PREFACE It’s been said that when people get married they have a tendency to drop off the face of the planet. Originally, I thought maybe they got warped off to a paradise island complete with a tax-less, rent-free society where they didn’t have to do anything else ever again.  Once that myth was shattered, I then thought this would never happen to me when I got married.  Now I see how everything works. Life after marriage seems to be just as busy as before (just less stressful). The problem actually stems from a sense of time.  A couple of weeks ago I looked at the calendar and realized that Sarah and I had already been married a month. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, when that month has only felt like a week, you quickly discover how much you’ve neglected keeping in touch with people, especially those back home. So, for everyone who reads this message, I apologize profusely for my delay in getting this out. So. without further delay, please feel free to dive right in. We hope you enjoy Update #8.

A BRUSH WITH A CELEBRITY

As the intro indicates, Sarah and I had the privilege (?) of meeting Dr. Laura Schlessinger (website) at an FM107 sales event during the Minnesota State Fair.  Basically, since D.L. was in town doing some “face time” on the air at FM107, the sales rep had some of his clients come down for a meet-and-greet with her.

She arrived in fashion reminiscent of Donald Trump’s entrance in any Apprentice episode. Being followed by a security guard and her personal bodyguard, she entered the tent without a word, her head held up high and a sense that this was her 900th time doing such an event.

She gathered everyone around her for a little Q&A time. Unfortunately, it was windy and there was no microphone, so it seemed like a pretty casual get together, with people just staring at her as the center of attention.  Quite honestly, if they were like me, they stared not because she was a celeb, but because we were desperately trying to figure out if this was the same woman portrayed on the back of her books.

The questions were weak, because no one really knew what to ask. A few people ventured in with some, but they were quickly answered by the guru.  After only a few minutes, she called that time to a close and went to stand behind the book signing table. From her perch, she feverishly began dishing out her books at an alarming rate. Wanting to at least have asked Dr. Laura a question in person, Sarah and I nervously approached the table.  Knowing that each book was costing the sales department a lot of money, we immediately made it clear that we worked for FM107 and that we couldn’t accept a book. That being said, we then asked her what advice she had for a young couple getting married in a month.

With a flick of her wrist she skillfully slid open a book, signed the inside cover and pushed it towards Sarah. “This is my marital advice.  Read it.”  Well. I guess we got a free book.

We got our picture taken with her, grabbed the video above and thanked her for her time. Our experience with Dr. Laura was truly memorable.

YET ANOTHER CELEBRITY ENCOUNTER

As an addendum to the above section, I have to add this:  while we were waiting for D.L. to arrive, I made my way across the State Fair grounds to one of the stages to catch the very tail end of Vancouver’s own Sarah McLachlan. Here we see her with KS95 on-air personalities playing a game called “Will it Float”. She’s about to find out whether a corn dog will sink or float. 

And no, I’m not going to tell you if they do. You’ll have to conduct that experiment on your own.

LEADING TO THE WEDDING

Well. Let me be honest with you. Even though there was an entire month before the wedding (since the last update) I can recall very little of what went on.

…and because of that, we’ll simply move on.

A NERD’S SHINNING MOMENT

One fine evening in early September, I was over at the apartment having dinner with Sarah.  As the food was cooking, I sat diligently on my laptop chatting with Dave and listening to some fine internet radio.

Suddenly, without any warning, the fire alarm went off. Sarah and I were unsure of what the policy was, but we safely left the building via our patio to the road above.

While I was unconcerned, Sarah insisted that I salvage the laptop, should giant flames consume the building. Reluctantly, I carried my laptop out onto the street corner and opened it up again…. only to find that our wireless internet connection reached and that we could continue listening to music and talking with Dave.

So there we were; two love birds biding our time outside hoping that the alarm was false, surfing the internet from the comfort of our own curb. A few minutes later, the firemen arrived and checked out the situation. Our conversation with Dave with unaffected.

Mike Sarah and I are sitting outside…. the fire alarm went off while we were cooking dinner (no coorilation)
Dave whoa
Mike and I’ve got the laptop out with our wireless internet going… you’d be proud 🙂
Dave so the alarm went off and u grabbed ur laptop
Dave and u say ur not a nerd
Mike bwatevah!!!! it was so that I could continue to plan the wedding!
Mike yeah….. wedding…. that’s it.
Dave LIE-O GINA!
Mike I’m going to send you our Order of Service file as it stands right now….
Mike I’m working on the Groom’s dinner tab.
Transfer of “Wedding Order of Services.xls” is complete.
Mike yuh!
….
Mike NERD UPDATE: Sarah and I are still sitting outside, but we’ve cranked some Jazz internet radio
Mike the police have arrived before the fire truck
Mike yuh! the firetruck is here too!
Mike and now the ambulance
Dave VURb
Dave is it jsut ur place
Dave or the bulding
Dave so now ur like, the geek couple…
Dave everyone is watchign u like, nerd out on this puter
Mike well…. for an apartment this size, there’s sure not a lot of people filling the streets for their safety

In the end, it was a false alarm.  We returned to the apartment and finished out dinner.  I’d like to label this a fun adventure, but that would be rather pathetic.

WEDDING PLANS

Now that everything is said and done, the wedding planning feels like a distant memory, which is probably all the better. As with any wedding, trying to get everything set and ready to go for the big day is an arduous task.

Wow. I’ve been staring at my laptop for a while and can’t really think of anything significant in this section either. It’s an interesting thing how the human mind can work – we spend all this time thinking and stressing over something and then once it’s over, it all becomes unclear.  Normally,. I’d probably find that rather disconcerting, but since the wedding went so well, I’m not going to lose sleep over not remembering the stressful part 🙂

PS: Stressful, but fun.

THE BACHELOR WEEK

This is the section you’ve all been waiting for. Sorry, Dr. Laura, but you’re gonna have to move over.

The wedding, for Sarah and I, was nothing short of amazing. For months you plan every little detail and worry that it all works as intended. Our biggest hope was that on the day we could simply let go and enjoy ourselves.

Well, that’s exactly what happened.

The most ironic part was that no matter how much planning we could have done, it wouldn’t have worked without a gathering of such amazing friends and families.  If anything, our wedding not only showed us our love for each other, but just how blessed we are to be loved by so many wonderful people.

Speaking of which: daBoyz. Wow. Talk about an adventure.

For those of you who don’t already know, a week before the wedding, some of those Vancouverites (Craig, Pouria, Shawn and Mike Rob) flew into town for a quiet, relaxing week; one filled with healthy eating and lots of sleep.

Oh, shoot. I suppose I forgot to mention that Dave was there, too. 😉

Upon their arrival, with gear and passengers squished into a van, they unloaded their stuff and the apartment immediately turned into a war zone, and it would stay that way for days to come.

It’s actually difficult for me to justify that week before the wedding with my few petty words, because it was such a blast. Sarah and I were incredibly honored to have visitors from Vancouver in town (and Texas and Detroit). For me, I was touched that so many people came down. What’s more amazing was that even though there was 7 months in between, it only felt like a few days. Once together, it was just like the good ol’ days.

Some highlights:

• A seemingly endless number of visits to MOA (Mall of America(s) )
• Ali G
• The 2.5 hour walk to MOA from here by Craig, Dave and their fearless cartographer, Mike Rob
• Bissell getting into “the zone” with a TiVo
• Riding the giant, metallic Trojan horse
• Studying the effects of Pouria in a long-distance, international relationship 🙂
• Having everyone come to my work and be a part of Upper Room
• Touring Hubbard Broadcasting with our ID badges
• Avoiding the dark, abandoned-looking Mexican Restaurant
• Barreling at breakneck speeds around a twisty-turning Go Kart race track! Yuh!
• Knowing that our small, one bedroom apartment was enough to accommodate up to a total of 9 guys at once.
• Knowing that our neighbors are either incredibly hard of hearing or that they’re completely accomodating to having 9 guys living next door at once.
• Dinner at the Sickenger’s
• NOTE: Dave’s anti-Seal shirt would not constitute a highlight

There’s more, but I can’t think of them at the moment. When you do, send them my way so that we have a complete collection.

THE WEDDING DAY

A blessing. That’s all I really need to say. Really.

One of the biggest concerns Sarah and I had before the big day was whether or not we would be able to enjoy it all. It’s a difficult thing to plan something for so long and then to just let go, but that’s what we were (thankfully) able to do.

I can’t speak for Sarah, so I’ll let her do that in her section (which, by the way, paints a better picture than what I’m about to do), but my day went like this:

The guy-den awoke early, but not too early. We began getting ready, taking showers, preparing our Sunday best clothing and trying hard to get to Perkins on time so that we weren’t late for getting to church.

Loading 9 guys in a 7-seater van was relatively easy, due to Connor volunteering to sit in the back… as in the way back. Trunk-like.

