kettunainen, posts by tag: immigration - LiveJournal

I got in!!!!

I am now officially a permanent resident of Canada. Go ME! Hah!

And I only have to wait TWO years before applying for citizenship. So fucking sweet. Such a long time coming, too... The entire process of moving here and everything that entailed was about 5 years. Five, long and wonderful and challenging years. The application process alone was approximately 18 months. (Apply from OUTSIDE Canada, if you can at all help it.)

The interview we had this morning was a mere formality -- she asked questions that I had already answered: verified address, height and eye colour, whether I have ever been convicted of anything or denied entry into Canada. Oh, and the interview was basically done at a teller window and the counter totally obscured my giganto belly, so I got ZERO questions about being pregnant. So awesome. The hardest parts of today were getting up at 6am and waiting until 11:45-ish to go through the interview and be done with it. I get my PR card in 4-6 weeks, at which point, I have to change my SIN card and my OHIP card. Two more years and I'll be a real Canadian.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I have a real home now! I can put down roots and finally settle my mind and my heart. This is SO FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I think if I think about it too much, I'll spontaneously combust.

*bounce bounce bounce*

eee!

*esplode*

Did you know that if you send out an invitation on Evite, it lets you know who has viewed the invitation? I was unaware of this. I thought I'd share.

I am 0 for 2 with mushrooms. I guess I need stronger stuff for ANYTHING at all to happen. argh. Had an amazing weekend, nonetheless. Also, banana smoothies are marvelous. Especially with a bit of cocoa and cardamom added.

I was supposed to start work today, but since my main boss and the person I'll be reporting to are both away from the office today, I'll be starting tomorrow instead. I get to have a work email address and my presence as a new employee was announced via a company email today, on which I was cc'ed. My boss wrote this in the email: "I was very impressed with Angela's easy-going personality, her cheeriness and her organizational skills and am thrilled she is joining us." This is very squeeful for me. Eeep! I guess it was thoroughly helpful to walk in there believing that I didn't need a job so that I could be more relaxed about the whole process.

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I have three of the four police clearances. There was a hang-up with Missouri -- I used the wrong fingerprint card. I used the one that was good for EVERYTHING ELSE, including RCMP and FBI, but they don't like that one; they want me to use THEIRS, so that is costing me more time and effort. I hope they accept what I'm sending them. It's on their card, but the lady who did it was less than proficient with a couple of fingers. The originals, which I have to send with the newer ones, also which MO doesn't like, are perfect. I hate red tape. I just want my PR card. I have the money for it and everything. Just gimme the card, dammit!

I'm going shopping this evening for more work clothes because I don't have much at all to wear.

Also, I love goats.

I'm feeling ever so much not myself today. Really kinda down. This may be due to over-consumption of sugar in the past several days or maybe I DID ovulate and now I'm PMSing. I really don't know. I think I'm going to latch on to the possibility of PMS because thinking I ovulated makes me feel better. I feel weepy and unmotivated and generally pissy, and if this were a typical cycle, I'd be starting on Monday, so I'd definitely be PMSing. Let's just pretend that that's what's going on. With a little sugar on top.

I have a ton and a half of stuff to do.

I got news from Missouri re my fingerprints -- I have to redo them on THEIR special fingerprints cards. What fucking bastards! Now I have to go to the place where I got the other prints done and see if he'll do them again for free or for a reduced rate. Otherwise, it's ANOTHER $40 or whatever. I'm pretty pissed about it. I just hope that everything is ok with the Kansas prints. I'm tired of everything taking so fucking long. I'm REALLY TIRED of dealing with bureaucracy. All I want is my PR card. PLEASE?! It's been long enough!

And this week I have to call about scheduling a second interview for the job I applied for way the fuck back in early June. I'm annoyed that she wants me to call to arrange this. I figure if she really wanted someone for the position, then it'd be near the top of her list of priorities. It feels like a mind game, and I REALLY HATE mind games. Yes, I'll call. I'm not an idiot.

Lynx and I picked optimystik up from the airport last night. He took an earlier flight, so he was able to be home by 11 instead of by 3 or 4am the following morning. And he had originally taken today off from work, but things got screwed up before he left, so he had to go into work today. Dammit, there were things I really needed his help with today! I was very much looking forward to having him here.

Fie fie fie.

