Ok Girls and Charles (who I'm sure is otherwise occupied!): This is sad. It's 3am PST and I'm up drinking mint tea, eating crackers and putting up more Christmas lights!! Thinking about signing the Christmas cards, which my roomate found for me in Winnie the Pooh He also found a 4ft inflatable Santa Pooh so I am in my glory now. I got the tree up yesterday as planned along with a few strings of lights.

Today we will have our Thanksgiving dinner so I'll be helping my dad with the cooking in the early afternoon.

Oh my big news from my trip besides interview success was that when we were riding the train from Casa to Oujda, the conductor came knocking in the night looking for a nurse in Arabic. Omar told them I was a nurse and I said wait wait what am I getting into (because I have not worked as a nurse for a while but remember some things...didn't want to hurt anyone or get in over my head). Turned out someone just needed a shot. No alcohol swabs yikes f So here I am in some strange man's compartment with him baring a section of his behind to receive the needle I was weilding!! Oh wow the memories I will have of that trip.

I believe we have another interview coming up this week in Casa. And it sounds like we could be hearing visa news for those of us who interviewed during the past two weeks. Boy you girls are really on it. Who knew you could bug the government anget answers that others wait a long time for? Like calling to check if your petition is at the NVC or security checks or done? Wow amazing. Wouldn't have known it without my VJ FBI on the trail.

Now on to the big question: Is anyone out there or have you all fled the land???

hey everyone. just downloading some christmas songs on here.......really not decorating here i guess....ma is waiting til i get there to put the tree up sooooooo that will be fun lol. 8 more days to go....ive started a little more each day getting things together........

its hard for me to think about not being with George for 4 to possibly 6mths but this time will make us stronger i hope and it will benefit us in the future, Inshallah!................

ok, i'm awake now . my friend kristine came in town yesterday and we tried to "go out" to see some music, but we're both so lame and not used to going out that we got tired of waiting for the band to start, so we left at 11:30 (they were "starting" at 10) and came home to watch more episodes of LOST. She's gotten hooked on it and now I'm intrigued . Had a fun day yesterday, tho.... gorgeous day for scooter riding and then I went and had my makeup done at MAC... it looked really pretty (false eyelashes and everything!). On the agenda today: more LOST episodes, visit w/ my sweetie online, some housecleaning, more scooting around enjoying the day. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Happy Sunday! Maggie, I could visualize you giving a shot on a moving train! You are a brave girl!

Jess, I know leaving will be hard. Look to the future for strength.

Noura, every Wednesday is family night for us. Mohammed, myself, get together with my daughter and her husband to watch Lost. It's been a tradition since 2004. LOST started the week Mohammed came to America and we are hooked! We just don't know what to do with ourselves during their break! Can't wait til February!!!!

Hope you all have a great day.

Jackie

I'm up, trying to get started on my paper. I got a lot done yesterday and hope to finish it today.

Last night we went to the tree lighting ceremony, sortof. It turned out to be across the river on the island (there are over 40 parks in this city and I don't know where they all are, so when it said it was on the riverfront I had not idea they meant on the island side!) so we could barely see the tree and hear the music. We gave up and went to eat dinner, then went to see the Nutcracker ballet. That turned out to be a perfect evening for us.

Abdel will probably sleep until between 10 and 12, so I hope to get my paper done before he wakes up. Better get busy. Ya'll take care.

Liz

I'm here Downloading some Christmas songs sounds like a good idea. We have one radio station that plays Christmas all day everyday after Thanksgiving until Christmas but it's a mix of all different kinds so some of it I definetely do not like! Yesterday we moved a bunch of stuff to the new house and our goal for today is to move EVERYTHING else. So I have to go start packing up my kitchen The kitchen we have now is gigantic compared to my new kitchen so it will be interesting to see how it all fits. Our son is so excited because the house we're moving to has a really big backyard and he LOVES LOVES to play outside. I finished all his Christmas shopping Friday and spent the $150 I allotted myself. Youssef flipped out because he couldn't believe I spent $100 on toys ($50 for clothes). But I really didn't think it was THAT extravagant. This is the first year he is old enough to really know what is going on and the first time I am able to afford to give him a few nice toys and things. My parents always went way out on Christmas and I want to give him the same memories I had. Youssef and I have had some major $ disagreements lately and it makes me frustrated. We buy presents all the time for his family so that when he goes we don't have to buy everything at one time. We probably have over $500 of presents in the closet for his family right now. But he over analyzes every purchase I make. I tried to tell him that the toys and stuff are for Christmas and how special I remember it being for me and my sister but he just says "he doesn't need all those toys" and I want to scream "YOUR NEPHEWS DON'T NEED THE STUPID YU GI OH CARDS WE SPENT $75 FOR EITHER BUT I NEVER SAID A WORD ABOUT IT!!" (Those are the extra presents besides the jackets he's buying for each of his 12 nieces and nephews.)

