Melissa Dunphy

Remember the clusterfuck of a backlog the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services experienced after they jacked up the price of citizenship last year? Eh, you probably don't, but I sure do, because I became eligible for citizenship three days after the price hike, so not only did I have to pay $700 to apply, I was sure that the insane pile-up of applications directly before me would hold up my application past this November at least.

Apparently, however, publicity over the backlog has caused someone to throw money at the problem, because I just got a letter requesting that I appear for my naturalization interview (and civics exam) on May 30! Assuming I pass, I may be naturalized on the spot, or at the worst, at a swearing in ceremony a few weeks later. Holy shit! I'm going to be a citizen! I'm going to vote! I could make money on the side as a notary! I no longer need to fear deportation every time I get a traffic ticket!

I'm so excited. I'm going to find and buy the cheesiest Americana sweater in the world to wear to the interview. And then, as soon as I get my papers, I'm going to buy and wear this shirt as an expression of my FREE SPEECH AMERICAN VALUES RONPAULRPONPAUL:



In cat news, it turns out Hunter does not have hyperthyroidism or any kind of wacky disease that would show up in her blood work. I am relieved that she won't have to take pills for the rest of her life! But in the meantime, I have to keep shoving diarrhoea pills down her throat twice a day, so she hates me, and there's the prospect of paying more money for more diagnostics down the road if it doesn't clear up.

Labels: cats, immigration, politics

The Department of Homeland Security reads my blog!

Well, not really, but it is funny that I mentioned they hadn't cashed my citizenship check, and it's cashed the very next day. Not that this means I'll be able to vote next year -- there's still circa eighteen months of "processing time" to come.

I am recovering from pulling an all-nighter from Monday to Tuesday. Aside from a twenty-minute nap between classes yesterday, I was awake for over 40 hours. I didn't leave the music building for 25 hours during that time. But my major orchestration project is done, and I made the deadline, huzzah. However, I did totally screw up a concert last night by failing to turn a page in time for a giant cello solo in the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. Oops. My toes are still in curl.

Labels: immigration

God bless the land that gave us birth!
No pray'r but this know we.
God bless the land, of all the earth,
The happy and the free.
And where's the land like ours can brave
The splendor of the day.
And find no son of hers a slave?
God bless America!
God bless the land, the land beloved
Forever and for aye!
God bless the land that gave us birth.
God bless America!

This week, I filed my citizenship papers. I cannot wait for my vote to not be counted like everyone else's!

I am seriously excited to complete the civics test and prove that I am more qualified to be a citizen than most natural-born Americans. Matt quizzed me the other day with the practice questions at the back of the citizenship guide, and I got nearly all of them right - including naming the original thirteen colonies off the top of my head, yay! I missed the questions about Patrick Henry (unheard of in Australian history classrooms, and his name is too goddamn generic to stick in my head) and how many members there are in the House of Reps. An informal questioning of educated Americans in my college classrooms reveals that, in fact, nobody knows how many people are in the House of Reps.

The answer, which I will now remember for life, is 435. (Answer subject to change following the next census).

The processing time for the I-400 is something like two years, so it's likely my vote officially won't not count until 2012.

In unrelated news, I am completely addicted to Scrabble on Facebook.

• Jason sent me a link to this completely terrifying and wonderful video of two robots covering Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." The robots are playing percussion and a theremin, and they are doing rather a wonderful job.


• The Blob was filmed around Downingtown, where I live. In this trailer, you can see a shot of the diner which is just down the road.

Speaking of the theremin, I am currently modifying mine to include a sort of fingerboard, for more accurate intonation -- I have to play it at a concert next month of new music at my college. On the program: that L'Homme Arme thing I composed last semester. I have to retool some of the actual music as well. Hopefully I'll get a decent recording.

Speaking of things musical, I did a transcription of NIN's The Becoming for Know the Score. The new version of Sibelius with Sounds Essentials is lovely, I highly recommend it.

Labels: immigration, music