“OMG, I thought you were a total bitch when I first met you!”

So I had a revelation the other day; I suffer from CBF, chronic bitchface. This revelation was brought to me by Buzzfeed's "22 Problems All People With Resting Bitchface Will Understand." I don't in particular like to use the word bitch in this context, but this just hit so close to home I'm just going to accept the term bitchface.

 

I consider myself a happy person and I believe people who know me do so as well. I laugh a lot and talk a lot, maybe even too much. I almost never get mad, just sad sometimes. But then there's a bunch of people who get the first impression that I'm a "major bitch" without me even saying a single word! Countless times I've hear people say "When I first met you, I though you were a total bitch, but now that I've gotten to know you I know you're not." I've been asked several times what's bugging me, when I'm just deep in thought thinking about, not cookies, but for example some upcoming happy event. I've come to the conclusion I have in fact a resting bitchface, since I certainly don't talk or sound like negative person.

 

The other day I was taking copies of my passport's biographical page for the spousal visa and realized I even have a resting bitchface in my passport photo! It kinda looks like I'm looking down on whoever is checking my photo :D That made me really self-concious so I checked out a bunch of other photos of me on Facebook. I thought I looked non-bitchy in those at least :D

 

Maybe this is just cause I'm Finnish and don't have a shiny white, straight set of teeth and sometimes smile without showing my non-pearlywhites? Anyhows, I don't plan on analyzing my resting bitchface too much, just know dear readers, that I really am a nice, friendly person :D

 

Photo from here

 

 

Wishing everyone who celebrates it a very happy Vappu!

I know I'll be smiling today :)

 

Keeping busy

"Oh, I've been keeping busy" or "I know he likes to keep busy" or "we're just trying to keep busy"

Those sentences baffle me. I don't understand why someone chooses to keep busy and apparently a lot of people like to keep busy. I love my quiet times, which I don't have very often, and wish I could just be more often.

So maybe it's just a phrase people say, when you're asking how they're doing. But I know some people who actually really like to keep busy. They start businesses, hobbies, studying etc. just for the sake of keeping busy. I've tried to understand, but I guess I'm just not open-minded enough to understand why those people would choose "keeping busy" over being with their family, children, friends etc. What is so important about "keeping busy"? So that you won't appear lazy or that you at least feel productive, even when you're really not?

I guess I'm just baffled about this need to keep busy, because I'm extremely busy and I really wish I wasn't. I wish I had more time to be with my family and friends. I'd like to occasionally spend weekends doing nothing. I'd like to be lazy. It's just not possible right now. But I've made the choice to be busy, only temporarily though.

Maybe what I'm doing is "keeping busy"? I'm finishing up my MA thesis (I submitted the preliminary version for inspection yesterday, yikes!) and after I'm done with that, I'll have to focus more on my MBA thesis. And I work 40 hours a week. So I'm busy, but I really don't want to be. I can't wait for the summer when I'll hopefully have more time to just be. No "just keeping busy" for this girl!

I know I'm a lazy person at heart and I don't mind that one bit :) What I do mind is that I don't have time for this blog and I really hope that I can resume blogging a bit more next month.

Until then...

from weheartit.com

or don't. Do whatever floats your particular boat :)

Immigration nightmare continues...

I've been meaning to write more about our immigration stuff, but nothing, absolutely nothing, has happened since my previous immigration related post, Immigration Limbo. It's now been over 5 months since we sent our petition and it hasn't even been looked at. Calls to USCIS have given us a variety of time estimates on how long it will take for them to approve our petition, the answers have usually ranged from a year to two years. So basically it could take about 2,5 years to get a spousal visa. USCIS customer service has been very inconsistent with their answers and their level of service has been extremely poor. Husband waited once almost two hours in line only to be disconnected. Lovely.

Ania approached me (as a blogger) on Facebook and asked if I could forward some info in my blog, so here it goes. I'm only copy/pasting this and have no further info in the matter. This is especially important for those who are in the same immigration limbo as we are:

"AS you probably know I-130 petitions are terribly backlogged. Also, Overland Park is not fully operational yet. That means that petitions have been piling up there since MAY.

Please, please read our VisaJourney forum thread. We are trying to make some noise and get noticed. 

We need our Letter to be viewed and commented on many times before we sent it Pres. Obama and others.

We need it to be posted all over FB, Twitter and wherever else 

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/459909-usc-green-card-petitioners-committee/

That being said, I am asking you if you'd be willing to post the Letter on your blog and on FB?

The processing times for I-130 are beyond ridiculous.

I-130 petitions have the lowest priority right now.

The link to The Letter is here uscgreencardpetitionerscommittee.blogspot.com"

Wishing everyone, whose visa process is going nowhere, much strength while we play this extremely annoying waiting game!

Immigration Limbo

The U.S immigration process is  both laborious and expensive. A seemingly easy case of getting a spousal visa takes forever, and ever. We were thinking we might be able to head over to the U.S early next year, but now it seems that was too optimistic of an approach.

It's been almost four months since we sent our I-130 to USCIS. Nothing has been done to our case, even though we were initially told cases filed overseas (U.S citizen living abroad) usually get NOA2 in 60 days or so, since there no longer is a DCF option. That turned out to be completely untrue and the USCIS customer service has given us a whole lot of other misinformation as well. I'm not surprised.

Our case is now in Overland Park, KS and has been there since May. Nothing has been done about it and nothing will be done for another month or so at least, since Overland Park division will not open until the end of September the earliest. So, they sent our case to a place that is not even open yet. When they eventually do open (no one knows when, one customer representative seemed to think it's open, but its not),  they have several tens of thousands of cases waiting to be processed. I'm under no illusion that our case will be processed anytime soon.

How I see their customer service... (from weheartit.com)

Now this really puts a damper on our plans, as we originally thought they would maybe process our case within 9-12 months, so that we could move in the spring. That is not going to happen. 

I know the immigration process is nothing personal, and I know I'm just another unwanted immigrant among hundreds of thousands of others. But I have to say that the fact that they sent our case to a place that's not even open, knowing that they won't do anything about it for at least another 5 months, kinda makes me wonder if we should even bother moving.  Our plan was to stay for 3 years and move back when little man goes to school, that won't really be possible if I get the visa next fall or later.

Oh yeah, I was told to stay optimistic and just wait patiently. Thanks, I'll do that ;)