Whew, made it here.
Hit the road yesterday at 7 a.m. and finished in Harrisonburg VA at 11:30 pm, stayed the night in a nice enough hotel, and hit the road this morning at 9:30, arriving about 1 p.m. Registered at the con, had lunch, crashed out for the afternoon, then got up at 7:30 and went for dinner with Ray - Cat was still too tired & stayed in the hotel, so I brought her shrimp & beer from Red Lobster after we'd eaten.
Mind you, getting there was a chore - Ray was navigating (he;s been here before), so we spent an hour stumbling around Lancaster which - believe me - ain't that big. Did get to see an Amish buggy & horse tho, while we were lost: picturesque, but .... ekk, horse manure :((
Terribly afraid this whole trip was a collossal mistake: I'm still feeling beaten & bruised from the trip, I just dont have the resilience or energy for this punishing travel. Not sure I'm even going to play at the tournament tomorrow or Saturday. Horribly tired and depressed. Oh well, have to just sleep on it, we still have to do the journey back.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Bennigans
Well Memphis went OK. Cat & I were separately interviewed, and the guy who interviewed her was pretty brusque and hostile: by the time he interviewed me, he had eased off somewhat, so ironically I had an easier time of it.
However, the upshot is that Cat is definitely approved, and no decision is made on mine - as they require proof that I was legally divorced when Cat and I married, and all I had was a notation on the marriage decree (god knows where the original divorce decree has gone). So, I've contacted Archives NZ to ask how to get a copy of this, & will have to wait for that. Fortunately, it doesn't make any difference to me when it happens, whereas with Cat, the sooner she gets her green card, the sooner she can start work.
We did have one other little incident. When we visited Baton Rouge last year, we ate at a restaurant chain called Bennigans, and Cat had a Monte Cristo sandwich, which she absolutely loved: we tried to find one in Little Rock, but it had closed down before we got here. Last time we went to Memphis, I checked the internet & found the address of a Bennigans restaurant, and made sure to take Cat there, which delighted her.
So of course, after our interviews this morning, we set off to lunch there again, following the same directions, pulled into the drive and .... no Bennigans, it had been renamed to the 'River Cafe'. Talk about thunderstruck! It must have been hilarious to watch our faces at the sight.
Nevertheless, we ate there, and fortunately the menu hadn't changed, only the name :)
Oh well, on the road in the morning, I'll cut this short.
However, the upshot is that Cat is definitely approved, and no decision is made on mine - as they require proof that I was legally divorced when Cat and I married, and all I had was a notation on the marriage decree (god knows where the original divorce decree has gone). So, I've contacted Archives NZ to ask how to get a copy of this, & will have to wait for that. Fortunately, it doesn't make any difference to me when it happens, whereas with Cat, the sooner she gets her green card, the sooner she can start work.
We did have one other little incident. When we visited Baton Rouge last year, we ate at a restaurant chain called Bennigans, and Cat had a Monte Cristo sandwich, which she absolutely loved: we tried to find one in Little Rock, but it had closed down before we got here. Last time we went to Memphis, I checked the internet & found the address of a Bennigans restaurant, and made sure to take Cat there, which delighted her.
So of course, after our interviews this morning, we set off to lunch there again, following the same directions, pulled into the drive and .... no Bennigans, it had been renamed to the 'River Cafe'. Talk about thunderstruck! It must have been hilarious to watch our faces at the sight.
Nevertheless, we ate there, and fortunately the menu hadn't changed, only the name :)
Oh well, on the road in the morning, I'll cut this short.
America
Despite what I might write here, things are hardly unbearable here, by any means. I guess it's human nature to focus on the discontents and rant about them, but there's plenty of good here, too: not least, my god! we are rich :)
Well, at least more affluent than I've ever been - we have a brand-new car (my first ever), a pleasant 3 bedroom house in a leafy suburb, and pretty much all the toys and gadgets that we want: and if we feel the pinch a bit financially, that is just a combination of Cat not being permitted to work for pay yet, and paying off the cost of moving here & setting up house again, more or less from scratch. In a year or so, we should have those all done, and be able to buy a substantial house quite easily.
And, there is a sense of, well, unconstrainedness here: calling it freedom is a bit facile, but after the crowdedness of Europe, and in particular after the tight-corseted attitudes of England, things are much looser and easier. If we have periodic clashes with BastardCorp (in all it's different names), well, that happens everywhere - I still remember, bitterly, my dealings with Telebastards NZ, and those crappy architects that screwed the pooch in the Kinghorne street extension.