Well tomorrow is our AOS interview, I'm a little nervous just because I really don't know what they'll ask but he's really confident. I'm sure my ever bulging stomach will be a solid relationship proof for them! I realyl wanted to get a scrapbook with all the pictures done but with all the moving and stuff I didn't finish it . SO now I just have to bring regular pictures. We have to run to wal-mart tonight to make some of the ones we have on disc. Have a good Sunday everyone!

Yikes Maggie! A shot on a moving Moroccan train? to a strange bare behind? You are one adventurous girl! Beats any of my tavel stories.



I hate full work weeks after long holidays. Can;t anyone make the clock go back just one more day?

I'm trying to think about things I like about Mondays and going back to work. Let's see....I'm looking forward to maybe getting a candybar from the vending machine tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and The Bachelor Rome finale is tomorrow. Woohoo! Can't wait for tomorrow!

When the rat i.e. ex did his first AOS interview the guy only asked him the questions he had already answered on that sheet where they ask if you have intent to harm the US, run drugs ect. he did not look at any pics or evidence that our money was together ( was almost like the interview in Casa!!). We were in and out in 10 min from the time the interview started. Hopefully yours will go as fast.

Well, it is a gloomy Sunday morning here. I spent part of Friday and Saturday painting the cabinets in the bathroom. Probably need one more coat and some spot checking later today. But most of my Sunday is reserved for the garden . . . digging out a dead bush, cutting back some perennials, spreading the mulch and preparing for colder weather right around the corner (seriously, I heard it is going to drop into the 20's by the end of the week). It is bulky trash pickup week so it is a good time to haul out the junk and the dead bush, hehe!!

OK, off to the garden.

Allo all! I'm back from Thanksgiving at my parents house, and I'm up to my eyeballs in homework. Thankfully, there's only a few weeks left, and then I'm freeeeeeeee!

In the midst of the homework, I've plugged in the new ipod nano my parents gave me in anticipation of my completing my paralegal certification. Woooooo, i'm like a kid in the candy store!




I think it actually may be better that you don't have a scrapbook. We just brough some pictures in some photo album sleeves, and the interviewer took them from us to keep in the file. It would be pretty hard to keep a scrapbook in the file, and it would be a pity if they took it away and shoved it in a drawer after all that hard work.

Good luck!

Have you told him how he is making you feel? Abdel and I had similar disagreements and when I told him I was afraid to buy anything because he would complain about how I spent money, he apologized immediately. He hadn't realized what he was doing. This is an issue in any marriage unfortunately.

One guy I used to work with said that the way he and his wife solved it was that they decided how much of each of their paychecks went for the bills, then each got an allowance out of what was left, to spend however they wanted. He collected guns and she bought super-expensive frilly dresses for their daughter. They didn't comment on how the other spent their "allowance." I'm personally not quite as organized as he was, but it does sound like a good idea.

Good luck on the interview!

OMG, this kills me. I know $$ can be a hard thing to deal with in a relationship, but this is totally unacceptable. I cannot stand double standards, and my partner would be hearing it for weeks if he even tried this with me. You should take $350 of things out of the closet so you can return them, and when he asks what you are doing, tell him that since things need to be even, and we're spending too much money in your opinion, then we should even this out so the closet of gifts for your family equals the amount we spend ON OUR OWN KID for xmas.

