Its Been A While Friends...

Well I've been slacking on the blogging lately. Between the excitement of planning a wedding, working, and being in Canada for a week I haven't had much time to sit down at the computer and write out all of my thoughts.

Like I said, I went to Canada for about 5 days the weekend of October 15 with my mommy. It was amazing! Unfortunately the original reason was to go for my grandma's funeral, but it turned into such an amazing weekend that I'm hoping will be life changing. I guess I should start from the beginning:

First of all, I had to drive to Decatur, Alabama to fly to Missouri which was a long four hour drive and I almost got lost numerous times (I really need to update Keegan's GPS.) After a layover in Charlotte, I got picked up by my mom who I was soooooooo excited to see. I got to show off my engagement ring and be total girls with her on the ride home. The next morning my mom and I took a bus to Kansas City to fly to Canada. I got a bunch of grief from every airport security person I met, but I eventually got through both the American and Canadian customs agents with just my permanent resident card! Woohoo no passport for this girl needed (even though I'm still in the process of getting one just to make travel easier.) We landed in Toronto at 1:30 am and had to take a taxi from the airport to my dad's parents house. That was an adventure just by itself (just a note, don't trust the taxi driver if he says he'll take a credit card, you'll end up paying for the ride in American money,) but we got to my grandparent's house around 3:30 a.m.

After a few hours of sleep, my mom and I got up for my grandma's funeral. We got another taxi to the funeral home, but got there an hour early. We walked a few blocks to a Tim Hortans (Canada's version of Starbucks but much better in my opinion) and got coffee to warm us up. At the funeral home we were met by my aunt and two cousins who I haven't seen in about seven years, and my aunt and uncle who I can't remember when I saw last as well as numerous cousins. The funeral was sad and it took all of me not to cry so I could be strong for my mom. After the funeral we went back to my uncle's house to hang out before going over to my great-aunt's house for a party of sorts. It was so amazing to reconnect with my cousins, some of which I haven't seen since I was three years old! The best story of all was from my cousin Andrew who I hadn't seen since I was three. Apparently the only memory of me that he has is when we saw each other and he had long curly hair like mine. Being three, I decided Andrew must be a girl like me since our hair was the same. I wouldn't let anyone tell me that he was a boy. I think that I connect with both my aunts/uncles and my cousins now that I'm older. The last time I've seen almost all of them I was a young shy girl who wouldn't talk to them. Now I'm able to tell them about my life and appreciate the talks I have with them so much more. I learned so much about my family during this weekend that I didn't know before and I really really really want to make a big effort to keep in touch with my family now that we've reconnected. I think its stupid to have a family riff stop a family from knowing each other, but again, that's another story.

The next day, there was an engagement party/party for my grandma at my dad's parents house. Again, it was nice to reconnect with everyone. I met three of my cousins that I hadn't met before (one of them is 7 and the twins are 3,) as well as see another who I had only met the day she was born. I love hearing what everyone is doing and see how families have changed. It was just such an amazing weekend of connecting with my extended family and I really appreciate the time that I had with them.

The next day, my mom and I went hung out with my two aunts, my great aunt and two of my cousins. We went to downtown Toronto and saw the Occupy Toronto march, had lunch, and went shopping in a HUGE mall. It was nice to hang out with the girls in my family and get to know everyone better. That night, we went over to my dad's brother's house to hang out with his three girls. Don't tell anyone, but he has always been my favorite uncle on my dad's side. He was always the "cool" uncle who drove motorcycles and wasn't afraid to play around with us when we were kids. He has a beautiful wife and family now and I loved hanging out with them.

All in all, it was such an emotional and amazing weekend. The original reason to be there was sad and it was really hard on me when my mom turned to be and said, "I just realized that I'm an orphan. Both of my parents are gone." I didn't know what to do, it is hard to all of a sudden switch roles and be the comforting figure in our relationship, but I tried to comfort my mom the best I could. I love that I was able to reconnect with so much of my family (many of them even said they'd like to come to my wedding!) and I hope that I can stay in touch with everyone. That is my new goal in life; to never loose contact with friends and family that mean a lot to me. Life is too short to let something like that happen.

