catching up!

update on the itchies and scratchies: Thanks for y'all's concern :) No, I have yet to call an allergist... didn't I mention procrastination is one of my middle names? Besides, the Benadryl was keeping me knocked out most of the week. We accidentally found out that the combination of Benadryl *and* Zyrtec seems to make a difference. The colony of welts that took root at the base of my neck is pretty much gone, yahoo! Still have uglies behind one ear, but at least I don't wake up and immediately start scratching at them! Yay! I'll take the dozing all day to driving myself nuts with the itching!!! Next week I'll pick up the phone and call the allergist, I promise!

paperwork blues: Thanks for the comments and questions on this post! I'll try to address them now:

Some asked why I needed to go through these hoops, and why it's so complicated. Well, at the risk of sounding defeatist, it's just how the system is. And I'm not dissing the system - I understand that it's been designed to have all these different steps, although it would be nice to have someone audit them and see if they can be reduced... At this time I just wish the instructions were better written!

What I'm going through is just to get a full-fledged Green Card. What I hold now is a conditional Green Card. Foreigners who marry U.S. Citizens are automatically granted PR status. However, due to a high incidence of marriage fraud, a 2-year probation period is put into play. So prove that during the first 2 years of your marriage you acted like a real married couple, then all is fine. But you must apply to get rid of the conditional status 90 days before the conditional status expires. If you don't, your PR is canceled and you need to get yet butt outta the country. Fun, eh?

To those who said affidavits are not required: Perhaps the information in the forums is a bit old? The most recent version of the form & instructions was released in August 2008 - I don't have an older version of the instructions for comparison, so I have no idea if things have changed much since even a year ago. All I can say is, we called the help line, and the guy said "yes"... so... better safe than sorry, eh? And a thank you to Elisette, but I don't think interactions via blogs would count for much in their eyes :p

How is this related to getting citizenship? It's not. Or rather, citizenship would be the next step for me, if I chose to pursue it. Right now I'll just take the PR, thank you! But in case you're curious, I *think* I would be eligible for citizenship in another year or so.

and no, the package is not ready yet. Still waiting to receive affidavit #2 (probably get it on Sunday). So next week it'll be on its way.

oh, and I thought up a complication about a technically expired PR and my needing to get to Malaysia to renew my passport. Aaaaaauuuggghhhhhhhh!! Will whine about it later, if it's a valid concern.

sigh.

okay go have a good weekend!!