Once at Perkins, I had the privilege of enjoying my very own birthday muffin. Yes, birthday.  As I was waiting for my breakfast to arrive, 3 of the waiting staff approached our table and began a chorus of “Happy Birthday”. Always wanting to join in on restaurant celebrations, I looked around to see who they were signing to, only to find out it was me.  Robin, who was seated next to me, had devilish grin on his face and I knew immediately what had happened.

Not wanting to ruin the party for all patrons in Perkins, I merely smiled and “looked embarrassed”, waiting patiently to dig into my free food.

Of course, in the end, Robin cursed himself for always giving other people free food with the “birthday” trick, but I sure did enjoy my apple cinnamon muffin.

After Perkins, it was straight to the church where the groomsmen and I were locked up in the youth room in the depths of Normandale Church. That was great because it was a large room with couches, easy access to the bathroom and a whiteboard. The whiteboard played an important part in the pre-wedding hours. Since Richard was unable to attend the rehearsal, Dave was able to draw out a game plan, complete with arrows and almost-to-scale drawing representations.

While this was going on, we found out that Richard’s tux did not include the right style of tie. We were supposed to have bow ties, but since his tux was ordered at another location, they did not update his order with the changes I had called in. Not only that, but they also sent along the wrong shirt.  Pouria began calling around to see if we could get things corrected. Although they didn’t have what we were looking for, they did have 2 others types of bow ties that matched the color.

Travis, co-executive usher, headed off to grab their stock while we continued to prep for the ceremony.  While the whiteboard-strategy raged on, I found myself mindlessly opening my laptop.

While the picture immediately gives the impression that I couldn’t live without my nerdery, the truth remained that I was honestly studying my vows so that I wouldn’t screw them up…. I still stumbled on them. I knew I should have taken my laptop with me into the sanctuary. I could have easily hidden it in Sarah’s dress.

Back to the ties. The ties arrived quickly but, unfortunately, they were a little too different from the rest of the pack. We eventually switched with Mr. G and all had the same ties. With a little pin-work on Pouria’s part, we were able to get it to sit properly on Richard’s shirt so well that no one was the wiser…. until I wrote about it in this update. Way to ruin the surprise, McQuade.

Now that I’ve spent 8 paragraphs talking about Richard’s trivial tie incident, I have little energy left to write in detail about the actual ceremony.  Like I said earlier in this section, Sarah and I had a wonderful time that day. The memories are wonderful so rather than me trying to describe it, I’ll simply let you enjoy the photos.

IT’S TIME NOW FOR…

So much has happened since our last update it s overwhelming to try summarizing all the huge life-events that have occurred. First of all, I want to deeply thank everyone who traveled from afar to our wedding: Dave, Pouria, Shawn, Richard, Craig, Connor, Robin, Mike Rob, Chris, Amy, Christina, Alexis, Erika, Janice, Art, Serena, Grandpa Warren, Grandma Edith, Auntie Carol, Uncle Paul, Cousin Bethany, Auntie Pam, Uncle Glen, and Cousins Chase, Brittany, Jenna and my god-daughter Kelsey. Having you here was such an incredible gift and meant so much to us. Thank you.

I remember so much more about the meticulous planning of the wedding than I clearly recall the actual day. The whole experience was truly surreal; I almost didn t believe it was really happening. A few of the things you won t see in the guys pictures are what happened in the bridal realm before the wedding. We had a really fun bridesmaid brunch at my parent s house the morning of the wedding with my bridesmaids Erika, Alexis, Christina and Amy, as well as my mom and my aunt Pam. They sent me off to the church with a giggly a capella Going to the Chapel and Amy shared a beautiful Hebrew celebration prayer.

We spent hours that flashed by in minutes at the church getting ready when everyone suddenly realized, ACK!! What are we going to do with our hair?!! It was a total chaos of cords as everyone s curling and flattening irons heated up and hair flew through the air.

Michael and I were determined not to see each other before the wedding. Pastor Nancy was equally determined to have us spend time together before the service, so we put on blindfolds and had a brief moment of calm before the storm.

Service Briefs: My brothers Jonathan and Stephen played trumpet duets for our processional and recessional. My grandpa Hoover was our other pastor for the service and did the sermon, incorporating the creator of the computer. My college friends Dan and Diana sang an awesome duet of I ll Be Here. My aunt Pam sang The Prayer and our friend Christa choreographed a liturgical dance that she and one of the classes she teaches danced during the lighting of the unity candle. We both made it through our vows without crying.

One of the really unique parts of our wedding was the Congregational Blessing when our friends and family could stand up and give a blessing to us and our marriage. I was shocked how many people stood up to talk and was moved by the things they said.

Afterwards we greeted everyone row-by-row. It was important to us to make sure we were able to have at least a brief moment with each person, because their love and support was the reason why we were there. We then had family pictures at the Buck s house across the street from the church and headed off in a limo to Centennial Lakes for pictures of our wedding party. Aside from the limo getting totally lost, we had a blast and the pictures turned out AWESOME!!

It was so good just to let go and relax during the reception, knowing all our planning was finally over and I could finally breathe and enjoy the company of the people I love. The food was enormous and delicious. Michael bit my leg to tickle me while taking off my garter so all these people have pictures of my screaming, totally embarrassed face and Michael s legs coming out from under my poofy dress.

One of the very special parts of the whole wedding week was getting to know Michael s family more. I met his father Art for the first time just a few days before the wedding when he and Serena drove Mr. Moving Truck with all of Michael s belongings the 1,500 miles to Minnesota. I was so honored to have them here and finally be able to show them our world. It was frustrating to not have enough time to be able to spend with his family, so we re especially looking forward to our upcoming trip to Vancouver in January to do so. I m so glad they were able to meet my family and explore the Mall of America!

THE CONTINUOUS UNPACKING PROCESS

My dad and Serena braved a trek halfway across the country to bring the rest of my belongings here. Since they arrived while the guys were here, there was little chance that all that stuff would fit along with the 9 guys living here. Thankfully, the UHaul rental came with 1 month free storage. And get this; the storage place was actually walking distance from here. How cool is that?

Here’s a picture of the apartment when the guys first arrived:

Now, here’s a shot of the truck on it’s journey here, plus once it arrived:

Here’s the trusty UHaul in the safety of the storage locker building.

The unpacking process, even now, is not complete. It’s a long process I’m finding. Little boxes of stuff that sit for a while because, frankly, we don’t need it. Once we returned for the honeymoon I began slowly carting a few boxes from storage and finding a home for them in the apartment. Now, my mom will probably be really happy to hear this because probably about 1/3 of the stuff I unpacked went into the garbage or giveaway.  My dad is probably not happy to hear that because so much work went into carting that crap here. The moral of the story?  You’d be surprised just how much stuff we can live without, so before you pack up and move to another country, do your family and friends a favor and chuck most of it beforehand.

Here’s what the apartment looked like after the wedding, after the guys worked hard at cleaning it up, after we made a mess of it:

Along with the stuff I didn’t need, we also had a number of gift wrappings and cardboard boxes that quickly and continually piled up. One day, we ended up carting it all down to the garbage, filling the small elevator. Here’s the proof.

Out of control, isn’t it?

FINDING A HOME FOR NEMO

The fish tank is up and operational, thanks to Sarah’s hard work.  This is actually Sarah’s hobby, one that I know very little about, so I’ll let her explain how it all went:

The other life-changing event, almost as big as the wedding, is the addition of our giganto salt water aquarium!!  It s a 46-gallon beast with a bow front and current home to two little fish named Grimace and Chuunka-Chuunka. It s been up and running for two weeks now and we can finally start adding some more fish now that the chemical balance is in place. Michael and I picked out the fish, plants and castle together it looks very Lord Of The Rings-y.

A RANDOM ADDENDUM (by Sarah)

Besides writing this huge MN Update we also got haircuts together today and I finally cut off all the hair I was growing out for the wedding. It was my first haircut in 8 months and I got about 8 inches off. It s pretty short and going to take a little getting-used-to but I needed a change and Michael says he likes it. So, yay! (Michael looks very handsome in his new cut too, by the way. What a stud!)

OUR MARRIAGE/HOLLYWOOD DEBUT

Ok. So a few months ago we decided at Upper Room to do a 4 week series on the Song of Solomon. Pretty much right away I got this idea for a promotional video that would be very different from what we’ve usually done, and also very funny (at least I thought). As my mind began turning the scope of the project kept getting larger and larger. Thankfully, there was a lot of notice to get it done. Unfortunately, with the wedding in weeks before, there just wasn’t time to get it done. Fortunately, though, after the wedding there was a week in which to try to pull it off.

The problem was: I couldn’t pull it off. There was just no way. I got kind of bummed out because it was something that I really wanted to do, but with the small amount of time left it just didn’t seem feasible. I conferred with my wife who was very positive about getting it done. The project was scaled back from taking place in an actual restaurant to just being shot by Sarah and I in our very own apartment. Even that had problems, because there just wasn’t room and it didn’t feel like a restaurant.