Plus, we are away from the english passive-aggressive, negative, carping atmosphere: that alone is like getting out of prison. OK, the people here might be racist & sexist, but hardly worse than the grotesquely racist working class english, or the (largely) snide and vicious middle class sexism: and at least here they are friendly and open at first encounter.
Oops, time to hit the road ... Memphis here we come!
Well, at least more affluent than I've ever been - we have a brand-new car (my first ever), a pleasant 3 bedroom house in a leafy suburb, and pretty much all the toys and gadgets that we want: and if we feel the pinch a bit financially, that is just a combination of Cat not being permitted to work for pay yet, and paying off the cost of moving here & setting up house again, more or less from scratch. In a year or so, we should have those all done, and be able to buy a substantial house quite easily.
And, there is a sense of, well, unconstrainedness here: calling it freedom is a bit facile, but after the crowdedness of Europe, and in particular after the tight-corseted attitudes of England, things are much looser and easier. If we have periodic clashes with BastardCorp (in all it's different names), well, that happens everywhere - I still remember, bitterly, my dealings with Telebastards NZ, and those crappy architects that screwed the pooch in the Kinghorne street extension.
Plus, we are away from the english passive-aggressive, negative, carping atmosphere: that alone is like getting out of prison. OK, the people here might be racist & sexist, but hardly worse than the grotesquely racist working class english, or the (largely) snide and vicious middle class sexism: and at least here they are friendly and open at first encounter.
Oops, time to hit the road ... Memphis here we come!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Historicon
Well, we're off to Historicon shortly, so I imagine blogging will be spasmodic at best, for the next 10 days.
Actually, we're off to Memphis tomorrow for our interview with Immigration, to get our green cards, then we drive back. Ray is driving over from Oklahoma on Tuesday night, then we all set off together on Weds morning, early. (why drive back from Memphis only to repeat that journey on Weds? Well, the cost of overnight accommodation, primarily).
It's about a 1200 mile drive each way, so the plan is to drive around 900-1000 miles on Wednesday, find a local motel to crash out in, then complete the journey Thursday morning: with any luck, that leaves Thursday afternoon to register, and go gawk at the shops & tournament prep.
Friday is the Theme (Dark Ages) FOG tournament, and Saturday is the Open FOG tournament - each 3 x 3.5 hour games, pretty damn hard work. I dont have anything scheduled for Sunday, tentatively plan to go sightseeing with Cat for the day: and we have friends, Tiffana & Pete, driving from New Jersey to meet us (for the first time), for dinner on Sunday. Monday we drive back (not sure if we'll break the trip or try to do it in one hit), then Tuesday & Weds I've got off work to sit around home and recuperate :)
I'm fairly nervous about it, as the physical demands are quite high, both in terms of driving, and gaming - 3 games in a day is tough, and doing it 2 days in a row may be too much for me, have to wait and see.
That's all I've got at the moment: need to go pack toy soldiers! I'll try and write something more later, if I have time & energy.
Actually, we're off to Memphis tomorrow for our interview with Immigration, to get our green cards, then we drive back. Ray is driving over from Oklahoma on Tuesday night, then we all set off together on Weds morning, early. (why drive back from Memphis only to repeat that journey on Weds? Well, the cost of overnight accommodation, primarily).
It's about a 1200 mile drive each way, so the plan is to drive around 900-1000 miles on Wednesday, find a local motel to crash out in, then complete the journey Thursday morning: with any luck, that leaves Thursday afternoon to register, and go gawk at the shops & tournament prep.
Friday is the Theme (Dark Ages) FOG tournament, and Saturday is the Open FOG tournament - each 3 x 3.5 hour games, pretty damn hard work. I dont have anything scheduled for Sunday, tentatively plan to go sightseeing with Cat for the day: and we have friends, Tiffana & Pete, driving from New Jersey to meet us (for the first time), for dinner on Sunday. Monday we drive back (not sure if we'll break the trip or try to do it in one hit), then Tuesday & Weds I've got off work to sit around home and recuperate :)
I'm fairly nervous about it, as the physical demands are quite high, both in terms of driving, and gaming - 3 games in a day is tough, and doing it 2 days in a row may be too much for me, have to wait and see.
