| |
It was easy when pregnant, to blame the missing liter of ice-cream, that my husband would moodily accuse me of hogging, on the fact that the baby was hungry.
It was also easy to blame the somewhat crumby evidence, of absent bags of potato chips, pretzels, chocolate, fries, and just about every other form of junk food, that would masquerade briefly into our cupboards, on exactly the same reason; "But honey, the baby ate it!!"
However, something happened a short while ago, that made this a little less easier to believe.
I am originally from England, now living in the States. Having married an American (hence we are here- England is a dump, apparently), it means that I, sorry we, have to go through the whole visa process, in order to allow me to live legally, and work legally over here. (This happens both ways around incidentally, in case anyone was thinking about just upping and leaving to another country.) A lengthy process, involving medical tests, interviews, tons of paperwork, and a LOT of money.
Recently I received a letter from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services), informing us of THE BIGGIE. After 2 years of waiting, it was time for the interview, the tooth-brush-test, the make-or-break, where both my husband and I are called in for interrogation, and are apparently placed in separate rooms, where we are asked anything from 'What color is your spouse's toothbrush?' to "Does your spouse like to change the sheets after sex?' And if you've seen the movie Green-card, let's include the obligatory 'What's their favorite ice-cream?' Then based on the results of this test, you are either granted permanent residence in the States, or shipped back to your country of origin, quicker than you can say 'mint-choc-chip'.
Now, we actually received this letter about 3 weeks before the due date of our appointment, and I was both excited, and apprehensive about the whole deal. After showing my husband the letter, and mentally making notes of all the evidence that we needed to bring, I set the letter back down on the table, a safe place, and promptly forgot about it.
Knowing that I had to arrange a babysitter, but being the eternal procrastinator, I waited until just a few days before the BIG DAY to organize one.
My sister-in-law volunteered, once again (bless her). "What time is the interview?" she asked.
I glanced at the letter.
It wasn't there.
Uh oh.
"Hold on, I'll get back to you."
Then followed a frantic search for the bloody thing. I tore through every drawer, every pace the dog could have hidden it, and every newspaper we had received for the past 3 months, thinking that maybe it could have gotten stuck in the pages. Not there.
I looked through the papers lining the bottom of the somewhat stinking ferret cage. Not there. I cried, I yelled, I called my husband in a panic, who promptly left work to help me look for the letter. We searched in every single corner of the house, the garden, the trash. Not there.
Finally, after two hours of painful hunting with no success, I sank into the arm chair in defeat. My hands ran down the side of the cushions, just in case. Not there.
"What did mummy do with it Pooh?" I asked my eight month old daughter. She grinned at me. Wickedly. Mushy paper poking between her two front teeth. She had eaten the darned thing! And, of course, I had forgotten every single one of its contents.
Believe me, I felt pretty stupid having to go to the INS office, and explain to them that I knew we had an interview on Tuesday, but I had no idea what time it was, what we had to bring, or even if it was in that particular office.
After a three hour wait, they were able to locate another copy.
The interview went smoothly. Except for the fact that we had not brought half of the items included on the original list, because the clerk at the INS only copied half of it.
We have to go back again next month. Funny, but I don't think that the interviewer believed that 'the baby ate it?!'
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Work
from Stories
|
|
Welcome !