The video was to be shown in Sunday, Oct 31 (yes, Halloween). It was Thursday and I was going to throw in the towel because there was no way it would get done.

But the work that’s done at the Upper Room isn’t our work. It’s God’s (thankfully) and He always comes through in one way or another. In this case, it was Sarah and Mike Burrows. Both of them said they wanted to be involved and help out, which encouraged me enough to bring my idea to reality.

After dinner on Thursday, Sarah and I went over to where Mike works at the Minnesota School of Business. He teaches classes in Video Editing, etc and their facility has a studio with a few props that we were able to use. Plus, with the lighting gear and boom mic, it made our job a lot easier.

So, we did it.

4 hours later, we finished filming our simple little film. And, boy, was it a success. People loved it and are still talking about it. It felt good for all of us to be able to pull this off and actually complete it. Thanks Mike and Sarah for all your help! What a sweet team.

So, if you’re curious and want to see it, check it out here:

Song of Solomon Promo (be patient while it loads…)

What’s more, after showing our video for the second time, Sarah and I got mentioned in sermon by Kurt.

MARRIED TO A NERD

As Sarah is quickly finding out, the surprises to being married to a nerd never seem to end. It’s rather unbelievable, but we’ve already been married a month. While pretty much any married couple would laugh at such a comment, it’s rather a mental-milestone for us. Married for a month. What a wonderful thing to celebrate…

…and what a better way to celebrate with than the long-anticipated release of Halo 2, the biggest video game in recent history. That’s right. Ashamedly, I write to you this very sentence only hours away from the Halo 2 Midnight Madness; an opportunity for me to get my copy of the game (hopefully) the minute it arrives. Now, let’s be honest here – this was not my original intent. I was originally going to pick it up after work on Tuesday, but when I heard of the opportunity for me to join the ranks of other Minneapolis nerds and we geekily awaited the arrival of this game, I figured: “Why not?”

For those who are familiar with the epic event, you’ll know that at time of reading, the game has been out for a while. What kind of effect did it have? Well, first of all, there was the adventure of waiting in the Mall of America for the doors to EB to open at midnight, then the 60 minute wait just to get to the counter. Then the 20 minutes to get into the car and drive home (quickly, but safe, of course). Then you simply can’t go to bed right away. Heaven’s no! That’s followed by staying up until 2:30am when your eyes are parched dry from lack of blinking. Then, a few days later, it’s getting together with friends and staying up until 4:30am Saturday morning.

That’s what I call cool! 

EDITORIAL NOTE: It’s cool now, but down-right idiotic when I was floundering around Saturday and Sunday due to exhaustion. All is well now, though.

LICENSE TO RENT

Seeing as I’ve been in this city for a while, I figured it was about time to get a driver’s license. Besides – I can’t get a Blockbuster card without one.

Several weeks ago, I asked Stefan (my co-worker) what was entailed in getting an MN DL. He laughed and told me he had just tried to get one a few days prior and failed. He was still driving with his Wisconsin license, but was fairly cheesed at the test thrown at him. Questions like:

1. You are ____ times more likely to die by not wearing your seatbelt.

    a. 2

    b. 3

    c. 4

    d. 5

2. When passing another vehicle, you should be able to see how far in front of you?

    a. 500 feet

    b. 800 feet

    c. 900 feet

    d. 1000 feet

[ANSWERS: 1 – C, 2 – can’t remember… I was never asked it, thankfully, because what on earth is a ‘foot’?]

So, you can see that I got a little worried. I whipped out my little MN driving Ed book and began to underline any stats or sentences with numbers in them. After a very short time of doing this, it became a little mind-numbing and overwhelming. Was it 800 feet for passing? Was it 30 inches from the curb or the stop sign?

Eventually, I just gave up and decided to go for it. Taking the test was free, so it didn’t matter if I failed.

The test was all done by computer (duh.) in a small area of the office building. There were 16 terminals crammed in the space where 6 comfortably seated computers would be. You could feel the tension in the room as we all hunched over our computers, some of us laughing at the insanity of some of the questions.  It was fairly difficult, that’s for sure. Had I not been driving for so many years, I would have easily failed, but I did pass.

Now was the crucial decision-making time of the license picture. I was actually fairly bitter about being stressed over their silly test plus had the added distate of them cutting the corner of my out-of-country license (something they do to MN licenses to void them). The good part was that I got to keep my BC one.

Anyways, I thought I’d have some fun with this one. The lady setup the machine to take my picture then turned her back on me, so I got myself an “ode-to-Dave-Boyle” photo. Hardcore, fo sho.

A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT.. (WELL, NOT MY PRESIDENT)

Weeks before the wedding, Sarah discovered that President Bush was going to be in town the weekend of our ceremony. So, being the courteous citizen that she is, she invited the President of the United States of America to our wedding.

For those that were there, you know full well that George W. was not able to attend. Although we’re a little bitter about that, it is pretty cool that we received some mail from the White House. Yes, it’s true. They sent us a card in response, signed by Mr. President and his Wife.

NOTE: It’s very safe to assume that they spent a trillion dollars on a machine that signs such cards as these, because it’s impossible to tell if it was actually done by a machine.  I knew we should have registered for one of those!

Thank goodness he got re-elected, or else this card would be worth squat!

WORRY NOT! EDINA IS SAFE!

Just for some random fun, here’s a scan of an article in a local paper. It goes into detail of the new Emergency Response Vehicle (BearCat – Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck)  that Edina will be getting this winter. Wow. How cool. And just in time, too, because this place is a little out of control, what with all the rich folk here.

LET’S DO IT AGAIN! (sort of)

Just a little heads-up: Sarah and I have booked tickets for a weekend in Vancouver January 20-24th. On Saturday the 22nd we’ll be having a get-together for those in Vancouver who could not attend the wedding. This will give people a chance to meet Sarah (maybe for the first time).  We know it’s only a few days, but we’re hoping to get the most out of it.  More information to follow.

SOME WEDDING-WEEK PHOTOS

Here are some photos taken before and during the wedding!

This update will probably be more image-intensive than descriptive, which is probably good news, because a picture is worth a thousand words. And that’s one thousand less I’d have to write.

AUTHORIZE THIS!

Sarah and I are thrilled that this is all coming together. We’re very blessed that it’s happened so quickly.  We were told that it can take as many as 90 days (end of October).  The Missouri office processed this in just a month. Wow.

The second document I received was my advance parole. Parole from what? you ask. Well, from my application. Now I can leave the US and enter again, which means I’m cleared to visit Vancouver, which will be very nice.

Just for fun facts: I’ll need to renew both of these documents by the time a full year expires. And I’ll have to keep renewing it as long as I’m not a US citizen (I think).  No biggie.

Now…. going back in time a bit, to a time when I was still having my application processed (not too long ago):

FINGERPRINTS ‘R’ US

I am sitting in the INS Service Center, waiting for my fingerprints and biometrics appointment.  I’m not quite sure what ‘biometrics’ is, but I would imagine it has to do with my bios and/or my metrics, which is good, because I’m Canadian and know all about that.

I am number 827.

The room is filled with 100 grey plastic chairs. There is a TV which no one is watching and an American flag who’s pole just fits under the ceiling. Around the corner are 4 large ATM-like machines. I assume they take my fingerprints digitally. Too bad – I was hoping to do it the old fashion way and get black ink all over myself.

They’re at 820 now.

Most of the people here look like they could be from Nigeria. All of us are joined together by a single bond – trying to make sense of this entire system.  Some of them struggle as they attempt to understand what they need to do. Since every employee here is very intimidating, saying that you don’t understand something makes you feel small.

821.

My appointment was at 9am. Sarah slept in and missed her alarm this morning, but we were still able to get into the neighborhood on time (she works just down the street, actually).  Unfortunately, I had a hard time finding this place, since it’s part of a strip mall.  The pressure’s on coming here. If you miss your appointment they deem your application to be abandoned and you have to start from scratch.  Thankfully, I found it and entered just before 9. However, it doesn’t really matter when you get here since you sit around for 45 minutes.

822 and 823. I best get ready.

More to come…..

…but not that much more.

I entered the second large room to the ATMs and was asked to have another seat. The lady operating the machine began pecking away at the keyboard. Shortly after, she turned with a bottle of some sort of gel, squirted a bit in my hand and told me to rub it in until it was gone.  Good luck, it would turn out as I continually tried to rid my hands of the oily substance. It was kind of like One-Step, only it left a slight residue.

She then had me stand and she took my hands. Placing each finger on a thermal touchpad she scanned in each of my fingertips. It was cool because I could see them appear on the screen as she rolled my fingers across the pad.  The computer would then draw red and green boxes over various areas and then either accept or reject the ‘print.

