I watch too many romantic movies!

Sorry to hear about the cold, Carey.  I get mild colds a lot when I travel, too.

I have no plans whatsoever for Valentine's Day.  I'll probably go hang out with my horse, who is the main love of my life, but I doubt he'll care one way or another.

Was your trip awesome, Carey?

It was very good.  Very short, but we packed a lot in, did some talking about the relationship and are in a good place.  I'm not crying today, which is a major improvement for me post-trip.   

Thanks for asking JEP. I am well, but missing my boyfriend very much. I have been unemployed for a month now, so I have too much time to think about things. I recently started volunteering at my local hospital and have been catching up on a lot of reading, but the days are still long and boring. I can't wait till June when I get to see my bf again.

Carey, that's too bad about your cold!  Where did you end up visiting in DC?  I'm glad you at least got some nice weather...it's been very hot and cold here lately (literally, i guess...)  One day it's freezing and windy, and the next day it's balmy and warm.  Very blah.  I wish DC would pick a season and stay there!

I thought of you ladies today in Philosophy.  My philosophy class is called Philosophy of Art and Beauty, and at the moment we're talking about Aristotle's Poetics, and basically...he thinks that a work of art should have one main plot, and anything with too much going on takes away from the plot, etc., causing "bad art".  So we were talking about this, and my professor (who is adorably awkward and went to University College Dublin) goes "...Has anyone seen Love Actually?  What would Aristotle have to say about Love Actually, besides the fact that Hugh Grant is just so lovable?"

...yeah...we established that Love Actually is "bad art".  Which was a bit heartbreaking to me.  But made me laugh nonetheless!

How's everyone doing?  Hanging in there?  Who's ready for the weekend?!  Anyone have Valentine's Day plans?  I have to go to a film screening at the National Gallery here in DC...which I'm kind of looking forward to, and kind of bitter about.  Luckily, my boyfriend will be 4,000 miles away in Ireland so I won't have plans for the evening anyway...but I'm so glad we didn't arrange for him to come over early especially to celebrate Valentine's Day...he would have been furious! haha

Haha!  Who knew that Aristotle and Love Actually would ever be mentioned in the same lecture?  Given his philosophy, I suppose hes right, but I bet even HE would like the movie

We did all the normal sites (monuments and such), got super drunk in some very strange bar in Adams Morgan where David made friends with some rappers (a bit odd), disappointed my dad by not properly visiting ANY of the Smithsonian museums, but we did go into the Newsuem and spent a lot of time there.  Have you been?  We also went to a Wizards game and it turned out to be a really good one - decided by one last minute basket!  I also "allowed" David to go to Hooters for lunch one afternoon and also introduced him to the deliciousness of Chipolte (needless to say, he was in heaven and is very much looking forward to them getting one in London next year).

I just got a talking-to from my boss re: personal phone calls.  I have my annual review on Friday and imagine I will get reemed for it even further.  This greatly upsets me, of course, because these calls are from David usually and cannot be had outside of work hours.  Ugh. I am preparing myself to speak to him much less, I suppose

ugh, sorry Carey! It's so tough with the time difference. And it doesn't help when your co-workers or employer doesn't understand the aspects of an LDR with that big of a time difference. My breaks are precious to me! I'm sure they think I'm an overly sensitive baby for always worrying about if I have to take my breaks at different times of skip it all together. I hope your boss isn't too hard on you. Don't stress yourself about it though.

I dont take a lunch, so I will offer to take one and make the calls on my lunch break and apologize profusely and hope the worst that happens is I dont get a raise (which I am certainly not counting on anyway).   As discussed earlier, I hate being in trouble and will not sleep well for the rest of the week now. Ugh. 

Totally unrelated - Chi, Patty mentioned that you had a link that listed expected turn around times for visa processing... Do you still have that?

My first official step to visa-hood/visa-ship/visa-dom is coming up!!!  I'm taking my dog to the vet next weekend for her rabies and microchip to get her ball rolling.  Poor baby - I hope her having a garden to romp in will make up for what shes about to deal with.

Geezie, Carey.  Sorry your boss is giving you a tough time about calls with David.  My boss gives me a hard time sometimes about taking time off, but he gives it to me anyway.  Just hope it goes alright on Friday for ya.

Seems as if everyone else is doing well here.  Congrats on getting your wedding photos, Chi.

And Carey, you can take some of my over tiredness......I didn't do a whole lot today (was my day off) but I started falling asleep talking to Ian tonight.  Mind you, he wasn't in a very talkative mood this evening, so that didn't help either.  British men and their lack of being talkative sometimes!  *rolls eyes* lol

So he just like, hung up our video conversation without saying anything.  Hopefully he's not upset.  Will have to email him.  He just seems odd lately once again, and it's scaring me.

Oh well.

Hope you ladies are doing alright!  Tomorrow is hump day!

