be at the embassy tomorrow morning too

For what, JP!!!???

Argghh you don't wanna know. We have had the funniest process, but its NOT to pick up his visa.

I will give a quick update. He was called 1 week after the interview to go in and give full prints. He went, and was asked to wait for the consular again (the one that originally interveiwed him) she apologized to him about having to come in and do prints and was really confused as to why he was there, its seems she tried to get around it but was told by her superiors that he had to do it now that its in the system. With his luck, the digital prints system was down, he did ink prints.

So last week he gets another call from the embassy, they said they wanted to expidite his case and to come in and give digital prints because the system was up. They told him they could get results in as little as 3 days. When I called the DOS for info, what they have is totally inconistant with what the embassy says. So at this point, he will go give prints again but I hope he doesnt have to pay the fee again.

In any case, it has been decided that he is not coming until March. His brother got engaged 3 weeks ago and the wedding is going to be in February, he doesn't want to miss it and I don't want him to miss it.
Amman even though they have been slow, have been very helpful to him. So he gives the digital prints tomorrow and then we will see what happens.

March? Oh well, it makes sense that he should stay for his brother's wedding. At least you're not stressing as much over the checks since you have to wait anyways (although I know you don't really stress!).

I'd be really pissed if he had to pay the fee again!

Ya, March kinds stinks but if he missed his brothers wedding he would think about it forever. By the time he gets here it will be 18 month since seeing him. However I really do want him to stay and I *might* try to go too and fly back wiht him. I'm not really stressing about the prints, the embassy has done so much to help him and expidite it without me getting involved. I will feel better when he has the Visa in hand.

I will be LIVID if he pays again, he said he doesn't care and will pay it 10 times as long as he doesnt have to do those nasty ink prints again.

just found this on the internet

Sweet! She will be offline until later tonight but I'm sure she will be wondering how you got a photo of her dream car.

that's ok, your car is next

better be pimpin

Today has been a Monday from hell. We got to bed early last night only to wake up at 11:30 to a crying cat. Our poor Douzi has had breathing problems since we found him and last night he just couldn't get any air any more. He cried for about 15 minutes, made a couple of desperate attempts to breathe, then died. I have never felt so helpless in my life. By the time we got the emergency vet clinic on the line he was dead. From 12 to 12:30 my oldest son and Abdel dug a hole in the back yard and we laid our baby to rest.

I had just commented to Abdel while driving home from dinner last night that we needed to see if the vet had any kind of treatment for cats with Asthma, because that was what he sounded like he had. I was too late. the poor cat was only about 2 years old, but if you were in the room with him, you could hear him breathing. My oldest son called in sick today because he said he would be crying too much to work. He was the closest to Douzi.

I had my presentation to do this morning, so I couldn't call in and Abdel doesn't have any paid time off so he wanted to go in. We had our department covered dish Thanksgiving dinner today for lunch, so between that and no sleep I am really fighting to keep my eyelids open. Only about 1 more hour to go thank goodness, but tonight is grocery night so I can't just go home and sleep. Maybe I can at least get a little nap in before the store.

Aww, sorry to hear about Douzi, Liz! Poor thing.

ohhhhh no.. im sorry Liz. My cat also has terrible asthma. its all we can do to keep it under control. Lately he has a sound like a deep rattle and im getting even more worried. Poor little man.

I'm sorry for your loss. He is a kitty angel now.
-CB

Awwwwww I'm sorry to hear about your kitty, Liz