After my fingerprints, my picture was taken, as well as my signature being captured.  Oh, and I asked them what my biometrics were. It was simply my fingerprints, photo and signature. A quick lookup on Dictionary.com gives another definition, so I don’t know what to believe:

bi o met rics

    n. (used with a sing. verb)

        1. The statistical study of biological phenomena.

        2. a branch of biology that studies biological phenomena and observations by means of statistical analysis

If I were a dramatic writer, I would have liked to end this section with “and as quickly as it started, it was over”. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. A long wait to get goo slapped on my hands and my picture taken and then whisked out the door. Very anti-climatic. Oh well, mission accomplished.

Here’s a photo of the outside of the building:

EEK! HOW DO I GET OUUUUUT?

The printer for our invitations is located downtown.  On a Monday afternoon, I set out to drop off the CD with the files/designs. Using my Mapquest printout I had no problem finding the building.

I parked in their parkade, which was a small, low clearance type of place… fit ’em all in by wasting no space. Since I’m driving the truck around, it seemed even tighter.

10 minutes later, I had dropped off the CD and submitted our wedding invitations for printing. On my way back, however, I noticed a nice sign which read: Parkade – Cash and Checks only.  First I thought, “What are checks ?” and then I thought: “I have neither.”

No problem.  Nearby in the food court was an ATM. I’d use my credit card to get a small cash advance and then free my truck from the clutches of the tiny parking lot.

Mission failed.  As I put in my card, it asked me for my PIN.  Huh? I didn’t ever recall setting one up. I then used my cell phone (which had 1 bar of battery left) to call MasterCard.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t reset my PIN over the phone. Now I was beginning to panic. I felt like I was alone is a distant foreign country.

“Can you tell me what my PIN is?” I asked.  She replied by letting me know that my PIN was sent to me in the mail.  Her records showed that was in April… of 2001!  She also offered to mail me a letter with my PIN on it. Hmph.

I was then transferred to Global MasterCard. Still, they were unable to reset my PIN. I then asked if they could tell me which banks would allow me to withdrawal cash using my credit card.  The guy at the other end then informed me that he was surfing the net to find out.  I waited.

He came back and told me Wells Fargo would do it. Perfect! Now, the problem was finding one.  Mr. MasterCard once again got on the information superhighway and began to search for the nearest back to my location. Bingo! Down on 8th street… I know downtown about as well as the back of my knees, but I had an idea that it was close.

It was kiddy-corner to where I stood.

35 minutes later, I received my money from the back, returned to my car and ended up paying $6 for parking the 45 minutes. What a rip.  I guess it was better than paying $5 for 30 minutes or less…

FREE SHIRT UPDATE

First of all, there is a correction to my last free-shirt update. I forgot to mention that Sarah’s grandfather had given me one of his polo shirts that had shrunk in the dryer a bit. Surprisingly, it fits incredibly and is one of my nicest church shirts.

Unfortunately, my other new shirts aren’t of church-caliber.

Added to the list are the following:

• Alien vs. Predator
• Along Came Poly
• Resident Evil 2

As you can see from the above list, I have become a styling man. I should actually become a male model, like Matt in the picture below… Matt’s a friend of the guys here and is actually moving to Paris to pursue his modeling career.  At his farewell party, he graced us with a catwalk.

ALAS! THOU ART THINE THOUST…SHWEH?

The Renaissance Festival. It happens every year in Minnesota. When Sarah got free admission, and said she really wanted to go, I was a little skeptical.

The idea is a festival where people walk around dressed in Renaissance era clothing on grounds decorated like the same.  There are various activities going on like Maypole dancing and jousting.

Needless to say, it sounded odd, and the website didn’t seem that enticing.

When we arrived there (way out in the ‘countryside’) we pulled into a huge parking lot which was full of cars. As we got out, the people parked next to us were dressed up in their historic garb, and two of the guys wore capes and had plastic swords. I reminded myself to have an open mind.

And I’m glad I did.  Stepping onto the grounds was like being transported to another world. Everything was so well done in making you feel like you were in another time. Everything from volunteers wandering the streets acting as townsfolk, to dozens of shops designed and tailored to the time.

Rather than me talking about it, here are a few pictures instead….

MN: THE LAND THAT NEVER STOPS

Minnesotan’s love to do stuff.  As if the “Ren-Fest” wasn’t enough, they also hold a State Fair (which I’ve been told is one of the largest in the US).  The grounds for this place were huge and we wandered pretty much all day (with the exception of meeting up with Sarah’s parents to watch the parade which Stephen was in).

It was a lot of fun (tiring on the feet) and a great way to get from fresh air. You’d think that would be healthy, but no. We’re at the State Fair, which is far from healthy.  I’ll let the pics do the talking:

Now, the ironic thing is this pavilion right in the midst of it all….

Here are just a few more images taken at the fair…

AND NOW…

Things not really spoken from a corner…. 

Hi everyone!  It’s Sarah!!  YAY!  I’m so excited to finally have convinced Michael it’s time I had my own little corner in our Minnesota updates — especially since he puts such weird pictures of me in it for all to see.  I really don’t know what you might possibly think of me by now…

It’s been a really exciting last few weeks!  We moved!!  Or at least I moved.  I’m now officially out of my family’s house I grew up in and finally all the way in to our new apartment.   I’m officially here for now and then Michael will join me after our wedding.  Although Michael and I hang out here together most of the time, I have to admit it’s really nice to be the first one in and be able to get my things unpacked and set up first.  Oh wait, did I say unpack?  As you can see from the pictures below we still have quite a bit left to go. 

Our cell phone numbers will remain our only numbers for now.  We’ll keep you posted. 

What else can I tell you about me?  Well, I work in radio.  I’m the sales assistant for three radio stations in Minneapolis/St. Paul (AKA: The Twin Cities): AM 1500, FM 107 and KS95.  They’re very different stations ranging from political talk shows to a hot A/C music variety to female gab.  I love working in broadcasting and I do everything from helping sell commercial air time, voicing commercials, editing our monthly radio network online newsletter, and answering the constant bizarre questions from the wacky people who call the stations.

Wedding planning is taking up pretty much my entire life right now.  RAH!!  It’s a beautiful, happy, insane time.  I love checking in at our wedding website and reading all the wonderful things you’ve written us in our guestbook.  [NOTE:  Thank you SO much to everyone who’s written us!  Feel free to drop a line in there any time, even if you’ve already signed.]  I can’t wait to see so many of you in October!  Can you believe it’s only FIVE WEEKS AWAY?!?!!  ACK!!  I need to do more planning!!!  Michael and I are still planning on being in Vancouver in January for a second reception of sorts.  I’ve even been thinking of wearing The Dress then — after all when will I get to wear it again?  The newest development on the wedding planning scene is music.  Two of my closest college friends, Dan and Diana, are coming over on Monday to start practicing on their duet and possibly do a little BBQ-ing as well.  I just sent my aunt Pam music today as well.  Aunt Pam has an amazing voice and our wonderful new friend Christa will be joining with a beautiful sacred dance, both of which will be during the unity candle.  It is such an honor to have these incredibly talented four people gracing our wedding and I can’t wait for you to hear/see/smell it all too! 

I want to thank you all for lending Michael to me all the way out here in Minnesota.  I know how hard it is to miss someone so far away.  Being with him here is such a blessing and I truly couldn’t imagine life without him.  Thank you.  It means the world to me.

Aww, now I’m getting all mushy.  Back to Michael before this goes to far…

THE APARTMENT

Here are some pictures of the apartment progress… We’re still working on getting Sarah unpacked.

Here are some other pictures of the apartment….

OTHER PHOTOS AND STUFF

I’ll leave you with a number of random photos! Enjoy!

PYROS, PYROS, LIGHT UP OUR SKY

Went to Blanche Lake (Sarah’s Grandparent’s cabin) for 4th of July celebration. This was my first ever 4th of July in the US before.  Lots of flags and explosive devices. The evening celebrations were fun, setting off an assortment of fireworks. Here are some pictures of the fun!

The night we came back, Sarah and I went and watched the Edina fireworks display while sitting on the grass, sprayed down with bug repellent hoping not to get bitten. In the distance, on the horizon, we could see another city doing their pyro-show-o.

In the mail, we found our copy of our immigration papers that Susan had sent us. We’re waiting for our “receipt notice” which says the government has got our stuff and will begin processing it whenever they so desire.

UPPER ROOM: PART 1

My work at Upper Room is kind of slow. We didn’t have a service for the 4th, and we’re not having a service on the 11th because of Flood. Flood is where we get people to sign up (around 400) and go out into the community on various work projects. Sarah and I are going around to some of the sites and getting video/photo footage. My job for the following service is to make a recap video of the Flood experience. Could be a lot of footage to weed through.

Speaking on video editing, I worked on getting the new Upper Room video editing workstation spec’d out and a proposal made.  After looking over it, the green light was given and I began to coordinate with the ordering of it, Fingers crossed, it should be in the office late next week.