And plans for V-Day for me: work, then come home and sit with Ian online for a bit.  I WAS going to buy a "naughty nurse" outfit for giggles, but I just had to make my school loan payment and that's a pretty chunk, and I still have to save money for the wedding/plane ticket/visa.  *sighs*

OMG OMG i was going to buy a naughty nurse outfit and suggest a cam session too!  HAHA, but honestly, he would be like "yeah, nice outfit.  Dont you remember I hate webcams?", so I think I'll pass on that.

I am sorry Ian is acting "off".  It is the worst part of an LDR when the other goes to sleep or whatever and you are the one still up wondering if something is wrong.  Easy for me to say, but I am sure everything is fine. Maybe he was feeling ignored by you, so he did the childish thing and ignore you back - David and I had a talk over the weekend about how we do that and seriously need to knock it off.  Its so poisonous!

My cousin/best friend in childhood's bday is Valentine's Day, so we are ignoring all the lovey dovey and going bowling.  I swear the first person I see snogging at the bowling alley is getting a ball chucked at their head! (no bitterness there, of course...) 

He made a comment about how he knows it sounds girly and that I would make fun of him (as I did), but hes always wanted to be sent flowers... but I dont know how to make sure he will be home and he would KILL me if I sent them to work on Friday.  Any ideas?  I wonder if they would deliver first thing in the morning??  hmm...

Hi Ladies (and lurkers!) Busy already around here. My tutoring schedule has been switched around a bit this week, working at the running shop, meetings (boo!) and grades were due yesterday (meaning inputting it all into the computer.. oh and grading everything! lol I'm so bad with that...) Soooo glad tomorrow's Weds. already. I've got hockey tickets (vs. Chicago Blackhawks!) with my sister. That will be fun!

No real plans for Vday. I have to work at the running shop that day, so nothing too exciting. Might rent a movie for Sat. evening... nice dinner, probably some booze!

Carey- sorry about work. Glad you had a good time in DC, though.

Patty- I am guessing it's just as carey is saying. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again probably.

Brittany- very cool! It's funny because as I began reading, I just knew you were going to mention Love Actually! lol Aristotle probably wouldn't like "He's just not that into you" either. It's got a similar format with many overlapping plots going on simultaneously.

And the rest of youse guys , hope you are having a good week. I know that being far away from the one you love is difficult. Hopefully it won't be much longer for you!

Okies, gonna go watch American Idol and hockey on tv. I was up at 4:30 this morning to run and discovered I've now got a throat/sinus/runny nose sick thing going on. Oy. Not now! Don't the germs know I don't have time for them right now??!!?? 

Hello hello. Not much time to type today (or right now at elast). Have a MILLION envelopes to stuff.

Here's that link: go to 
https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Content.aspx?tag=New_Visa_Processing_Time&c=global
and click on "Guide to visa application processing times"
You have to click on the place you are applying from and it will tell you the times.

Hope you're all having a good day!!

Mahh-velous. Thank you, Chi.  Looks like they are getting processed super quickly, but I did notice that was published in December. I hope they keep updating it as time goes on...

My cough is super bad today and I have to go to a big meeting of other Development people with my boss. Blegh!   I hope you are fighting off your germs better than I am, Beth!!

Sorry to hear you're not better yet, Carey! Nothing like coughing during a big meeting. I've been having to blow my runny nose at inopportune times, too. I'm sure people think I'm nuts. Oh well. Better that than my nose running all over the place! Good luck at the meeting.

Is it Friday yet?!??!??!?

There was an article on Yahoo yesterday saying that blowing your nose when you have a cold is bad and it could lead to further infections.  I didn't read it, because sometimes I'm obsessed with blowing my nose when I'm ill.

But I hope you ladies feel better real soon!  *gives you veggie soup*

And Chi, was wondering if you could do me a HUGE favor.  Since you're doing things for the spousal visa as well, have you possibly found a link for an example letter for proof of employment?  Ian is flipping out and wants to know EXACTLY what the letter needs to say so he can tell his boss.  So if you have a link or an example from what your DH is having written, that would be awesome (or any other ladies....Ian needs help! lol).

And how was everyone's day?  Mine was alright.  Slow...busy...but slow.  Now I'm tired...lol.

And I wish I had this weekend off.  Oh well....atleast I have Friday off.

Not that I am the expert by any means, but those letters can be very simple, Patty... I found this example online and all other samples are pretty much word for word exactly the same thing.

To whom it may concern:

This letter is to confirm that (Employee's Name) has been employed full-time by (company name) since (employment date) as (position). (Employee's Name) receives a salary of (dollar amount), which is paid bi-weekly, He currently works (number of hours) a week.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the undersigned.

Kind Regards,

(employer's name)
(employers position)
(employer's phone number)


Would it be insane if I bought a binder this weekend and made the little tabs for my eventual application?