April 10

Wow. It's been that long, hasn't it.
My bad.
Life has been tossing me around like a little pinata lately. And it's been weilding such a big stick to beat me with.

I'd delve into the details, but I'm just glad the details are over.
The short and dirty?
The contract ended the day before Christmas. My dream job went away.
Could not for the life of me find another job.
Tried to go on unemployment. I say tried, because giving birth was easier and didn't take a fraction as long. Was also less painful. And frustrating.
Lost the apartment. Well, now that's not entirely true. Gave it up cause I couldn't afford it, is more accurate. Details, details.
Moved in with a friend. Who dicked me over for money I didn't have. Never paid me back.

No wait. This gets better. Really.

Got a job in Vail. Couldn't find a PLACE to live in Vail, but got a job. Took a month and even then it was only another employee who ended up offering up an extra room for $600 a month. So I move to Vail finally, yay go me.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Cause my life has been total and utter chaos for months. Wears a girl out, that does.

So now I'm working again, which is great. I like it, the people I work with are extremely nice, easygoing, the job isn't brain surgery or anything. So work is never really hard. Days like today, of course, I want to personally bitch slap every single condo owner in here. But then, that's just a Monday thing. I tell myself.

That's basically the last few months.
Then there's the INS thing.
I struggled to get the money to get a passport. Fed Ex that sucker to Quebec Canada, and don't think that was cheap. Finally got it. Make an appt to see immigration so I can get it stamped so I can get my license finally. Get there, and that's no small feat from Vail, as there is honestly ONE bus, once a day, to Denver.

Walk up to the counter. Finally, they can stamp it, extend it.
She says no, we can't.
I'm ready to strangle someone there. Every time I've been there, something has gone wrong.
I breathe.
She says well, the reason she can't stamp it, is that the condition on the green card, namely me being married, was approved to be lifted.

In November.

I look at the calender.

It's....it's March. (at the time)

Five months. I never got the new card.
Well, we sent it to your address.
And she reads off the wrong address. A typo. On their part.
I swear to god, the government is blonde. A lot.

So they'd send me out a new one, to the new address.
And there it came. Shiny and new and good for 10 years.
No little piece of anything outside a small human being, has made me this deliriously happy.
I still have to deal with them, eventually in 10 years, but I won't have to do this waiting game every month anymore. Nearly 6 years of it is far too long as it was.

So now we come to present day.
When people are protesting the whole immigration thing.
Illegal immigrants. Here illegally.
Protesting that they have the right to be here?

Ahem.

Sorry, I nearly choked there.
I keep reading these articles, looking for something that resembles common sense. I'm not finding any.
I'm an immigrant. I had to do it legally, so I'm sorry if I have no sympathy for people who brush by under the system's radar, making the government paranoid about HONEST people trying to make their way in the States so that they investigate and ponder and drag their ass for 4 years longer than they have to.
I'm sorry if I have absolutely no sympathy for the illegal immigrant who has some notion they have rights here. Just because they showed up.
And I read a quote saying they have no choice.
You always have a choice. I had a choice.
Doesn't mean it's easy. Doesn't mean it's something you might be comfortable doing.
But your ass always has a choice.
You choose to sneak in here. You chose to live under the radar.

Yeah, the government doesn't make it easy. Nothing worthwhile in life is fucking easy, come ON people.

I've tried to feel their pain, really I have.
There was a time I couldn't work, I didn't have a permit at first. It was a pain in the ass. I didn't exist for a while. That's hard.
I was determined not to stay that way though. I found a way. I searched for every loophole, every technicality that I could. When all my options ran out, I found another one.
Yes, I comprimised my life a while. I comprimised who I was.
It was what I wanted in the beginning. It fell apart. Things do. People aren't who you want them to be, and one day you wake up and realize they never will be.
No fault. No fingers pointing. Just the realization that you have to move on.

Not my point here though.
The point is that I'm actualy angry that these people have the nerve to go protest for rights, for sneaking into the country. Illegally.
God, if I thought that's all it took when I got here, christ, why would I go and do it legally for 6 years? Why on earth would anyone go and spend nearly $4000 on applications, and 6 years under a microscope from the government questioning your every move, your every motivation, when all I had to do was sneak across and then demand rights.

Now they're saying there's the possibility that a bill will pass granting citizenship to those here illegally for over 2 years.
Don't think that doesn't piss me off. Guess that's what I get for trying to do it legally. God forbid.

If the government makes it easy for people illegally here to suddenly become citizens, they'll see a flood of people skipping the borders. Demanding rights.
Let's reward them for breaking the law.
Does this sound TOTALLY insane to anyone else but me?