BEADS OF SWEAT

It was a week or two after Sarah and I had submitted our immigration paperwork.  I was sitting at home on my day off, enjoying a stimulating read of Homer’s Oddesy.      ….  Ok. I was playing video games with skinless face-munching zombies. It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point.  Anyways, as I was sitting there, I heard the doorbell ring and as I looked outside I saw a man and woman nicely dressed, standing outside.  I paused my game and went to the front door.  As I slowly opened the door my heart stopped as I saw two gold badges in their hands.  I tried to stay calm and focused but my mind was racing.  First of all, I haven’t done anything illegal, but I still couldn’t help thinking “How did they find me here? What’s going to happen to me?”  I opened the door and they said hello and flipped open their badges to reveal a Federal ID of some sort.  They said their names: Agent Something and Agent Someone, but I wasn’t listening.  Beads of sweat seemed to magically appear on my forehead. They smiled. I smiled back.  Am I being deported?  Is the INS looking for more information?  Where were their dark FBI sunglasses?

Thankfully, the lady spoke and said something along the lines of “you’re not in any trouble.”  She probably read my face and body movements and wondered what on earth I was hiding. Hey! Xbox at 26 is not a crime. It’s weird, but not a crime.

It turns out that the gentleman across the street (whom I’ve never even seen before) was applying for some Federal job and they were canvassing the neighborhood asking neighbors for references.  I guess by me saying that I’ve never seen him might lead to a bad reference (or a good one if he’s going to be some international spy). As soon as the came, they left. Ropes dropped from the sky, they latched on and were carried off by a black stealth helicopter…. that would have been a cool ending to my story.   Instead, I closed the door, sat down and then spent a few minutes trying to shake that feeling you get when you’re in a close call driving your car.

FORCE THIS PERSPECTIVE

Going back in time a bit to the beginning of this update, I mentioned we went to the cabin for the 4th of July.  Well, on the day we left, I had a chance to go fishing for the second time ever.  The first time, of course, was when I was young and in Boy Scouts.  One of the leaders was kind enough to let me try.  As I cast my line out, the fishing line got all bunched up around the spooly-thing because I didn’t release the catchy-thing at the right time.

As you can see, my fishing expertise is unparalleled.

As I was fishing (which I caught on a lot quicker now that I’m older and wiser), I realized that this sport was not for me.  I don’t mind the casting and the luring and the winding… it’s the waiting and the live baiting and the de-hooking that isn’t well suited for yours truly.  But, despite my shortcomings with the sport, I did manage to catch a HUGE fish!

.

.

.

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Ok. it was actually only this size:

IT’S ALL ABOUT FREE STUFF

Not too long ago, Minneapolis’ first Ikea was about to open.  Now, as you may or may not know, Ikea’s are usually built near oceans or large bodies of water so that transportation costs are not as high. Chicago has one, but their stock it fed by the Great Lakes, so having one in a land-locked location like Minneapolis is a big deal. Another interesting fact is that 25% of Chicago’s Ikea business is from Minneapolis. Therefore, having an Ikea open here was a smart move but those Swedish geniuses. Let’s also not forget that it’s right next door to the Mall of America, which doesn’t hurt business either.

So, a day before the Grand Opening I see on their website that they’re giving away an $80 chair for the first 100 people.  $80 isn’t anything to write home about, but I’ll continue anyways.  The store opened on a Wednesday.  Tuesday close to midnight, I ask Andrew if he has a camping chair that I could borrow.  Why?, he asks. Well, I’m going to go to Ikea early, early tomorrow before going to Upper Room and see if I can’t get a chair.  Him and Travis (who was listening in) nod their head and say that the line will probably be pretty long by then. Hmmm. I guess that makes sense.  Andrew then suggests that him and I go right then and spend the night so that we can both be granted a free Ikea chair.  Knowing that every minute we wait the line grew longer, we quickly filled the truck with blankets and chairs and pillows and sped off into the night. Of course, Travis stayed behind, mocking us for our Ikea nerdiness.  He wouldn’t be laughing when we brought home free stuff…. it’s all about free stuff.

12:15AM.  We have arrived at the new Ikea and it is truly in all it’s interior design glory.  We park on the lower level and walk up the stairs to the main entrance.  As we round the top set of steps we are blown away by what we see – a HUGE crowd of people.

EDITORIAL NOTE:  I must say that since I am from Vancouver, a land with two Ikea’s, I am very well aware of the crowds it attracts.  However, there must be some Freudian thing that goes on in our heads when it comes to free stuff, because, despite my fore-knowledge of what I could expect, I hoped, beyond a doubt, that I must surely be one of the first 100 people. Surely.

We saw a long line up that snaked it’s way along the pathway. People in chairs, people on mattresses. People with little grills, people with TVs. Even people with dome-tents.  It was one of the bewildering things we had seen all….day. And week. And probably month.

There were two ladies at the top of the stairs. They had the best seats in the house because they got to watch everyone’s reaction as they crested the top of the stairs.  We chatted with them long enough that they had been there since 2pm and were number 71 and 72.  Andrew and I looked at each and laughed.  We felt like fools thinking we could be within 100 coming so late in the game.  The two ladies then told us to go up to the front of the line. We did.

Beyond the lineup itself were 4 different Ikea beds lined up.  It’s occupants were contest winners on a local radio station. They had been there since Sunday and if they could hang in there another 9 hours, not only would they win the bed, but also a $1500 shopping spree. Not bad.

This person here was number one of 100. Shortly, he will become the proud owner of the very first free $80 chair.  As the nearby security guard told us, he, too, had been there since Sunday.  SUNDAY!  For an $80 chair.  He had been living in an Ikea parking lot for 3 whole days for a free chair.

Andrew and I left, slightly disappointed that we didn’t get our prize, but also with a renewed sense of what was really important.  We thought 9 hours of camping out was too much, but 3 days was simply ridiculous.  All-in-all, though, we had a fun adventure.

WEDDING PLANS

Here’s some more wedding updates:

Wedding Dress – Sarah had her wedding dress sized the other day. It’s now with the seamstress for all the final touches. She also bought her new pair of shoes to go with it. I have seen neither, which is the plan.

Bridesmaids – The bridesmaids dresses are bought, picked up and now sitting in Sarah’s house waiting for their owners to pick them up and try them.  Since the bridesmaids are un-local (that is: being not from the local area), it’ll be a matter of time for everyone to make their way to Edina.  Also of note, Shawn sent me an email the other day requesting if he could be traded to the bridesmaid side of the wedding party… That’s kind of odd. I mean, if he really doesn’t want to be a groomsmen, I suppose we could replace him with mini-Me, which would be REALLY funny.

Rings – We bought our wedding bands. Actually, we haven’t paid for them yet, but they’re sized and ready to be picked up this Thursday.  At the jeweler’s I tried on the ring and it was truly an odd experience… seeing a wedding band on my finger.  It made me feel very happy and very….old at the same time :). Oh: also of note: my ring kind of looks like The Ring. As in The One Ring to Rule Them All.  Now only if I can convince Sarah to get an Elvish-like inscription.

Flights – The boys will be in town.  5 guys just confirmed their flights to Minnesota (Mike, Dave, Pouria, Shawn and Craig). Sweet! Plus, I’ve got flight info for my mom and Wobin.  Connor said he’ll be getting his ticket soon.  All the guys will be crashing in the apartment. And crashing it certainly will be – pure CHAOS! But, it’s going to be a fun time for sure.

Moving – Not really a wedding item, per-se, but a U-Haul has been booked for Dad and Serena to drive my stuff down.  In the next little while, I’ll be getting info about how exactly does one move stuff across the border. I thought a signed note from my parents would work, but that only works in the grade school realm, I suppose.

DOES NEBRASKA HATE US?

Sarah got a call the other day from Susan Orpen (our paralegal).  It turns out that our forms, which were delivered to the Nebraska service centre, were sent back. Yikes!  Susan explained that they recently changed the rules (no surprise there) and didn’t clearly indicate these changes (again – are we surprised?).  Now, it’s possible to submit our immigration papers to the local processing office.  Susan did that right away and we have since received our FedEx notice that it was delivered and signed for.  Now we have to wait for what’s called a “receipt notice”. It’s not a big deal, but that delayed us a week and a half.  Silly government.

NOTHING LIKE THE SMELL…

(UPPER ROOM: PART 2)

…of a new computer.  If you’re a nerd, you’ll know what I mean. It’s like getting a new car, only cheaper and worse on the wrists.

The new Upper Room video editing workstation arrived two weeks ago and it’s a screaming machine (in my opinion).  I set it up and had to put together a video together that week which recapped Flood (our missions oriented day).  The sexy black machine made my work go very quickly.