That's all I've got at the moment: need to go pack toy soldiers! I'll try and write something more later, if I have time & energy.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Cars
Well, today is my day off, so after I dropped Cat at a florists shop - she's doing a (6 hour) day a week for free, to keep her hand in, and to adapt her style to American tastes some - I got to take the car to Honda for a service & oil: due, but also a sensible precaution before our big road trip next week to Historicon.
Up til now, Cat had done all the dealing with the Honda service people, but she was fed up to the back teeth with them: as she was a woman, they would always ask to speak to her husband about any decisions (!), could never adjust to the idea that she has a different last name to me (!!), and generally acted like patronising sexist assholes.
I can't say I love them very much, either, but at least I get less crap to deal with than she did. Still, a 2 hour wait pretty much wasted the morning (not helped by sharing the waiting room with the Woman With The Bionic Jaw - an art teacher with an apparently inexhaustible voice, and store of opinions, mostly annoyingly christian).
Checked the mail, and there are our (replacement) insurance cards - the first set didnt list Cat at all (!), so of course this set does .... but with my last name, again. Despite having been told explicitly. Oh well, try that one again, I guess - and of course I have to call them, not her, as they won't recognise her authority to modify this, despite both our names being on all the paperwork. What is this, 1950? 1850?
Just part of what I mean about the relentless sexism. Oh well: just another reason to try and relocate to somewhere less backward (speaking of which, I reminded my boss about my request, but still no word on it so far).
* * * * *
And driving home reminded me of something else: I will never get used to the idea you can make a right hand turn through a red light. I mean, I can see the logic and the benefit, but it always feels like I'm breaking the law, fairly pointlessly. Of course, if I should actually forget, and sit there, the people behind me will remind me volubly and frequently of this.
Up til now, Cat had done all the dealing with the Honda service people, but she was fed up to the back teeth with them: as she was a woman, they would always ask to speak to her husband about any decisions (!), could never adjust to the idea that she has a different last name to me (!!), and generally acted like patronising sexist assholes.
I can't say I love them very much, either, but at least I get less crap to deal with than she did. Still, a 2 hour wait pretty much wasted the morning (not helped by sharing the waiting room with the Woman With The Bionic Jaw - an art teacher with an apparently inexhaustible voice, and store of opinions, mostly annoyingly christian).
Checked the mail, and there are our (replacement) insurance cards - the first set didnt list Cat at all (!), so of course this set does .... but with my last name, again. Despite having been told explicitly. Oh well, try that one again, I guess - and of course I have to call them, not her, as they won't recognise her authority to modify this, despite both our names being on all the paperwork. What is this, 1950? 1850?
Just part of what I mean about the relentless sexism. Oh well: just another reason to try and relocate to somewhere less backward (speaking of which, I reminded my boss about my request, but still no word on it so far).
* * * * *
And driving home reminded me of something else: I will never get used to the idea you can make a right hand turn through a red light. I mean, I can see the logic and the benefit, but it always feels like I'm breaking the law, fairly pointlessly. Of course, if I should actually forget, and sit there, the people behind me will remind me volubly and frequently of this.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Welcome to 1951, hold onto your temper
This is the sort of story that doesn't usually make it into foreign papers or TV, but we see a spasmodic drumbeat of this sort of stuff. This one is particularly rancid and left me gagging. I'll quote Pam Spaulding (who has a more complete version):
-------------------
Of course, by now the club has taken down its contact page, and in fact it appears any online vestiges of itself have been scoured. I can't imagine why.
However, to give a better taste in the mouth, there's an addenda:
---------------------
The staff at the Valley Swim Club in NE Philly must have stepped into the DeLorean and took a spin back into the days of segregation, as 60 kids were turned away from the pool there and apparently the people at the Swim Club didn't mind their inner bigot surface for all to see.
"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."..."There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
Excuse me, what year is this? Am I watching a rerun of a scene in Far From Heaven (2002)? There was a scene in the Todd Haynes film, set in the 1950s, where a black boy, the son of service worker at a Miami hotel, dares to step into the hotel pool. His father rushes and pulls him out, but it’s too late—the white people in the pool race to get out of the “contaminated” water. Apparently that’s the kind of “change they can believe in” at The Valley Swim Club.
Contact information for the club is here. This is so outrageous that I’m almost unable to type.
I don’t see anything on the membership app asking about race, so when do they determine you can’t join—when you show up?-------------------
Of course, by now the club has taken down its contact page, and in fact it appears any online vestiges of itself have been scoured. I can't imagine why.