I haven't been able to do yoga in over a week and I'm pretty peeved about it. My left front groin is all out of whack from overdoing it (by doing the regular amount suggested instead of taking it more slowly) with certain asanas. Sometimes it hurts to walk and I have to limp along like a sad little clown. I will have to get back into the groove and skip the asanas that fucked up my leg. These are also the asanas that build abdominal muscles like nobody's business. I'm sad to have to let them go. I was hoping for more definition, but I'm not going to get it at the price of walking!

And I'm REALLY TIRED of people not questioning authority. I'll get more into this in the coming months. Fucking chaps my hide, it does. And it makes more work for me. I get tired of educating people. I really, really do. But then if I don't on certain topics, then I'm seen as negligent, reckless, and irresponsible. Fucking hell.

I have learned that I am not yet eligible for OHIP. I need a letter stating my 'approval in principle', not just those words on my work permit. I also need verification in writing that I have passed my medical requirements. Not just that they have been received, but that the requirements have been satisfied. Until this happens, I can't apply. Also, there was a chance that I could have been eligible with my work permit alone, but because my permit is open, meaning I can work anywhere in Canada, I can't apply. Were my work permit closed, meaning that it specified precisely where I was eligible to work, as in "only valid in Ontario", then that would have been gold. But no. No OHIP for me.

This means my plans for certain things will have to shift. I will be on the pill for at least the next month, maybe longer. This very much sucks. I'm tired of waiting. I know it'll all work out somehow in the end, but phooey. Oh well.

The OHIP lady I spoke with on the phone started out kinda bitchy, but somewhere in our conversation she became helpful and almost cheery. I guess the fact that I didn't take her bitchy bait and remained calm, articulate and genuine helped her feel like she was not talking to an idiot. I'm sure she talks to plenty of idiots all day. I'm glad I wasn't one of them.

Also, I didn't entirely suck at my first interview, as I thought I had. They want me back for a second interview on Wednesday, the 5th. This bodes well, as the 5th is my dad's birthday. He would be 71, were he still alive. There are too many things about this job that say 'the universe wants you to have this'. So many weird things falling into place. I'm enjoying the experience, I must say.

So, yeah, I got another interview *insert Squee of Happy here*. This is either because I actually did well enough to warrant a second interview, despite my wheat-addled fogbrain or because the woman interviewing me took pity on me and wanted to give me a second chance because she knew it was short notice for me the first time around, as well as knowing that it has been a Very Long Time since I have interviewed for a job. Regardless, I have a second interview scheduled. I am grateful.

optimystik took me clothes shopping today because the one outfit I had that was appropriate for warm-weather office wear I wore already at the first interview. And after an entire day of shopping, I came home happy. I have five new articles of clothing. Planet Aid is my new best friend for way cool clothes for super cheap. N found clothes of superior awesomeness and brought them to me while I stripped down in the fitting room. We had lots of fun and I came away with a super cool, white, button-up blouse by Jacob for $14 and the bestest ever pair of pants in a fucking size FOUR, no less, by Caché, also for $14. And we got 15% off because I answered their Canadian trivia question correctly: the beaver. I can't remember the question, but mmmmm.... beaver. Yup.

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I have also been working for/with misslynx/Spider Silk, helping her organize and prioritize her tasks. It's challenging and enlightening and ultimately very good. I'm hoping that we'll make more money this way and that L will be able to create better work habits and maybe actually stay on top of projects (or close to), instead of constantly having to put out fires, which is a terribly draining and unsatisfactory position to constantly be in. I'm glad I'm doing this. I just hope it doesn't drive us both around the bend. Or N, for that matter.

Things are going ok. Fits and starts all around, but I'm surviving and learning and growing. Go me. I like feeling productive. I wish I could feel financially comfortable, too, but I'm not there yet. Maybe someday. Maybe someday soon. Let's hope.