I'm going to try and post more often so I'm not writing novels every time. I can't promise with my crazy life, but I'm going to try really hard.

!!!!!!

Sooooooooooooooooo



I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!


I'm so excited right now that I don't even know what to do with myself. Today seemed like a pretty normal day. Keegan and I were out most of the day with a relator looking at houses (that's another blog post entirely,) so we were in the city next to ours for most of the day. We hung out with a friend out there for a few hours, and then came back to our town for dinner. We had an amazing dinner at a restaurant called the Grill (who has amazing Snicker's pie by the way,) and then we came home. I hopped in the shower and then got in some comfy clothes. Keegan suggested that we go out for a drive, something that we like to do from time to time, and we drove out to a lake about fifteen minutes from our house. We parked the car, walked out onto the dock and started making small talk for a little bit under the moon and stars. All of a sudden, Keegan says "Hey Ais," and I turn around and he's on one knee. He pulls out a ring from his pocket and says "Will you marry me?" Of course, my hand flies to my mouth, I start crying and laughing and shaking all at once and I'm *pretty sure* I squeaked out "Yes!" I pulled Keegan off his knee, hugged him, and didn't let go for about 5 minutes. I don't think I can do the whole night justice, it truly was romantic under the stars on the water. I don't think I've ever seen Keegan so happy when I said yes and just hugged him.

Apparently while I was in the shower, Keegan called my mom's cell phone to try and get a hold of my dad. She said he was busy, but Keegan pressed upon her how important it was that he talk to him. My dad was apparently in the shower, so my mom went to go get him thinking something was wrong with me. I guess Keegan asked my dad for my hand in marriage while my dad was dripping wet from just getting out of the shower. Only in my family eh?

And here's the ring. Again, it doesn't do it justice, it is so much prettier in person.

 I'm pretty sure I'm just babbling now so I should sleep......or try to at least!

Difficult Week

This week has certainly been a difficult one. First, we found out that there is no way that my passport is going to get to the consulate, get processed, and returned to me in time for me to fly to Toronto for my grandma's funeral. Tuesday, my dad called the Canadian consulate office in Chicago to see if there was anything that could be done to speed up the process, or if there was a letter that could be written saying that my passport was in the process of getting renewed, but just wasn't finished yet. My dad was told that some sort of letter could be written, but now that I had moved to Mississippi, I was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Chicago consulate and I had to talk to the consulate in Atlanta, Georgia. I put on my big-girl pants and called the Atlanta consulate on Wednesday, but of course they didn't pick up. I left a message, trying to explain my situation as best as possible and hoped that they would get back to me. Surprisingly, they called  me back within two hours or so, and I talked to a woman named Stephanie. Again, I tried to explain my situation as best as I could, saying that my passport had expired, and I needed a new one in time for my grandma's funeral in three weeks. After numerous phone calls on both of our ends, (including me having to call the funeral home and having to get them to fax me a copy of my grandma's death certificate to prove that she actually passed away , something I NEVER wanted to have to do,) it all came down to me having two options.

1. I could either change my flight so that I landed in Buffalo, NY and drive over the border with just my permanent resident card. This was a possibility because apparently security over land is less strict and they would "most likely" let me over the border. However, this option didn't work for me because my plane ticket (as well as my mom's) was bought with airline miles from my dad's father. To change the tickets now would result in a fee as well as us having to rent a car for the 5 days we were going to be there and we just didn't have the money to cover all of that. 
2. Since changing the plane tickets wasn't going to work, I had to prove to Stephanie that by trying to change my ticket, I would lose all of my air miles, or that the fee to change the ticket was more than the ticket was worth, and if I was able to do that, she would consider trying to help me again. Air Canada wasn't willing to write me a letter, so I had to fax her my plane ticket that showed that my ticket couldn't be changed. However, this wasn't proof enough for the consulate, so I was basically back to square one. 