However, to give a better taste in the mouth, there's an addenda:
---------------------
After the treatment the kids attending Creative Steps Day Camp received from The Valley Swim Club, a private school has welcomed the children to swim in its pool. (NBC):
[T]he staff at Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school for children who live in low-income and single parent homes, stepped in and offered their pool.
“We had to help,” said Girard College director of Admissions Tamara Leclair. “Every child deserves an incredible summer camp experience.”
The school already serves 500 campers of its own, but felt they could squeeze in 65 more – especially since the pool is vacant on the day the Creative Steps had originally planned to swim at Valley Swim Club.
“I’m so excited,” camp director Alethea Wright exclaimed. There are still a few logistical nuisances—like insurance—the organizations have to work out, but it seems the campers will not stay dry for long.
And to sweeten the deal, the owners of Gumdrops & Sprinkles treated the kids to a free day of candy and ice cream making.
Bits & pieces
Well, we finally managed to get our MMR booster shots done this morning - something we'll need to prove for next weeks' interview with immigration. We went to get it done yesterday afternoon, but the waiting room was full, and after a couple of minutes it became apparent they weren't going to be processing all the people already in there, that day.
So we checked what time they opened (8 a.m.) and showed up early. Just as well, when we got there the parking lot was already almost full, and there were half a dozen people in the waiting room already.
I should perhaps explain this is a government health centre: dead-cheap, so of course under-resourced and always in high demand. Still, it's done now, thank ghu
* * * * * * * * * *
And our long struggle with the dreaded TV set is finally coming to a close, it seems: the repairman has given up on trying to fix it, as they no longer manufacture the parts he requires for it, so (as it is still under warranty), they have agreed to replace it with the equivalent model: so I went to the store last Sunday and picked out the model, then arranged for delivery & installation (not until this Saturday, alas). Finally, we may be able to watch more than half an hour of TV without the highlights being painted neon-green!
Still, it certainly added charm to some of the less interesting programs, and made for a rather, umm, abstract experience at times.
Oh, and what are we watching at the moment? (at least, the pick of whats available)
* True Blood (Alan Balls excellent version of some so-so* vampire books, with Anna Paquin starring)
* Royal Pains (highly recommended, very witty & tight so far)
* Weeds (although this is deteriorating substantially from the first couple of seasons, it still has its' moments)
* Saving Grace (passable cop show set in OKC, which makes a nice change all in itself)
* Big Bang Theory (limp sitcom, altho the best of whats available I think, mostly watch for Johny Galecki's exquisite timing ... not sure I'd recommend it to anyone)
Thats about all that's worth watching at the moment. Some of the TV channels have been quite, um, disappointing: the Sci-Fi channel, which I thought, great! when I saw it would be available, erh, not so much - it seems to be full of Star Trek (NG) reruns, Real-life Ghost Hunter rubbish, and other even less SF-ish things, plus getting commandeered for Ultimate Fight Wrestlemania Homoerotic Grope-a-thons periodically (can you spell sublimation, guys?).
And the History channel is, well, even worse than I expected (which is saying something). The UK History channel I watched occasionally in England was bad enough (sloppy, lowbrow, and full of myths, plus horrendously jingoistic & pro-British), but the american original is ... oh dear god, so much worse: hysterically patriotic, blinkered, and endlessly propagating, not just myths, but outright errors and lies. Did you know Vietnam was a draw? or that the South deserved to win the Civil War (or, the War of Northern Aggression, if you accept the racist bollocks that gets served up when you talk about that).
Still, for all that, there are a lot of channels available, and you can usually find something halfway acceptable if you want to vege out, either on the Classic Movies channel or one of the HBO movie channels. We have also been watching quite a lot of 'My First House' and 'Property Virgin' houses about buying in the USA, trying to pick up familiarity with how it's done, what tricks to look for & what to try out on sellers (heh), and also to gauge relative prices in different parts of the country, as the programs tend to flit all over.
As they also can date back 2 or 3 years, it's also giving me something of a feel of how prices are falling now (if not how much further they have to go yet). One universal, tho, every area, every year, is that the estate agents will always tell you the market is heating up, you better make a good high offer, and if you offer too low you can insult the seller so he won't consider any offer you make. Yeah right, that all depends on exactly how desparate a straight he's in, and whether there are other offers. Of course, as the agents commission is a percentage of the price, it's in their interest to keep this as high as possible.