As for AOS....We'd been married for 1 year 11 months at the time of our interview and the woman still separated us and gave me the "you can sneak out the back door and we'll send him to prison" speech, to which I burst into tears. Which was really nice since I'd been so excited out in the lobby waiting, seeing all the couples, scratch that, non-arab, non-mixed couples, come out with happy faces and signed off papers that their GC would be in the mail soon. So when I didn't take her up on her offer, she turned into the meanest b!tch, asked both of us questions like "when was the first time you had sex?" "how often do you have sex?" "do you have regular sex currently?".... It was such a lovely experience.... Out of the 8 or so things she asked, most had to do with sex. It didn't matter the pile of evidence we brought to her: 2 years of joint taxes, bank accounts, business licenses, mortgage papers. And he was here when we met 10 years ago, and he never violated any of his F or B visas, and, and, and.....And she still gave a conditional GC which took another 3 years to lift conditions. I really hope no one has anything remotely like this. She had some serious issues with us, and had me in tears the whole time, and my husband trying to keep his temper in check.

OMGWTFBBQWAFFLES! Are you serious? What exactly did she say to you? That is horrifying!

Everytime I hear this story I am stunned. NO ONE should have to be treated this way. It makes me so angry. There is some real abuse of power issues here with immigration. Where is the Congressionla oversight? Where is the advocates for those who find themselves in this situation. arrrggghhhh



Nonetheless I hope that by sharing this story someone who finds themselves in a silimar situation can take a lesson from this and be prepared.

Jenn do you think Prince Lorenzo will pick Sadie? I am such a reality show addict. I am soooooooo excited, I work 10-3 so I will be home to watch it!

Jackie

I've been backing Jenn from pretty early on, so I'm gonna stick with Jenn! Care to make things interesting?

Ok last day of our mini-vacation. I took the first typhoid vaccine pill two days ago and was supposed to take the second one today but I'm gonna chance it and forget about the rest. (I was supposed to take one pill every other days and there's a total of 4 pills which cost me a little over $55 since my insurance didn't cover it.) I was sooooo sick to my stomach yesterday and am not feeling that hot today so I'll just take my chances. Usama said he's never even known anyone in Cairo who has had typhoid fever so I"m not real worried about it.

peezey isn't there someone you can complain to? That sounds like bigtime sexual harrasment charges to me! I mean I know they have to make sure the marriage is real but there are definite boundaries that I don't think they can cross and this woman did. I would have gone to her supervisor and written my representative about that for sure.

I actually can't wait for work tomorrow. My kids haven't wanted to do anything but stay home and play games and I have wicked cabin fever as a result and can't wait for peace and quiet at work with no one screaming at each other because they cheated. We played monopoly today for 2 1/2 hours and lemme tell ya the tears were flowin' when I finally stopped the game and one daughter won and the other didn't. Took 20 minutes for the one who lost to calm down!

Jenn meet me in the chat room tommorrow night. Do you see it earlier than me? The time change thingy confuses me.

Jackie

I am serious. This is when a combined 3 post-grad degrees helped us not at all, and our minds went dumb and our tongues twisted and there was no correct answer for this crazy lady.

Ok! It comes on at 9 EST.

I probably should have done this, but this was several years ago, long before I knew any of the ladies I know now and waaay long before I knew about VJ. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined such treatment would be OK, but I just assumed it was what was done. Of course I know differently now.

nope not out of town.............. out of my mind is more like it.........

Just sitting here on VJ, and talking to my husband, online.......

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend.

Unfortunately it still happens. I was reading a post on another immigration board who was asking a question about someone he knew who was at present being held in jail after being seperated from his wife during an interview and the next minute finding himself in handcuffs and hauled off to jail. For the life of me I couldn't make head nor tail of the post, but now after reading of your experience it makes sense as to what may have occured.

Wow, does that mean she said she wanted out? This is nuts! I was caught totally off guard, I just burst into tears out of sheer shock and complete dumbfounded-ness. I finally had to gather myself and tried to act totally offended, but I didn't want to make it worse. It was so difficult to know how to proceed at that point, knowing we were both coming in perceived as criminals and we had to prove our way back to being "good" in the eyes of this crazy biatch.

Seems so, but perhaps it was a case similar to yours. Here's the link to the post.
http://discuss.ilw.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/...1/m/88010214731

hmmmm, well, this sounds more to me like maybe it was fishy business and she was scared enough to admit it. I would imagine if you are in an interview for a bona fide marriage, no matter how rude the interviewer is, you certainly wouldn't be willing to sign something to withdraw the petition just like that.

Is this for Jenn too???

cb, I think I hear footsteps...you better run!!!