So, 2 days later I check the mail and in between the throw away junk mail is tucked my letter! I was pretty confident about it, I mean, I've already driven to New Orleans, so I know the way, and I grew up in VA, so American Civics is pretty well known in my Swiss Cheese for a brain, it should be a piece of cake. (feel free to start laughing now) Yeah, easy & the US government...ha, ha, ha, etc! The first thing I notice is the 8:10 am appointment....great! We've been there, done that, should have bought the t-shirt (no, there really isn't an INS fingerprint appointment t-shirt), will book the Residence Inn again. Nope, the second thing I notice is the location. Jacksonville, FL....mapquest it and its 5+ hours in the OTHER direction! Third thing I notice...."This is a small waiting room, please only bring people necessary to your 2 hour interview"! 2 hours! 2 hours!! 2 HOURS!!! What am I going to do with the kids??? I can't leave them in the waiting room for 2 minutes, let alone 2 hours!!! John has class, and can't get out without getting rolled back into a later class, so he sure can't go with me. I could get a girl to babysit, but it would be overnight, as I have to go the day before, but how would that work out with John and his early morning (he leaves for work at 4 am)?My genius husband came up with a great idea!!! We texted Sarah, my sister in NY and asked if she could come down to be my babysitter. I know, you're thinking, wow, that's one expensive babysitter, but this totally serves a dual purpose. My interview is August 22, and we'll be heading north shortly after September 5, and will be in AK for a minimum of 2.5 years. I'll not only get a babysitter, but I'd get to see my baby sister one last time before we left! Even before we know the answer, I'm already planning on dragging her along on my road trip. She and the kids can stay in the room or go swimming while I go to my interview. It would be sweet to have her along for the ride, and even sweeter to have smiling faces to come back to once I'm through!
She said yes, she'd love to come, and with her boss giving her a generous time allowance, we started the booking process. I don't know if you've done long distance booking for another person, but I don't think I did it the easy way! I wanted her to have as few stops as possible, one layover would be ideal, but I also didn't want to pay a ton of money to get the tickets either...of course. Every time I'd find something that seemed like it was worthy of booking, I'd have to text her to get her OK....we texted back and forth over the course of an hour and I still didn't book anything until the next morning!
I started out looking at round trip tickets; the flight down worked but the flight home got her arriving after midnight, with an hour+ drive to get home....that wouldn't work at all. Then I switched to a different website and found a better flight home, but it was connected to a really early flight down (6:00am, with the check in and stuff, she would have had to leave home at like 4am).
We're very excited! I was in her wedding back in December, and haven't seen her since. I can't wait to put my arms around her at the airport and just give her a hug again! Thanks INS for making this trip possible (and my genius husband who goes to work everyday to support my spending)!
Next time, (I almost put up the word tomorrow...LOL) I'm going to put a few of those EASY civics questions and see if you could become an American citizen!
WOW! I didn't realize how much Jacksonville is in the middle of no where! I have family outside of Ft Lauderdale- and friends in Tampa.... neither of which are even CLOSE to Jacksonville! LOL
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