My dad, who I swear is part of the Canadian mafia (if there is such a thing) somehow knows someone in Parliament so he contacted her and she said she was willing to try and help us out. So now we wait and see if anything comes of that. If all of these things fail, I guess I'm just going to go to my flight with all of my documents proving who I am and hope that they let me through.

To make this week even better, I just found out my dad's in the hospital and I'm 9 hours away from him. My mom said it's just another bleed that he gets every now and then, but I hate being so far away from him especially since things with him can go downhill so quickly.
  

Toronto

Well it's official, (more or less, more on that later,) I'm going to Toronto in October for my Grandma's funeral. It is unfortunate that everyone is getting together for such a sad occasion, but I am excited to "meet" my extended family again. I haven't seen many of them since I was a young teen, some of them since I was much younger. Unfortunately, (here comes the more or less part,) I don't have my passport exactly. It's currently in the mail getting renewed, and I'm hoping to get it back in time. My dad called the Canadian consulate in Chicago to see if they could speed up the process a bit, but unfortunately they don't give emergency passports anymore. They said that they could write a note that is supposed to allow me over the border, but now that I have moved down to Mississippi, I am no longer under the jurisdiction of the Chicago consulate. Tomorrow I have to call the consulate in Atlanta, Georgia to see if they are willing to write a note as well and send it to me here in Mississippi so I don't have to drive the 5+ hours to retrieve it. If all of this falls through, I basically have to bring every document that shows that I live in the United States, have established a life here and intend to return to the United States. I'm sure there will be a lot of begging and pleading with border patrol to let me over the border, I'm just hoping that I don't get stuck on one side or another. Since my parents, and oddly enough my grandparents, don't want me to drive the 9 hours from Mississippi to Missouri to meet my mom to fly from St. Louis to Toronto, it looks like I'll be flying from Huntsville, Alabama (which is an hour and a half from where I am now,) to Charlotte, North Carolina, to St. Louis the day before we leave from St. Louis for Toronto. With all of this traveling, I will be away from Keegan for about a week which is going to be really hard, but it will be nice to see family again. Now all I can do is wait and hope that the consulate in Atlanta will write a note for me to allow me over the border, and if not, wait and hope that my passport comes in.  

Update

Well its been a loooooooooooooooong time since I've written anything. A lot has been going on so I'm just going to use this post as an update with my life.

• Following up my last post, my grandma passed away on September 4th. Keegan and I were driving back from St. Louis after spending the long Labor Day weekend with a bunch of friends when my dad called me to tell me the news. Of course I was upset, but a kind of calm came over me knowing that she wasn't in pain anymore. I'm currently working on getting my passport so that I can attend her funeral in October. I hate that family reunions only seem to happen in times of sorrow, but I will love seeing all of my family again. It has been far too long since I have seen everyone. 

