“Green Card” Stuff

Today Diane was kind enough to come over, pick me up and take me to the place I needed to go to to get my "green card" renewed. But first we met her husband, Ernie for lunch. Apart from lunch, it was nice to see Ernie again. I hadn’t seen him since the Big Cleanup after Fred died where he and Diane and their son had got out all the stuff in the front room and sorted it out into give away, throw out or keep. My part was to sit there and decide into which pile everything went. Diane took numerous car loads to places where this stuff could be used! Anyway, we went to lunch with Ernie and it was very nice.

So after lunch we went to the place where we thought we were supposed to go. Nope! That was for passports only. But they were able to draw a map for Diane and thus we went to the real place. We had to turn off our phones which is when I discovered I didn’t have mine with me! I wasn’t too worried because I remembered put it on the bookcase for charging but I didn’t remember putting it into my purse! {And when I got home, there it was, on the book case, fully charged!} Then our purses went through that machine where he could see everything inside and before we went through the gate, our keys were put in a tray. When it was my turn, I mentioned I had a metal hip and he told me mot to worry because my metal cane would set the portal off anyway!

Next, I talked to a very tall young man who kept telling me that although it was FINE for me to live here as a legal alien, wouldn’t I really like to not to have to come back in 10 years and do this all over again? I asked him what difference it would make if I did become an American. Now this was a trick question since I already knew the answer, but to my surprise, he said not only would I be able to vote, I would be able to apply for Social Security.  This is where he was absolutely wrong since I have been drawing SS for fourteen years already! He was a bit taken aback when I told him so, and muttered something but unless there has been a big change, I was told when I signed up that my SS, like everyone else’s, depended on my age and what I had put into it all the years I had been working. Anyway, the bottom line was he gave me a huge pack of papers to fill out for getting my "green " card replaced, and more papers on how to fill these papers out! Then, just in case I changed my mind, he gave me a pile of papers to fill out to apply for citizenship and another pile to explain how to fill out these first pile! {Our government at work!} Once I have filled out the "green card" papers, I send them to an address he highlighted with a big yellow highlighter. I am to include a check for around $400 if I am remembering correctly, and when they come back, I bring them out to this building again where I will be fingerprinted and photoed yet once again. I can see why they might want a new photo, but my fingerprints haven’t changed with age!

After all this, Diane and I went to a thrift shop where I got a black skirt and a black-and-white blouse for a very good price, and then she drove me home. I turned on the AC in the bedroom and took a one-and-a-half hour nap which was very therapeutic!

Oh, and talking about therapy, I have an appointment with a new talk-therapy person tomorrow afternoon…

You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are

happy. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but

trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change

your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to

correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working.

— Emmet Fox