Our happiness!
This actually happened a month ago but I just don't have the time or find the time anymore to post anything. But so yes, we're engaged!!!!!! And in a week and three days I fly to Vancouver to visit my fiance!!! And on the day I leave, April 24, it'll be our 6-month anniversary!
Because I'm doing a quick update now, I'll continue just a little longer! Mr. H is Canadian so we've been figuring out which route we'll take to get him here to the US - and I've become an expert in US Immigration law for fiance(e) and spousal visas. Still, it looks like it's going to take longer than I had originally thought - the Vancouver consulate said it was taking a year to process these visas from first filing. So Mr. H and I just recently made the decision that I would move to Vancouver first and get my Canadian residency and then from there we'd start the US immigration filings.
At first the idea freaked me out but then I started thinking of the so so so many benefits:
1) Mr. H and I will be able to be together much sooner.
2) I'll get to live in another city and country for a temporary period of time and ever since graduating from law school I've wanted to experience another place but be able to return to Chicago - only money and fear and job and so many other things always prevented that. But now I have this perfect opportunity!
3) I'll get to know Mr. H's family and I just love that idea because otherwise it would take me years to really feel like I knew them well and feel like they were family.
4) It'll be such an adventure!
5) It'll get me out of my current rut because otherwise I don't think I would ever leave the comfort of my current job and explore other options. When I move to Canada I won't be able to practice law so that won't even be an option, and instead I'll have to really be outside of my comfort zone and prove to myself that I can do just fine - it'll give me some much-needed confidence! I can also explore so many other options, I can take some web design classes or just keep doing it on my own but have more time (I completed my first website recently - a whole website for Mr. H and his business, and it's beautiful!!!! Yay me!!!!).
Anyway, I love the idea that Mr. H and I will be able to be together much sooner, that we'll be able to start the slightly stressful beginning of introducing my two cats and his two dogs to each other (I've read so many articles on ways to do this because I want it to go as smoothly as possible). And I love that we'll get to start the process of living together and figure out all that as it happens. And I love the idea of this adventure even as a tiny bit is very stressful, but it's a good stress and I know I won't be alone while I try to find a job and figure out what to do there.
We don't have a time quite yet as to when I'll be moving there because first Mr. H needs to meet with an attorney there to answer some questions about Canadian immigration and a work permit and health insurance. I think we're going to have to get married right away for some of these things. And then at a later time we can have a little ceremony there in Vancouver and also we'll have one in Chicago probably when we move back here.
James and Emmalove are very good although a month ago I noticed that James was trying to go pee and nothing was coming out, and I knew this could sometimes happen to boy cats and I also know they can die if it's not taken care of right away, so I rushed him to the vet and cried there while they took him in the back, the vet met with me and said she couldn't express anything from his peepee and he would scream in pain whenever she pressed on his belly (that broke my heart!). Then I waited in the waiting room, trying not to cry, while they sedated him and put a catheter (sp?) in and an IV in his little arm, and then he spent two nights at the vet until they knew he was doing okay and peeing on his own. There's a 50-50 chance that it will happen again at some point so I always keep my eye on him and on the litter box. Oh and it was $750, not that he isn't worth it in every possible way, but it made me realize that I really need to work on always having some money set aside for rainy days.
Also a month ago, my aunt in Wisconsin passed away from breast cancer that had metastasized (sp?) to her bones. She would have been 52 just this past week. She'd been fighting the bone cancer for the past I think five years, trying to hold it off as long as she could. A week before she died I went with my parents to see her and it was so sad and so scary. She didn't look like herself at all even though a couple times when she was awake we saw her humor a bit, which was almost more painful. I hate this disease cancer, I hate everything about it. I hate how prevalent it is, I hate how many kinds there are and how they're all different, I hate that we can't always cure it, and I hate how much it terrifies me. My aunt was so incredibly strong and dealt with so much at such a young age, and I admire her so much for it. Even while battling the initial breast cancer she was going to college on weekends and I think some nights, and she graduated right after they discovered the cancer in her bones. And during that time she was also raising a family and always moving up in her job. She was so strong and wonderful and I wish so much that cancer didn't have to occupy so many of her years and didn't have to take her life at such a young age.
Well, I'm suddenly at a loss now. I can't think of anything else to talk about. I could gush about Mr. H plenty I'm sure, but after writing about my aunt I don't feel like writing much more now.
I'll try to get more in the habit of writing again, but I can't promise anything, not even to myself. A week ago I started a new blog set to private with the idea that I could get back in the habit of writing and be doing it for me instead of with other people in mind. And when I was regularly writing in this blog it really helped me so much - both with organizing my thoughts and also with the relationships with other bloggers. But I've gotten so out of the habit that I haven't been able to start again. I'm actually amazed that once I started this post I was able to just keep writing. Oh and that private blog - I haven't written a thing in it since starting it. So I'm not even doing good with that!
I guess from this I've seen that once I start writing it comes out, but then again, this post is mostly just recapping what's been going on and not writing everything in my head. Hmmm. I'm not even making sense to myself right now with any point I was trying to make. In conclusion, I want to write but I don't know how frequently it will happen, and I don't know if I'll be able to get back in the swing of things so easily after not writing for so long. I feel like I've lost my voice. Maybe I'll start by determining to write one paragraph a day in the little private blog so I can get back in the swing of things. That's what I say now anyway, but I'll see what happens. However, I will make a 95% promise that I won't go for over two months without posting again, just so people know I'm still alive and kicking and doing mostly well! And who knows, maybe I'll suddenly be posting four or five times a week again now that I've written this! I have no idea! I know I'd like that though. I'm thinking of all the reasons why I'd like that now! Oh and Mr. H just suggested to me in the last week that I post about my recent cravings to get drunk again since I told him that one of the reasons I initially started the blog was because I knew the alcoholism was something I'd have to address soon. So I could maybe write on that soon.
Okay, enough rambling. I have some serious laundry to do. And my dishes from the past week to do. And some other important things. And I've planned to call my parents tonight so I need to get going. Hopefully I'll write again soon.