• Labor Day weekend was....interesting. I don't know if I was just on edge because of everything that was going on with my grandma, or if our friend dynamics have really changed that much in just a few months, but certain people in our friend group were just rubbing me the wrong way. It was the same people that annoyed me when we hung out in Rolla, so I wasn't surprised that they annoyed me when we got together for the weekend, but I was kind of hoping that since most of us have graduated from college now, they would have grown up by now. Oh well; overall, the weekend was fun. We got to go to the zoo, hang out as a group in the hotel, swim, and just generally catch up with each other. We talked about making this a yearly thing and changing the location each time to where a member of the group is living. The idea is next year will be in California, but I'm not sure if Keegan and I will be able to make that with him only getting 10 days of paid vacation a year and us wanting to save that for holidays with family. We'll see what happens. 
• So far, I'm still technically unemployed. I'm still "working" at the arts council in the next town over while I wait to see if the Vista grant will come through from the government. It looks like the earliest that will happen will be November. I'm very conflicted with this situation because I love working at the arts council, but I can't keep working there for free. My student loan payments start in November and I don't want to push them back any farther. Getting the Vista grant will be extremely helpful because while I'm receiving the grant, the government will pay any interest I have on my student loans as well as paying me a monthly income. I will also get medical insurance and if I had children, the government would pay for their child care. The Vista grant is exactly what I need right now, but with the U.S. government wanting to decrease their debt, they are being extremely slow with approving any kind of budget for programs like this. There is even talk about the government getting rid of the Vista program which would mean that I wouldn't be able to stay at the arts council because they just don't have the money to pay me since they are a non-profit organization. My boss did say that she is going to officially put me on the pay roll just in case there are days when the girl I work with can't come in, so they could pay me. 
• I also need to either get the Vista grant going, or find a real job so that I can hopefully get a new, or at least a less crappy car. My car died again last week and it was another $750 to fix (the stupid gas line broke or something like that.) I HATE having to ask Keegan to pay for things like this. Since I was 15, the legal age in Missouri for minors to hold a job, I was working as much as I could during the summer and while I was in school. During college, I worked three jobs to keep a roof over my head, feed myself, and pay for school supplies; most of the time I was only able to afford two out of the three. I have always been a very self-sufficient person, never wanting to rely on anyone to pay for anything because that always (well 99.9% of the time) leads to them holding it over your head. I made a promise to myself when I was young that I would never rely on anyone for monetary reasons and unfortunately in the situation I'm in down here, I have to rely on Keegan. I thought that I had a job lined up with the arts council before we moved down here, but the Vista grant has fallen through twice now. If it falls through again in November, I'm going to have to leave my dream job and probably the only arts-related job in this area to work retail or something with a paycheck. I also promised myself that I would use my degree, and giving up my job at the arts council and going back to working retail makes me feel like I've failed and going to college was for nothing.  
• With my money situation in mind, I'm thinking of opening an Etsy shop with simple handmade things that I can make easily, with either scrap fabric I have left over from school, or old t-shirts that Keegan and I want to get rid of. I just hope that it will be worth it and I can actually make some money off of it. 
•  On a more positive note, R, the girl I work with at the arts council gave Keegan and I two tickets to the MSU college football game last Thursday and it was a blast. We were in the nosebleed section (seriously, I think we walked at least 7 stories to get to our seats,) so we could barely see the game, but it was fun to forget about everything for a while and to band together with the strangers around us and cheer for the home team. Keegan and I were looking into getting better tickets for one of the biggest games of the season, but reasonable ones (read less than $100 per ticket) are already sold out and the game isn't for another two months. I guess we'll be watching that game from our couch unless someone wants to give us tickets again. I can't believe how big football is down here. Some people pay $500 per ticket per game! I don't think I would ever pay that much for a sporting event, but I wasn't brought up with football being a big deal in my house. This town gets so crazy busy during game days so I think unless we're going to the game, Keegan and I might go out of town on game days. 
• Keegan and I are making friends. The couple that I thought we would be close to have turned out to be a lot more introverted than we thought, so we have only hung out with them a few times. With them falling through and Keegan's summer interns leaving, I was afraid that we wouldn't have anyone our age around until next summer. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there are a lot more people under the age of 30 that work with Keegan than I thought. We went out to dinner with a bunch of Keegan's younger male co-workers one night which was a lot of fun. Last night we also went out with a girl that is the office next to Keegan's and her girlfriend. They are both born and raised Mississippians and it was a hoot to compare our two different childhoods, especially since the girlfriend was brought up in a less-developed part of Mississippi. They are both super nice and I really hope that we get to know them better. I am not so worried that we are not going to be able to find friends down here anymore.  

Well, I think that's all that has really been going on with me. I know this post was more blah-sounding than happy, but I think I'm just having a couple of bumps in the road with settling down here. Keegan and I have finally settled into a routine that we try and keep up with unless its broken up by him having to go to dinner with a customer, or me having a late-night performance at the council. We're both busy during the week so the weekends are our time to relax, spend time together, and maybe get out of this tiny town and shop at Target an hour and a half away. Its amazing what you miss when you don't have it around you anymore. Hopefully my next post will be sooner and will be more upbeat.

~Aislinn