Here’s me setting it up:

and here’s the video I did that day:

Also of note: the Upper Room also bought a new CD duplicator, complete with ROBOTIC ARM!. It’s very cool.  The ROBOTIC ARM (it’s in CAPS because you have to say it in a Strongbad voice) will pick up the CD once burned, drop it into the printer for it’s label, then drop it into the completed bin when done. 

It’s so cool that people like coming into the office to gawk at it.  It’s now Susan’s best friend – she loves it and I’m worried she might ask it out for dinner and a movie. ROBOTIC ARM isn’t a people-person. It’s not even a person at all.

YO FOICE IS PLASTIC SURGERY!

Sarah has recorded another radio commercial.  In the words of her email:

I have a new commercial!! I just did this one this morning. It’s for a plastic surgeon, one of our biggest advertisers on FM107. I do all the dialogue replies and the solo dress thing at the end. Yay!!

ALMOST THERE… SORT OF

Sarah and I received word just this morning that Susan has received our receipt notices.  This means that if we don’t have any more delays, I can expect to get my work authorization within the next three months or so.  If, at the end of 90 days, I haven’t got one, I can go down to the local office in Bloomington and pick up an interim one.

Strangely enough, on Tuesday I will have officially been fingerprinted by the US before Pouria.

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

Just so everyone knows: my mini-side-mission here is to collect as many free shirts as possible (simply because I don’t have too many t-shirts for the summer).  As of now I have the following:

• 2 Sleep Comfort shirts
• 1 US Bank shirt
• 1 Chronicles of Riddick shirt…. that’s a tough one to wear because I have to keep explaining that I don’t actually like the movie.

I’ll keep everyone posted as I get more shirts, because I know you’re all very interested in stuff like this.  Speaking of stuff…

MOST IMPORTANTLY….

A very special message to a very special sister…..

Have an awesome birthday, Serena. You deserve it!  Love you lots!
-Bro 

OTHER PHOTOS AND STUFF

I’ll leave you with a number of random photos! Enjoy!

Today was a big day and deserved it’s own small update addendum.

Early this morning Sarah and I drove downtown for a 9am meeting with Susan, the paralegal assisting us with our immigration papers. She has been invaluable in the whole process, catching mistakes that would have slipped through, knowing little tips that are written NOWHERE, and just being an all-around great help.

After a 90 minute meeting with her, we had finally completed our paperwork! She was going to go over a few things on her own, make copies and then put the entire package in the mail for us.

OUR IMMIGRATION PAPERS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED!!!

Now we simply wait.

Both Sarah and I are unbelievably relieved to have finally gotten this far, and are very grateful that everything has gone so smoothly up to this point.  Please keep our little packet of papers in your prayers as he mightily battles his way through the twisting and turning government system. We hope that it can be processed without delay and that I can start being an American employee as soon as possible (which, right now, would probably be sometime just after our wedding).

Strangely enough, this pile of infuriating forms represents our life together – this is everything that is allowing us to be together… so much responsibility for pulp products.

From there, we went out for lunch to celebrate.

But that’s not all.

What’s almost as exciting is that Sarah and I signed the lease to our first apartment (the one mentioned in the previous update)!  Everything is good to go and Sarah gets to move in August 15th (the lady assures us). She even said she’d throw in a storage locked for free ($15 a month!).

Needless to say, today has been a very good day.

“Thank you for your support.”
  –Julius Ballanco

PS: Thanks to all of you who signed our online wedding guestbook!

Here we are! The fifth update!

First and foremost, hats off to the Flames for a great season! It was disappointing for me to see them not take the Cup home, but considering that all I wanted them to do was beat the Canucks, I’m more than happy.  I was able to get many hours of jersey wearing in which was a nice change.

Secondly, thanks to my mom for being so kind as to replace my digital camera.  It’s amazing how key it can be when keeping in touch with family and friends. This update is made possible by the Kodak camera. Thanks mom!

WEDDING PLANS

Many things have been planned for the wedding. As of now, all the major items have been taken care of.

Cake: we found a lady who makes cakes as a hobby and is going to craft our special dessert for us. Since she does this on her own, it’s a lot more affordable than going through a company. Here’s a picture of her dog/creature.

Photography: Andrew (who I’m staying with) is going to be our main photographer, which we’re really excited about. Initially, we wanted to avoid the friendship-and-business thing, but after doing a lot of thinking, we’re much happier with having him do it. He’s incredibly talented and we’re looking forward to see his photos.  ALSO, we’re very excited to have Robin as an assistant photographer. Robin – Sarah and I are very excited that not only are you coming, but that we have you ever-increasing photography skill at our wedding. We’re looking forward to see all the incredible photos you’ll take.

Emcee: Who else? Dave Boyle. Yuh! Jur-bur-ba-lurb! Shweh? Whatevah.

Reception Site: done

Wedding Site: done

Wedding Dress: done

Honeymoon: Sarah’s parents were nice enough to send us away for a week at Breezy Point resort as a wedding gift. It’s going to be nice having a single week of doing nothing. And hopefully by that time, we’ll be done with our immigration stuff as well, which will make it doubly nice. Sarah has stated that the week is going to be a nerd-device-free week. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to cope. Eric can feel my pain, right? 😉

Tuxedos: The tuxes have been picked out. You’ll want to see the photos too, because the groomsmen are going to look SEXY ! (except for Bissell because he’s always ‘deeeead seeeexy‘).

Despite all the stuff we’ve done, there’s still a ton to do, but we’re really enjoying the process. Speaking of processes:

IMMIGRATION PROCESS

Sarah and I meticulously filled out the many forms and gathered all the supporting documentation we thought we needed. We then met with Susan, our paralegal and spent a fruitful 3 hours with her as she poured over each form and let us know what we were missing.

Here’s a picture of our forms:

(notice the finely machine-woven Persian carpet in the background)

As of right now, we’re only missing a few things. One of which is a different version of my Birth Certificate (which is on it’s way). Also, we found out that since Sarah didn’t make enough money in the last 3 years (because of her being in college), we need to get a co-sponsor for me. We are right now talking with her father to see if he’d be willing to make this big decision.

Once these pieces are done, we can then go ahead and file our applications. We’re looking at end of September for my work permits to be granted. Just in time for the wedding! 🙂

LIVING ESSENTIALS

After looking for a while, Sarah and I have found an apartment!  While it was tempting to live with her parents after the wedding, we just couldn’t resist this place. Here’s the scoop: Since we can only afford 1 car right now, we decided to look for an apartment within walking distance of either or our works (but not both 🙂 ). After a bit of searching we found a place called Braemar Oaks (or Oaks Braemar, one of the two – we can never seem to remember). We looked at the apartment several times and thought about it extensively. In the end, we decided to jump on it and apply. The apartment complex is a very nice facility and is maintained very well. Each unit is also nice. When someone moves out, they do extensive cleaning and ensure everything is “back to normal”. What’s also nice is that they’ve slowly been going through all the units and renovating them. The one we applied for was an ‘old’ unit (they still look very nice) so we had the choice to leave it as-is, or have it renovated for an increased rent.  We had to think about that as well, but felt we would be happier with the renovations. What do the renos include? New kitchen appliances (black too). Stove, microwave, fridge. The microwave it lifted above the stove for more counter-top space. New countertops and shelving units We’re going to have the linoleum extended from the kitchen into the “dinning room” area. Light fixtures are updated to a light and fan unit. New carpets The walls are repainted Blinds are replaced with brand-new ones Bathroom sink is replaced Decorative tiles are added to the bathtub area. …… it is a nice touch, though. As you can see, there’s a lot of improvements made, which makes our living space that much nicer.  As of right now, they say our application went through without any problems and we’re just waiting for the lease letter to arrive so that we can finalize the deal. Since they have to do all the work on the apartment, Sarah won’t be able to move in until August 15 (they say).  That’s just fine, because without me having any income, Sarah living in the apartment earlier would have been too much rent. Plus, it gives us the chance to pack Sarah’s stuff.

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

Let’s see what else has been going on:

– Sarah bought a kite. One of those ones that have two handles for tricks and stuff. There’s an instruction CD-Rom that came with it. We tried flying it without reading the manual and crashed it several times 🙂

– Upper Room work has been going well. It’s nice because my job doesn’t consist of only making videos. For instance, the other week, Sarah and I taped an 8′ printout of the San Domingo cross to a wooden cross. That took 5 hours that Saturday. Just today, I spent the entire day working with another guy making 6 7′ boards with supports, painted black, to act as a large wall on which people are going to write on it with silver Sharpies.  I’ll let you know how it went.

– The wall went successfully! In fact, we’re using it again this weekend, too. Here’s a picture of it and a video I put together for the next service.

– Web Cams unite!  Sarah bought us a webcam so that we could truly communicate with others (i.e. Dave right now). Here’s the proof:

– Man, it’s taking me a long time to get this update out. Last night we used the wall a second time. After the service, we got to destroy the thing and throw it out. I found two volunteers who wanted to bust the huge 7′ boards apart. Here’s a little clip, if you’re interested:

OTHER PHOTOS AND STUFF

What would an update be without a number of random photos? Here we go!