We are contemplating trying to subvert this: if we buy in LR, we have found a woman who we like & trust as an agent, and if it proceeds that way, I want to discuss with her making a fixed-commission deal (i.e. stipulating a flat payment to her no matter the price of the house), and then getting her to check through all the foreclosures & bank-owned properties: by removing her concerns about her fee, we're hoping she can find us some real deals, rather than steering us to the top of our affordability bracket. Not sure if that'll work, but it seems an idea worth trying anyway.
Anyway enough of that: the other thing on our minds is, of course, planning for our trip to Historicon next week! More on that tomorrow, tho, time to get back to work.
So we checked what time they opened (8 a.m.) and showed up early. Just as well, when we got there the parking lot was already almost full, and there were half a dozen people in the waiting room already.
I should perhaps explain this is a government health centre: dead-cheap, so of course under-resourced and always in high demand. Still, it's done now, thank ghu
* * * * * * * * * *
And our long struggle with the dreaded TV set is finally coming to a close, it seems: the repairman has given up on trying to fix it, as they no longer manufacture the parts he requires for it, so (as it is still under warranty), they have agreed to replace it with the equivalent model: so I went to the store last Sunday and picked out the model, then arranged for delivery & installation (not until this Saturday, alas). Finally, we may be able to watch more than half an hour of TV without the highlights being painted neon-green!
Still, it certainly added charm to some of the less interesting programs, and made for a rather, umm, abstract experience at times.
Oh, and what are we watching at the moment? (at least, the pick of whats available)
* True Blood (Alan Balls excellent version of some so-so* vampire books, with Anna Paquin starring)
* Royal Pains (highly recommended, very witty & tight so far)
* Weeds (although this is deteriorating substantially from the first couple of seasons, it still has its' moments)
* Saving Grace (passable cop show set in OKC, which makes a nice change all in itself)
* Big Bang Theory (limp sitcom, altho the best of whats available I think, mostly watch for Johny Galecki's exquisite timing ... not sure I'd recommend it to anyone)
Thats about all that's worth watching at the moment. Some of the TV channels have been quite, um, disappointing: the Sci-Fi channel, which I thought, great! when I saw it would be available, erh, not so much - it seems to be full of Star Trek (NG) reruns, Real-life Ghost Hunter rubbish, and other even less SF-ish things, plus getting commandeered for Ultimate Fight Wrestlemania Homoerotic Grope-a-thons periodically (can you spell sublimation, guys?).
And the History channel is, well, even worse than I expected (which is saying something). The UK History channel I watched occasionally in England was bad enough (sloppy, lowbrow, and full of myths, plus horrendously jingoistic & pro-British), but the american original is ... oh dear god, so much worse: hysterically patriotic, blinkered, and endlessly propagating, not just myths, but outright errors and lies. Did you know Vietnam was a draw? or that the South deserved to win the Civil War (or, the War of Northern Aggression, if you accept the racist bollocks that gets served up when you talk about that).
Still, for all that, there are a lot of channels available, and you can usually find something halfway acceptable if you want to vege out, either on the Classic Movies channel or one of the HBO movie channels. We have also been watching quite a lot of 'My First House' and 'Property Virgin' houses about buying in the USA, trying to pick up familiarity with how it's done, what tricks to look for & what to try out on sellers (heh), and also to gauge relative prices in different parts of the country, as the programs tend to flit all over.
As they also can date back 2 or 3 years, it's also giving me something of a feel of how prices are falling now (if not how much further they have to go yet). One universal, tho, every area, every year, is that the estate agents will always tell you the market is heating up, you better make a good high offer, and if you offer too low you can insult the seller so he won't consider any offer you make. Yeah right, that all depends on exactly how desparate a straight he's in, and whether there are other offers. Of course, as the agents commission is a percentage of the price, it's in their interest to keep this as high as possible.
We are contemplating trying to subvert this: if we buy in LR, we have found a woman who we like & trust as an agent, and if it proceeds that way, I want to discuss with her making a fixed-commission deal (i.e. stipulating a flat payment to her no matter the price of the house), and then getting her to check through all the foreclosures & bank-owned properties: by removing her concerns about her fee, we're hoping she can find us some real deals, rather than steering us to the top of our affordability bracket. Not sure if that'll work, but it seems an idea worth trying anyway.
Anyway enough of that: the other thing on our minds is, of course, planning for our trip to Historicon next week! More on that tomorrow, tho, time to get back to work.
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