Chris & Maria's Blog

I had my “procedure” today.  While Rob (uncle/Dr.) couldn’t give me the heat or x-ray vision I asked for, he did shoot high intensity lights into my eyes and told me that I would be okay.  While it was quick, I can’t say that it was totally painless.

The first thing they did was to put drops in my eyes to contract my pupils.  After about 15 minutes, my pupils were about the size of a BB (4.5mm) or smaller.  They then put numbing drops in my eye and had me rest my chin on what looked like a slit lamp. The difference is that this one also had a laser attached.  He then pressed a lens to my cornea which, I assumed, magnified his view and/or helped focus the laser.  His assistant held the back of my head so I didn’t flinch or move.

Next was the fun part.  Once he had the spot picked out, he fired the laser.  It felt a bit like what I would imagine hot pins going into your eye would feel like.  He did this two or three times per eye.  This really didn’t take very long…just a few minutes.  I couldn’t see anything right away.  As you can imagine, my eye was watering as if my face were a garden.

It’s been several hours, and I still have some discomfort.  My eyes feel really dry and irritated (you would too if you had just got a hole burned through you with a laser) and I’ve got a slight headache.  They said I might get a headache, as it can be a result of the dilation of my pupils. All-in-all, not a bad procedure.  If it keeps me from going blind it’s worth it!  If I get fewer headaches, that’s even better.  Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!

Nope, it’s not. It is, however, something similar to acute closed-angle glaucoma. Left untreated, I could go blind. Fortunately, I have an amazing eye surgeon for an uncle and he discovered it yesterday when we went for our regular eye exam.

Next Wednesday, I will have an iridotomy to (hopefully) fix the problem. It’s a simple procedure where they shoot laser beams into your eyes. I always thought that was a bad thing to do, but I trust Rob when he says that’s what I need. On the plus side, in addition to not going blind, this may give me some relief from the headaches I get.

I’m not worried about it. It sounds painless and quick, and as I said Rob is a fantastic doctor. If you’re local to East TN, I highly recommend him.

Just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a very happy birthday – hope you like the presents, and I wonder how long before you realise this post is here. 😛

We’ve been very quiet on the blog, as we’ve been holding our breath on the whole immigration issue.  We didn’t want to talk about it too much, as we didn’t know what we could and couldn’t legally say.  I can now give you the latest, though, as we got the letter today.

We’re approved!  Maria is now a legal permanent resident of the United States!!  Thank you, God!  I know all of you have been waiting with us, and giving us loads of prayers and good thoughts.  We can now all breathe a sigh of relief.  We’ve notified our families, and all of them are so very pleased.

Thank you, all of our friends, for the support you’ve given us during this process.  We couldn’t be happier at this moment, and we look forward to finally being able to put down some solid roots together here, and celebrating this, the holidays and the new year with as many of you as possible.

Guess who’s on the front cover of USA Today? Yep, Barack Obama and Jon McCain, as expected. But look in the top right-hand corner and there’s another photograph, of none other than our good friend (and boss!) Melissa Anelli! It’s an interview about her new book Harry, a History (which we have on order and can’t wait to read). See the scan on Melissa’s site here, and read the article here.

We’re very proud of you Melissa!

You know how, on the day before you leave for vacation, you’re always faced with a bazillion things you need to get done?  Yeah.  That’s today.

I woke up at 6 AM (two hours befor eI normally get up) with a huge headache.  I got up and took two Excedrin and tried, stupidly, to go back to bed.  If the caffeine in the Excedrin wasn’t enough to keep me awake (which it was), then the plethora of thoughts going through my head was.  Tomorrow we leave for Florida.  The scare we had yesterday of our house/dog sitter canceling was resolved, but we have to show two different sets of people how to manage the canines.  We have to arrange the dining room and kitchen for the dogs.  We have to pack.  That alone is a list of several dozen things to coordinate.  We need entertainment for the trip.  We need food.  I need to adjust the water heater.  The list goes on.

Since all of that was going through my head at 6:15, I decided to get back up.  Some of those things I managed to get done, others will have to wait.  Packing in the dark while your wife sleeps, so I opted not to do that one.  I did make a list, though.  That’s a start.  After writing out the list, I tried to go back to bed only to realize I had left things off the list.  I gave up on sleep.  I got up, added the remaining things to the list, and got ready for and came to work.

I just realized I forgot something from the list.  I need to go vote.  Early voting is now open, and I want to do that.  I’ve never voted early, which meant I was always in a really long line to vote.  I don’t want to do that this year, as there’s probably going to be a rediculous turnout.  By the way, you should go vote too.  Go.  Now.

I don’t believe in luck, but if I did 13 would be my lucky number.  Why?  Everyone thinks it’s unlucky and because I want to be different.  I’m also going in 13 different directions at once, so if this post seems disjointed it’s because my brain is bouncing between all of them in rotation.

We’re less than a week away from leaving for Disney!  I’m really looking forward to it, but more for Maria than myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Disney, but Maria knows every song from every Disney movie ever made (with the possible exception of those straight to DVD movies).  She read through a Disney guide we borrowed from The Retro Moderns who borrowed it from Rexpete, and she read it all this past weekend.