Holy goodness gracious! It’s been well over a month since my last update. Although I’m mostly to blame, some of it has to do with the fact that our internet connection hasn’t been working for the last 2 weeks (and won’t be going for another week – missed bill payments)  Nevertheless, shame on me, indeed (or is it shame on you for not reminding me? 🙂 – don’t worry… Serena’s been keeping on top of things).

Well. A lot has happened since my last email. Also, since a lot of people replied saying they liked seeing images I thought I’d start putting my updates on the web so that there could be no shortage of images and media.

Let’s waste no more time and get into it all.

GUNFLINT LODGE

The day I sent my last update was the day I left my humble abode and went north with the Grimsby Family to Gunflint Lake for a weekend getaway. Gunflint Lake actually straddles the border. As we ate breakfast in the lodge, I could look out across the water and see Canada. Those around me said it didn’t look any different, but I could tell. It smelled and sounded like Canada, too.

The Grimsby’s rented out this large cabin for all of us. The facilities were incredible! Large bedrooms, 3 showers, plus a hot tub and sauna to boot!

We spent from Saturday to Wednesday up there and had a fantastic time (because we simply just relaxed and did puzzles), not to mention a great chance to get to know the family a bit better (except for one of the brothers, Jonathan, who couldn’t make it… they stuck a picture of him on the moose’s nose, though).

For those who thought deer were cute and passive, think again.

UPPER ROOM

Most of you may know that I have been offered the job at the Upper Room as Production Director! Both Sarah and I are excited! The flipside, however, is the fact that I can’t be an employee until I have legally immigrated. During that time, I’ve agreed to volunteer Wed, Thurs and Fri until I can become a paid employee.

My volunteering at Upper Room is going really well, and I’m meeting a lot of people. I am currently coordinating the sound and lighting teams Sunday afternoon and ensuring the Sunday night service goes well. CPC (Christ Presbyterian Church) is a great facility to hold services and events.  A few weeks ago, Travis’ (our roommate) girlfriend Christa organized a large arts showcase at the church. The evening was called Mosaic | Arts in Worship and hosted a wide range of artists from the community (from painters, photographers, to storytellers to dancer).  The evening was a great success.  For my job, I was asked to create a short promo video to help advertise it.

Also, just this week, I was invited to a 2-day seminar that looked into the emerging church culture. A lot of what Upper Room does is taken from some of what was outlined in these sessions.

IMMIGRATION

Since I cannot get into the country with a work visa for the Upper Room job, Sarah and I will be pursuing an immigration based on marriage.  There’s a lot involved here. Sarah and I have just hired a lawyer (actually his paralegal) to go over our documentation to make sure it’s filled out properly before filing.  We’ve only just begun.

On Friday, I went to a clinic to get my medical exam (it’s a required part of the immigration process). Unfortunately for my left arm, this constituted 3 shots and a blood test. If you had been there, you would have seen my face refuse to flinch. If you were reading into this, you would have known I was sweating bullets and nervous as heck (not to mention that the last needle really hurt and I had no choice but to cry out).

My arm is still a bit stiff.  Tomorrow I will be going in to get my results in a sealed envelope (yep. No joke.)

WEDDING

Plans for the wedding are going full swing. Most importantly, the date has been set: October 9th! We’re both very excited about slowly moving closer to our wedding day. 

Although we’re still 5 months away, in wedding-speak it’s treated more like 5 days.  Reception sites are hard to come by, but we have a few options (one of them being the CPC Fellowship Hall, actually). We should hopefully get our site finalized within a week.

A few weeks ago, Sarah and I did a quick trip to an apartment close to where I’m staying. It’s actually the only apartment building we’ve looked at, but so far it’s the nicest 🙂

TRANSPORTATION

Kurt (my ‘boss’) lives with a guy named Marty. Marty owns a restaurant in town as well as works with Masters on Ice (championship figure skating, I believe).  Since the ice skaters (or is it dancers?) are on tour, Marty’s truck isn’t being used.  Kurt talked to him and hooked me up with it! What a blessing.  Now I’ve been able to get to Upper Room without having to ask for rides… Here we see hardcore Sarah and I with our hardcore vehicles:

UPDATE: Last night when I left Upper Room, Sarah and I were met with the realization that the truck was not where I had parked it. My vechicle was missing.  It turns out that Marty was home and needed his car back.  As of now, I’m not sure if I’ll get it back or not. Hey. I can’t complain. It was a real blessing to have… (although a gas guzzler)

COMMUNICATION

Make note of this, if you like:  I now have a cellular phone. It’s amazing. You can carry it around with you anywhere you go and make or get calls from anyone! It’s like having a phone without all the cords…  Sarah and I are sharing pooled minutes, but those are only in effect until 9pm during the weekdays. Therefore, please feel free to call me at anytime after 7pm PST and anytime during the weekends.  I’d love to call Vancouver, but it’s 50 cents a minute (don’t get excited Dave; we’re talking currency here). My number is:

952-email-me-if-you-want-it

IMPORTANT STUFF

Of course, what would an update from me be without some blatant team spirit:

OTHER PHOTOS AND STUFF

Here are some other random collection of pictures for you to browse through to give you a good idea of what we’ve been up to.

CLOSING

Thanks for taking the time to look through this update. Again, I’m very sorry for not having been available for internet-communique, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the house will get a connection soon.

Please keep Sarah and I in your prayers. There is a large amount of paper work to be filled (which has to be done in a certain, confusing order). Also, with wedding preparations in full swing, it’s hard not to get completely overwhelmed with it. However, despite all the obstacles, Sarah and I are still enjoying the adventure!

Blessed beyond belief,

Michael

PS: A bit of bad news to the update: despite my best efforts in searching, I have come to the conclusion that I have, in fact, lost my digital camera, which really sucks!  The most frustrating part is that I can’t recall where I had it last. Arghhhh!   The next update might be a little slim on the old media side of things 🙂  I’m hoping that someone at CPC found it after the Upper Room (if that’s where I left it), but I’m not counting on it. At least I have 4 of the 8 really good rechargable batteries left… and the charger.  *shakes head slowly*

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my third installment. Let me fill you in with what s been going on since.

Living conditions are still great. Although there is currently a bus strike happening (I thought only Vancouver was wimpy about their union policies) I have re-learned driving a standard car and can comfortably cruise around in Sarah s car through the twisty highways of Minnesota.  For the most part, I am eating healthy. Sarah and I have tried to keep being as creative as possible with our meals.

Speaking of Sarah, her and us are doing really well and are learning more about each other every day. For instance, I think Chef Boyardee cooks better on the stove. Sarah insists it doesn t make a difference if it s done in the microwave. I then gently remind her that I ve seen an entire episode of Iron Chef. She doesn t appear convinced, but I think deep down she knows it tastes much better using the stove-method.

Last week, I helped out at a worship concert that Andrew and Matt promoted. Andrew and Matt (who also lives in the house) are business partners in their own company Echo Ministries. We ve worked out an arrangement that having me help out with their concerts as much as possible will aid in subsidizing some of the living costs (to keep my rent down).  The concert last week was Shane&Shane (with special guests Ginny Owen [excellent!] and Shaun Groves).  My role was very, very important: security. Basically, I walked around the church with a walkie talkie (that I didn t use even once!) and made my rounds throughout the building. Of course, one of the rooms I checked on continually was the one that housed the peanut M&Ms. Mmmmm .

Sarah has been raking in the freebies at work. Since being here she has won tickets for: Driving Miss Daisy play, dinner for Four, tickets to the College Hockey playoffs, Cirque Dreams (Cirque de Soleil), and two free passes to the absolutely phenomenal movie: Standing Tall with The Rock. (end sarcasm).  It s been great getting to do all these things around town that we normally wouldn t pay for (or could afford).

This last week as been very busy.

Just over a week ago, I helped out with The Upper Room for the third time with a video they wanted done. The last two times I helped out, technical glitches prevented my from having the video done beforehand and required extra work on the day off the service to make sure everything was ready to go. This time, however, I knew the limitations and was ready to make sure I was ahead of the game.

Nope. Not going to happen.

In my attempt to show off my alternate personality as supreme-nerd-wannabe, I attempted to fix a minor issue with the computer that runs the presentation software and was stressfully met with horrible results (for fellow geeks: BSOD). Time was ticking and I could not get the computer to work. Period.  What a horrible twist of fate, that I should ruin the one computer that needs to be running perfectly in just a day and a half, all while working at a job where I m a candidate.

So, I rolled up my sleeves and began working as quickly as I could. The short version of the story is that I got the thing going again. The nice part is that it s running smoother than it did before. The video was completed on time and people said they really liked it. So it all worked out in the end.

