I Renewed My Citizenship

Well...not really :)
I had a very boring day today (I worked 10-7:30) so instead of discussing my uneventful day today I'll fill you all in on yesterday!

Yesterday morning I went with Ali's mom for her oath ceremony to become a US citizen. Very interesting experience. I woke up at 5:15....super early for me as you all know! The doors were opening at 7:30 and you never know how long it will take to get places in NYC and we were going to Brooklyn and the traffic can be insane. Luckily it wasn't too bad for us and we got there early. I had a hell of a time finding parking though! Finally after getting a parking spot and finding the building we got inside and I was taken aback by the man that explained the day’s proceedings to us. I felt like he needed a reminder that everyone in the building was in fact an adult and not 3 yr olds. We were given explicit instructions how to form a line and take our belts off because you know...these can be difficult tasks. As we worked through the line towards the metal detectors we were also told our cell phones would be taken from us. This did not thrill me. They informed us right away we would probably be there until about 1 pm so not having my cell phone to bother all my working friends and fam was going to be difficult. However I did give up both my cell phones...yes I have two... and don't ask why. Once I made it through the line and reluctantly gave up my cell phones I was separated from Ali's mom. She went to a separate room to begin the oath process and family and friends were not allowed in the room. I was sent to a separate room with TVs so that we could watch everything. Lucky for me the room we waited in was a cafeteria so I entertained myself with food :)...and there I sat...for 3 hours. There were about 300 people taking the citizenship oath today and they went one-by-one and took each person's green card, had them sign papers and handed them some more papers. After all that was said and done the cafeteria folk were allowed to join the soon to be US citizens in the court room for the actual oath ceremony. I then sat in on a few speeches about human rights and citizenship and then partook (is that a word??) in the reciting of the oath and pledge of allegiance :) Hey they didn't say I couldn't! hahaha I also got the chance to register to vote this fall. PS everyone better be registered to vote!! Anyways after that was all said and done they then wanted to torture us some more and botch everyone's name one more time and call everyone up one by one and hand them their certificate of citizenship. Luckily Ali's mom was in the middle! And unlike what they show on the news...everyone doesn't get a flag and stand together waving them...you freakin' get your certificate and get out!!!

It was an extremely interesting experience for me. Something I most likely never would have seen if Ali's mom wasn't going through this process. It was fascinating to me to look around a room and see such diversity. I was possibly the only one in the room without an accent and fair skin but I didn’t' feel bothered or insecure about this what so ever. It was an experience that really gave me food for thought....

After renewing my citizenship :)…. I got back to SI (Staten Island) and decided I had to do something about my EZPass. A lot of you probably don't know what these are. It’s just a pass you stick on the windshield of your car so that anytime you have a toll instead of stopping at a booth your pass is scanned and you can keep on goin'. I have an EZPass because I cross a bridge with a toll every time I go to school and will soon do it every day when I start working. Well...this wouldn't be a big deal except that the bridge costs $10 every time you go over it!!!!!!!! So let’s do some math folks $10 X 5 days = $50 X 4 weeks = $200 a month!!!!!!!!!!! Just to cross a freakin' bridge...can you tell this doesn't make me happy. Soooo if you live on SI you can get a discount and pay $4.50 instead...sounds good right?!?!? Wellllll I go to the EZPass office on SI (because I can't stand the automated system crap that you get on the phone) and I wanted a person. I go to the office with plenty of ID and mail with my address on it...at least what I thought was plenty. There are only 3 types of information that they will accept to give you the SI discount 1. A NY sate license...hmmm don't have that 2. A NY state car registration...definitely don't have that 3. A utility bill...and they only accept utility bills...in your name...nope don't have that either. I got annoyed at this to say the least. So I tried to pull the student card :) I explained I'm a permanent resident of Indiana and only going to school out here so I didn't want to change my license or car registration. The woman pretty much told me I better get my name on a bill then....sighhhhhh so now I have to get Ali to get my name on a bill and in the meantime continue to pay the torturous $10 toll.

After all my morning/afternoon shenanigans I decided I needed some Target time. This is often my reward for myself you will come to learn. After a little shopping I picked up Ali from the Ferry once he got off work and we went and saw The Dark Knight. Did anybody else find that movie very violent??!?!? I was actually scared after this movie and didn't even want to be downstairs in the house alone! Totally not kidding!! I guess watching a movie showing killing and torture for fun and games doesn't sit well with me. No wonder our society has become so violent...we desensitize ourselves with all this crap....but I won’t' get on my soap box :)

Anyways kids that was my day yesterday. Like I said today wasn't too eventful. I'm just sitting here waiting for Ali to get home. He had his first official MMA fight today. MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts and it brings together boxing, wrestling and martial arts all into one. UFC and WEC all are MMA shows on TV. If you ever catch it, it’s very hard core and often has blood….do I need to go through my feelings about violence again?!?!?! Anyway...Ali wants to get involved and has been training for a while for this fight. Unfortunately he just called me and said his fight didn’t' go so well. He got caught in a guillotine hold (meaning the guy was going to choke him to the point of passing out) if he didn't tap out. Yeah...I’ll do really well at his next fight! So sadly Ali didn't win… but this was his first fight and he's been so comforting tell me there will be many more to come!

Well that's all I've got for today....I’m gonna go watch some Paula Deen 
Love you all!!!