I’m more excited for her since this will be her first visit to the magical world of Disney.  I’m really looking forward to seeing her excitement as we roam around the place.  I don’t care how old you are.  When you walk through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, you become a child again.  I’m really going to go out of my way to make sure she has an amazing time and gets everything out of the experience that she wants.

As for everything else, it’s been a crazy few weeks.  Work has been crazy!  I don’t know how much I’m at liberty to talk about, so I’ll err on the safe side and say little to nothing.  We moved to the other building on Friday and I’ve got stuff scattered everything.  Most everything is working as it should, though a few of my things aren’t working at all.  I need a video feed at my desk.  I’ve got one, but it’s not working.  I also need to be able to do certain things on the net that I can’t do yet.  It will get worked out in the end, so I’m not raising a fuss.  I know everyone else is busting their butts to get things done, so I can wait.

Personal projects have picked up.  I spent the weekend in old shorts and a t-shirt, mixing and pouring resin for one of the many projects we’ve been working on.  I hope hope hope hope hope that all of this will come together on time so we can make it official and announce it.

Lastly, we have our interview on the 19th.  We’ve got all of our paperwork together and collecting the last few things we need.  After that, we’ll either be celebrating or packing.  I pray we’ll be celebrating, but if we’re packing then so be it.  As I told Maria, nothing will come between us living our life together.  If she has to leave the country, then I’m going too.  There are times in life you have to do a reboot, but that’s ok.  What matters most is that you’re with who you love and who loves you.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers on the 19th.  We’ll let you know what happens!

“Free societies…are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom’s existence.”  Salman Rushdie

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” Oscar Wilde

This week is Banned Books Week in the US and I wanted to link to a great blog post written by a good friend of ours Doris, here. Doris has collected a variety of blogs and vlogs from many of our wonderful friends, including Sue, Nick and James, which discuss banned books and our right to read them. Check them out!

Banning books is something I don’t really understand. Sure if you don’t like a book, don’t read it, don’t let your children read it, but what makes you think you can make that decision for other people, for other families? The very idea is too close to Nazi book burnings in my opinion, and yet I found out the other day that it is illegal in Germany to publish new editions of Mein Kampf. It’s not banned, but you can’t print it; there are copies in libraries (sometimes under lock and key) and private homes, but you won’t find it in a bookshop. Is that hypocritical? I’m not sure, but by all accounts it’s really terribly written and its only value is historical, not literary. In contrast there are some truly amazing and wonderfully-written books on the Banned Books list; some of my favourite are Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, and of course, the one at the top.

The Harry Potter series is currently number 1 on the list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books so far this century. Seeing as these are the books that brought us together, they are obviously very important to us, and the idea of someone trying to take away other people’s right to read them is adominable. So please exercise your freedom to choose and read a banned book this week.

Woohoo! I’d heard rumours that they were getting back together but then forgot all about it until I saw a link to the video of their new single (on Perez Hilton no less). It’s called Love You Anyway, it’s really bouncy and catchy and you can see it here. We always found their videos pretty funny and this one doesn’t disappoint – Ronan and Steven both have ridiculous hair and Mikey is still doing that frowny-eyebrows thing. Shanno and Duffy look marginally better; they’re still dancing around at the back not doing much but at least they’re not pretending to sing anymore! So anyway if you like light-hearted-feel-good pop music watch this video and see if it cheers you up!

While writing this completely frivolous post I realised that neither of us had updated with the real news, that is I now have an official work permit (my status is legal alien with the right to work for anyone that’s interested) and a social security number. So that means one more step on the road to greencard happiness and fun times job-searching for me.

We drove to Asheville, NC,  on Friday (in a rental car with a 3-seater front seat which reminded me of the Weasley’s magically extended car) to go to see The Beach Boys play an outdoor concert at Biltmore. Apart from the children and teenagers who had obviously been dragged along by their parents, we were the youngest people there. Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and the rest were obviously well aware of their demographic ‘cos they made a few jokes about needing breaks and naps, however it was only a joke because they played through for nearly two hours. They mixed up the vocals with the rest of the band, who were all really talented, and performed some truly amazing, spot on four-, five- or maybe even more- part harmonies.

I was actually surprised to find a few songs I didn’t know (Chris was shocked that I’d never heard “Kokomo” or “Be True to your School”) but then I realised that all I really knew was Pet Sounds and the Greatest Hits. They certainly played all of those, and also a couple of covers (“California Dreamin'” was excellent!) and finished with “Fun Fun Fun” which had all the old-timers dancing. All in all it was excellent fun, and Biltmore is a gorgeous place for a concert; listening to live music outside while watching the sun set over the mountains is a  magical experience!

Yesterday we wandered around Asheville  – I liked it a lot but it was a bit too much on the hippie side of life for Chris – before heading home. Stopped at the Antique Tobacco Barn to look at all the amazing antique furniture (including a passable Mirror of Erised) that we would have in our house if we could. Chris took a few pictures here.