Monday: I had applied in the paper for a part-time, entry level Help Desk position at the Minnesota Heart Clinic. Since I had experience in Health Care, their attention was grabbed and I was called in for an interview. I was there for about an hour and things went really well. They seemed to like what I had to offer. At the end of the interview, I brought up my immigration status and they simply nodded; they ve hired employees all over the world. I left and should hear from them early next week. Initially, I hadn t planned on taking the interview seriously (because it was only parttime), but before I left the house to go to the interview, I realized that it might be possible to get into the country working for this company (because my education is sufficient for it) and then once Sarah and I get married and my status changes, I could look elsewhere. Later that afternoon, I received a call from the Upper Room search committee and have an interview on Thursday, April 1.

Tuesday: Tuesday was the big day with an immigration lawyer. Sarah and I went downtown to meet with Mr. Dinesh Shenoy (we call him Dishwash). A very friendly man and also quite knowledgeable. He took the entire hour and asked us a lot of questions to see where we were coming from. I told him about both the Upper Room position and the new Minnesota Heart Clinic position. I don t have offers from either, but I wanted to see what he thought of my chances, should I get any. We then talked more about the TN Work Permits. Below is a summary of how they work. I ve probably told most of you, but if you re at all interested, read on. If not, skip past it you won t hurt my feelings.

Our Situation with TN Work Permits and H1-B Visas Every year there is a set allotment of H1-B visas given out by the US government (I think it might be around 70,000). This pool becomes available in the fall and are used up by spring a very short window. Unfortunately, the pool has been depleted for this year. On top of that, the application process can take about 3-4 months (unless you pay the $1000 USD processing fee, in which case it s about 2 weeks). The long and short of it is that this isn t an option for me. Besides, the salary of the Upper Room position isn t high enough to qualify. That leads us to TN Work Permits. Under NAFTA, there are 61 job categories under which professionals can get a TN work permit. These are great because you can get one instantly at the border for a fee of $50, provided you meet the qualifications. Since this is an entry for Professionals, the qualifications are a combination of associated education with x-number of years of experience. When you go through the border (or apply via mail), the person who reviews your case makes a decision as to whether or not the evidence you provide proves that you meet or exceed the criteria. If you do, you are granted a TN permit, good for one year. If denied, you must return to your home country and either gather more evidence or find another way of entry.

 For potentially working at the church, I have a very weak case for a TN permit. This is because I don t have the necessary education nor do I have the 3 years of paid experience (3 years based on full time paid employment).  For the job as a Help Desk support person, I have a better shot, but it s not sure-fire. I have the necessary education, plus I could pull together the 3 years experience. The problem is with the description of the NAFTA category. The job description needs to match the Systems Support Analyst. If not, I probably wouldn t get authorization.

 So that s where it stands right now. It s not terribly encouraging, but I know things will work out in the end and that God has everything in control (which is nice because Sarah and I often feel helpless). The third and final option, of course, if immigration based on marriage. We re getting married eventually, so we might just have to wait for that rather than having me enter the country with a job.

 Holy cow. That s a lot of update. I m very sorry for blah-blah-blahhing all this time. Not terribly exciting, but thank you for reading it all.

 Also, as always, thanks to everyone who responded to my last email. I try my best to reply to all of them, but I missed a number of people and to each of you I apologize.

 And now, we shall conclude our lengthy time together with some fun, fun media. I hope all is well. Thanks for your ongoing support and prayers!

 God bless,

Michael

Sarah and I and our culinary masterpiece. Strangely though, it doesn t look anything like the cookbook picture.

Being kids again and licking off the icing .or maybe my tounge is stuck..?

Before my interview. I had to work for 45 minutes to unstuck my face before it though.

If Pouria owned a store (besides Shenasi Carpets)

Last night I came home around 12:30am to find Andrew sleeping like a baby, at the top of the stairs! I can t explain it and neither can he, actually.

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for the large email this time out; I thought I d send along a few pictures to give you an idea of where I m staying, etc. If your mailbox is full, then it might be best to delete some of those old emails with attachments *cough* DaveBoyle *cough*

I can t believe I ve already been here close to 3 weeks. Time is flying by indeed.

I have settled in comfortably into my new home . What does it look like, you ask? Well. Let me show you quickly:

This is Andrew s house. The little red door you see there is the entrance to my room. As you can see, the snow is starting to melt. It had made a fair attempt last week, but we got a new batch this weekend and so the process had to start all over again.

This here is my little corner of the world. Already, it s quite messy. The brown paper bags keep all my non-refrigerated foods, because, hey; you never know when you ll want to crack open a box of KD.

Almost-reverse-angle. All that is nerd.

This is the living room. As I ve been telling people when they ask about my living quarters I d be very lucky if my first apartment were this nice. Hardwood floors, comfortable leather couches. Andrew certainly has style there s no question about it.  The door on the left side leads to my room. They let me out of my room to roam around when no one s home J

Big TV. Big sound. Below the TV you will see the Tivo. Maa. Tivo .

Kitchen.

Kitchen contd.

NOTE:The kitchen pictures are here to ensure my mother that there are plenty of resources to cook myself something other than Kraft. (I have only eaten 3 boxes since being here, mom).

And just a few other random pictures for you:

Sarah and I. If you didn’t know that, let me know and I’ll remove you from this mailing list J

Possibly the worst parking job ever. I wish I could have seen the driver.

A shot from the balcony looking down at the stage of the Upper Room service (more below).

When I came to MN in January, Andrew (the guy I m staying with) put me in touch with Kurt. Kurt is responsible for an evening worship service ever Sunday night at Christ Presbyterian Church about 5 minutes from where I am.  This service has about 4 full-time staff alone and are in the process of looking for a Production Director to fill the shoes of the individual who had to leave suddenly.

Since being here, I talked to a guy on their search committee about the position. He had seen some of my work and said he really liked it that I had a very similar style to the guy who used to work at Upper Room.

On Sunday, the position was announced and made available to anyone interested. The applications will be received until March 21 at which time they will begin conducting interviews.

I have a really good shot at this and it makes me really excited. Not because it s a job, but because it s something I love to do (with the added bonus of being a part of a great ministry)! Again, I m faced with the very difficult disadvantage of being a Canadian citizen; it would be a much simpler process to hire someone locally. I m hoping that they d be willing to give me the extra chance as I would work through the paperwork.

Please pray for me and this position. I hate putting all my eggs in one basket, but it s hard to think of any other type of job when this type of work is a possibility it s something I absolutely love to do!

So, that s it for now. Thanks to all those who have sent me little notes asking me how things are.  I m missing everyone back home, but am loving this adventure!

Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.

Michael

Hey Everyone!

For anyone interested, here’s a brief update of what’s going on.

My travel into the US was less than smooth. After talking to a gruff, disgruntled customs agent, I was then forwarded on for further questioning.

While friendly, Agent Perez was quite unbelieving of my story. “What are you going to do for three months? You can’t just be sitting around?” I assured him that I was there to visit with my friends (which, of course, is true). He tried to call my bluff multiple times by saying “You’re going to be looking for work, aren’t you? What else could you be doing?” Had I been ‘thinking’ I probably would have said something I’d later regret. Fortunately, however, I was not in control of our conversation and fully believe it was the direct result of everyone’s prayers. My brain was on auto-pilot and I continually remained true to my story.

He then wanted proof that I was indeed coming back. I showed him my paperwork as well as the letter written by Robert (which was an incredibly important piece – Jen and Jo: Please thank your dad for me!). Perez then insisted on seeing my money; my traveller’s cheques. “If you don’t have any money, you’re not going in,” he stated. I showed him my cash (thanks, Dave, for waiting with me at BCCA) and that seemed to silence him. He pecked away at his keyboard and finally stamped my form. Only a grueling 45 minutes.

Now I’m here. Just this evening Sarah and I have had the opportunity to unpack my belongings. For the most part, the room is ready to go, save for a missing set of drawers and a desk from upstairs. The guys are great and a lot of fun. Just now they found their friend sleeping on the couch after watching a movie. Instead of waking him right away, they changed channels to some “late night television” and promptly woke him up with “What are you watching man??!?” They’ve been very accommodating and welcoming even though I’ve only really talked to them as of 2 hours ago.

For the next few days I will be helping them with a few worship concerts they’re coordinating. This will include both late-nights and early morning setups/tear-downs. On Tuesday, I will be joining them on a road trip which takes us to a city 4 hours away. The problem is, we have to be there at 7:30am. You do the math.

Being back with Sarah had been wonderful. This is the start of something great, but I’m still really nervous (because I have no idea what that something will be). I can’t complain though, because I have an incredible woman by my side not to mention terrific friends and a wonderful family back home.

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement in the last few weeks. It’s meant the world to me and has been the most important aspect of this transition. I am so very blessed.

I’m going to send this email now. My laptop has picked up on some wireless internet, but it’s probably down the street somewhere because it keeps cutting in and out.

My Love and Thanks,

Michael