10:22 PM - 05.11.04
Cousins
This was on the front page of our newpaper this morning Marry_An_American. Pretty funny, but not legal. The site was set up in response to reaction to the presidential election in the US. Immigration Canada's website usually gets about 20,000 hits in a day, but the day after the election there were 115,000 inquiries just from US citizens. Supporters of the Democrats I believe. Average rate of issuing permanent resident status is about 5000 per year for US citizens. Their best chance for approval is to be married to a Canadian hence the site. Maybe we could do a swap. The difference in philosophy and application is very similar to that between the Greek and Roman civilizations centuries ago. Democracy/Republic, Thinkers/Doers, Negotiators/Warriors, Visonaries/Pragmatists, Science/Technology. We send those of our population more closely aligned with Roman values south and we absorb those with more Greek attitude up north. Maybe we could just do a Meyers-Briggs test to determine citizenship status instead of all that other tedious assessment. Immigration
Busy today dear diary. My oldest picked me up and dropped me downtown for my interview about returning to school. Interview was fine but all of a sudden two tests to write. I haven't written any exams in decades. When I was younger tests never intimidated me but there is a doubt now that crept in. Shouldn't have worried though there was no challenge in the questions - just reading comprehension and math. I liked the interviewer - about as old as me and very easy to talk to. She allowed I could likely challenge part of the course and shorten it as well as reduce the cost that way. Or I could fit in those internet security courses as a substitute. That works better for me. The rest of the discussion was about politics, religion and relationships. Good discussions.
At the morning interview I was told the earliest time I could start classes was the beginning of next year. On the train home I was pondering how I could manage with no income for another two months. Don't know. If I could swing it somehow, then I could work on the BBC website that offers about a dozen different entry level language courses. Just about any European tongue plus a couple of Asian ones. There are several websites that offer a lot of information on legislation and community activism that would be wonderful to spend some time working through. And finally there are I don't know how many boxes of books sitting and waiting for my attention. This in the chilly part of the year. Dear Lord help me out here. There's got to be a way to survive that long. Where is that one work out of the home contract or part time position.
Arrived home just after lunch and called the one lawyer I had been referred to. Again very helpful and open, and given what he likely can bill for his time very patient with the discussion too. See there are a lot of good lawyers too. It's just that when they are bad they are frightening. There is a workshop he is presenting on some of the legislation I need a better grasp coming up in December and it looks really helpful, but as someone not bringing in any income at the moment I don't think its doable. He gave me a lot of good ideas and pointed to some other resources I could try as well so I'll take that as far as I can.
The sister's sister in law called next and we had a good time discussing some of her research on Canadian issues. Shocked and appalled - I had given her a tape I had of Maude Barlow's (Council of Canadians) analysis of the MAI agreements. She's all fired up now. Great someone else to help rattle a few cages. See that "free" time the next two months could be very well spent. Set up a time to get together again so we could exchange material. I'll give her more ammunition for her research and she said she would provide some charts for my guys. I've never really worked with their astrological charts because the desire to meddle in their lives would just be too much. Hard enough to bite my tongue and keep my thoughts to myself as it is.
Talked with one of my school friends next just catching up from the high school reunion - nearly 18 months ago. Can it really have been that long ago already? Each of us had little bits and pieces of information to pass on and it will get passed on down the grapevine each way too. Get together next week for lunch - her end of town.
Several calls from Elections Canada. Considerably more research required this time on whether suppliers are entitled to be paid. Oi. Probably two more full days worth of work there - without pay and them still not paying me everything owed to date. Can we have that by the end of today. Not likely. I know - bad attitude, bad girl.
Talked with my one sister and my Dad next - family business. I haven't spoken with either for ove a month so it was nice to catch up. Ragged my niece about school a bit and she took it with good grace.
Finally got to my computer to check for any email from any of the applications I sent out at about 5 PM. Really weird stuff happening in the software so I was on the instant messaging tech support line by 5:30. At 6:30 the senior tech was on the phne instead of on-line and the issue of the missing "sent" e-mail was being gone over again. This time with the second round of problems today it was being taken seriously. Finally finished talking at about 7:45 pm. Interesting. Last call was the friend from the election. Her second job interview went well and she was a lot happier than she had been the last while. One foot in front of the other. Some days that's a victory in itself.
�
�
