Well, so much for 3 weeks:   my green card has arrived!  

!!!

So that's it, I'm done.

Note: My previous 'Adjustments' post needs an adjustment. I am still an alien (thanks Jeanine for correcting me) and I will continue to be. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my status as a twenty-something...

I received a letter from US Immigration today.

It was an I-797, just like the countless others I've received over the years, but with one significant difference: the word 'welcome'.

'It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to permanent resident status in the United States'

This is huge news. It was expected of course, but not until next year, and even then, the ramifications of this piece of paper may influence the rest of my life. It's both anticlimactic and also a little terrifying (strangely). Suddenly all sorts of possibilities have opened up. For the first time since 2000, I have complete freedom in terms of work and travel. I'm 'normal' again.

This 'adjustment of status' will certainly require quite an adjustment.

Charlie is away somewhere where mobiles don't work. He doesn't know this yet.

In the next few weeks I'll receive my 'green card' and I'll turn 30 years old. I spent my 20s mostly as an Alien. Both labels will soon be things of the past. The words 'end' and 'era' come to mind...

My 6 years are up. My visa has expired. But I'm still here...

I moved to the US on February 11th 2001, with no real plan for how long I'd stay. 6 years - the maximum allowed on my visa - seemed like so much time back then.

6 years ago I was staying at Sierra Suites in Piscataway, NJ, driving around in my rented Chevy Cavalier, spending my per diem at the Macaroni Grill, wrestling with all sorts of bureaucracy and generally putting my new life together. I'd soon be moving in to The Highlands at South Plainfield with Lyn, leasing a silver Mercury Sable (I didn't know better, ok?) and starting work at my first real job at Telcordia Technologies.

But last weekend those 6 years were up. And the only thing that has stood the test of time is my love of the Macaroni Grill.

Fortunately, there's a lot more to life (and immigration law) than just visas, and so I'll be staying here a while longer, but still, I'm in a strange situation now. If I have to leave the country, coming back wont be straightforward. I sort of don't really belong in any one place, all things considered. 'Belong' is a big word.

I wonder where I'll be in another 6 years.

This week I started a new job at Ana-Data Consulting!

Going back to my developer roots, I'll be building applications for Wall St using the latest development tools and technologies, which is fun (and a far cry from my experience at Telcordia!)

So this brings my BearingPoint chapter to a close after almost 2 years there. I'm really gonna miss the frequent flyer miles people there...

Here's some pictures from my leaving do at the Frying Pan on the Hudson River.

Back in the first week of July, we attended the rally in Sheridan Square against New York State's decision not to allow gay marriage - and Charlie is in the photo of the event in the New York Times!

(Of course, he didn't even want to go, and I dragged him along, and which of us ends up in the photo? And which of us is stuck behind a 'MARRIAGE NOW' sign? And how is that fair?)

Our friends Neil and Miriam are in there too. If you click on the pic, Flickr will show you where they are.

Here's a close up of the good bit:

Click here to see the whole photo.

(This will only mean anything if you're part of the 2000/2001 Imperial intake at Telcordia - sorry!)

This week I started working at one of the good old-fashioned, legacy AT&T telecom companies, one with a penchant for process and documentation, and a credit union and Aramark-operated cafeteria on site.

Ok, so its BellSouth this time, but there's certainly echos of where I started working 5 years ago, almost to the day.

Plus, get this: on the plane down here I met a guy who lives in Morristown and - wait for it - his brother owns the Famished Frog.

The name Linda Ferretti is going to show up on a street name or something, somewhere, somehow, I can feel it...

The Magazine Monitor page of the BBC News website has recently been buzzing with posts about a new game first reported by a reader (a Ms Judy Cabbages), and eventually named Cabbaging in her honour.

Cabbaging.

As played by Cabbagers - those who Cabbage, people who spend their afternoons Cabbaging.

Ick, right? I just had to say something.

(I'm particularly proud of the fact that Auntie chose 'dirty' as the reference in that URL)

Yesterday at the video store the guy at the counter reads my name off my ID and makes some comment about an 'interossiter'. A few blank looks and explanations later, it turns out that the interossiter was a device from 50's sci-fi movie 'This Island Earth' that the people of earth constructed (following alien instructions) to contact said aliens (a la 'Contact' - but with less Jodie Foster and more running and screaming).

I think the correct spelling is (sadly) interociter, but I'm going to ignore that.

Video store guy: "ok, this needs to be back by Wednesday at 8, but if you're going to be late, just call me on the interossiter".

And I will.

Less than a month 'til we move into our new place!

But don't worry, we're not going far.

So did you ever Google yourself and find a guy with your name who poses for nude calendars with vegetables and then wished that you hadn't? No?

Mark Rossiter - Mr April - A Beefy British farmer at work