Happy Canada Day :)

i dyed my hair back to brown. i think it looks weird. like i'm wearing a wig.

i went to see a capoeira roda this weekend with N. he wasn't all that impressed. he was looking for different things than i was. i liked it and i want to do it. massive upper body strength and washboard abs. fuck yeah.

but i wish he liked it. or was interested in drumming on saturday nights. i feel tugged in those directions but i lack the confidence to just go do it. i don't know what my problem is. i'm tired of feeling alone in these interests.

more delays with app. processing. still haven't looked for a job. too much to do and too little motivation.

but i got vine-ripened tomatoes at the grocery store! this is a huge step for me because i hate tomatoes. but i'm learning to like them. this makes me unusually happy. i think it's because my mom hates tomatoes, but my sister and dad love/d them. if i like them, too, then that just leaves my mom all by herself. the tomato carries a little too much emotional baggage, methinks.

the ADD doctor whose seminars L and I attend inadvertantly advocated attachment parenting last night at his lecture. i wish i could articulate it all, but my brain is fried. personally, i think much of the symptoms that fall under ADD could be circumscribed by proper nutrition (no sugar, namely) and attachment parenting. trust is built and kept and brain chemistry is theoretically less wonky. no need for button-pushing, no need for passive-aggressive behaviour, no need for low self-esteem and inferiority complexes that plague ADDers (and many of the rest of us who don't have to contend with the bulk of the typical ADD symptoms). imagine what the world would be like if we all felt completely secure in ourselves while growing up. what kind of world would we live in?

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ALSO: I FINALLY GOT MY FUCKING WORK PERMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm one step closer to being a real person in Canada. YAY!!!
This means I can also apply for OHIP. Do you have ANY fucking clue how happy this makes me?? I know some of you do 'cuz you've been here before.

AND NOT ONLY THAT!!!

We found out today that our landing fee is HALF of what we thought it was. We only have to pay $450 now. How fucking sweet is THAT?! ('course, they have to actually approve my application -- in reality, not just in principle. But that's pretty much a given.) Now we just have to wait for them to let us know when we can pay them and when I can get my spiffy PR card with a super-ass photo of me on it.

Life is good. Life will be even better if I am able to find a job that is not teh suck with hours and pay that are also not teh suck.

*does happy dance of squee*

i am tired
my bag is still wet from yesterday
my muscles are sore
my desk is covered in receipts and underwear and paperwork
i have a lot of work to do

i've been craving oatmeal cream pies. i should figure out how to remedy this -- need to discover a corresponding sugar/wheat-free recipe that will satisfy the depraved beasties that are my taste buds.

i tried E for the first time a couple of weeks ago. it was splendiferous! even though I threw up (cuz i always do), it was still splendiferous. i am now ready for acid. or more E. or oatmeal cream pies. moist chewy creamy goodness. yuuummmmy.

i'm trying out all the good bad things i can before i start having kids. i hear there isn't a whole lot of time for much else when the babies come.

i need to repaint my toes a different colour. maybe sparkly olive or dark blue or something. they're red now, which matched my skirt that i wore last week, but red nail polish is kinda too mundane for me. i feel too suburban, which is a bad, icky feeling that must be squelched. at least the skirt is pretty.

we go see our lawyer tomorrow to turn in our immigration application. i still need to locate my photos, which, i believe, are tidied away in that box over there with all my other papery-type things -- the ones that aren't crowding up my desk at the moment.

boy, i'm hungry.

we got all our letters (or, rather, enough of them) from our loved ones supporting my immigration here and they all rock -- both the letters and the peeps. mmmm.... peeeps.... i really need to eat.

tomorrow evening, i am seeing pyralea again. maybe we'll see a movie. maybe we'll make dinner again. maybe we'll paint or something.

i went hiking on the escarpment near Milton with my coven yesterday. we did a ritual out there and it was awesome. for me, it involved making a small and very literal leap of faith concerning fear. i become fearful of silly little things and i am trying to find ways of getting past those fears. if i can do that, then maybe the big fears won't be so ominous.

i was told that there would be a cave -- it turned out to be a sheltered crevice in the limestone. and while not a proper cave, it was really neat. there was mist rising from the depths of the crevice, but it wasn't noxious or hallucinatory, like with the Pythia. it didn't even smell -- the mist, that is, but the whole area smelled of cool wet damp limestone and decaying wood and leaves. very very lovely. i wanted to spend more time there, but then the skies started dumping on us. there were streams of water from my shorts to my socks by the time we started heading back. it was fun being completely soaked in the rain! kinda freeing. but by the time we got back, i was all cold and wet and wrinkly and my feet hurt from being trapped in my shoes for so long, drenched from the rain. it's too bad toronto didn't get the rain that Milton got. we coulda used it here to make everything much greener and get rid of some of this hideous heat. at least with what rain we did get, things have cooled off to a more manageable 27-30C.

ok, i've rambled long enough. i'm gonna go eat now.

if you're interested in caving in Ontario there is a Toronto Caving Group. It looks like fun!