A lot of people have often asked me why I decided to fall in love with a man who lives 5,000 miles away from me. I cannot tell you how many times I have stooped to explaining my relationship to people who are so incredibly ignorant.
Frankly, I did not decide to fall in love with anyone. Any person with slight knowledge of what love actually is, knows this weird phenomena is the one who does the picking and choosing--we, as people, are completely out of power.
As fate would have it, I fell in love with a man who is not from my country. And thankfully, fate was kind enough to have him fall in love with me.
Incredibly, I shouldn't have to explain this to anyone--but for the sake of getting records straight, I often do.
But now, I find myself in a troubling situation that is perhaps more infuriating than petty inquiries.
I'm marrying this man, and the entire ordeal the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is putting me through is completely disgraceful.
I am a law-abiding American citizen who wishes to marry a British subject, and bring him to the U.S. legally in order to do so. This should not seem so difficult, as we have been in a stable relationship for two years or so, and have known each other for four. We have incredible and extensive evidence of our relationship, and are able to prove that we are legitimately together and have been for a long time.
It shouldn't be so difficult to do what we wish to do then, correct?
Wrong. Very wrong.
In order to apply for what is known as the "Fiance Visa", you must first create a box of the timeline of your relationship. This wasn't very hard to do, only time-consuming, and honestly very annoying. In this box, you must include the payment for the filing of this visa in the form of a money order, which has been recently adjusted to $340.
Mind you, this box has been returned to me twice since our initial filing in April.
The first time was understandable, as I had carelessly forgotten to sign one important document in the box that needed my signature in order to be filed.
The second time was for a petty and ridiculous reason that I still cannot fathom.
The website on which you find the information on how to file this ridiculous thing is two shots away from being complete and utter shit.
We had initially sent $350 in the box, which was what the website had said was the amount needed. Upon being sent back the second time, we are informed this is the wrong amount to send. Doing research, we see that the amount to send has been changed, indeed lowered--to $340.
What in the name of god, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are you going to send back and entire fucking box of information because I overpaid you $10?
Let's put this into perspective: In order to reissue the money order, there is a fee of $5, and in order to send the box back to you, it is a fee of at least $15 depending on the size and weight of the package.
So, in essence, you have put me through all of this trouble and disappointment in order for me to give you an extra $10 to put in your pocket...
With the number of illegal immigrants in this country, you would think living in obscurity and swindling the government may be entirely more appealing than doing things the right way...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Les Lettres Romantiques
There is perhaps nothing I enjoy more than antiques. The age and the delicacy of these items elate me--the materials, the stories they tell. And while one can look at a particular item for hours longing for the story beneath, there is perhaps nothing more telling than a love letter of old.
So, I've decided to collect excerpts from some of my favorite love letters in history--to pay homage to some of these wonderful, thrilling tales--the grotesque, sexual, brazen, and passionate.
"--Methinks I could write a volume to you; but all the language on earth would fail in saying how much, and with what disinterested passion, I am yours ever."
Richard Steele to Mary Scurlock
1 September 1707
"--Oh, my dear, I can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don't love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don't really resent it."
Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
21 January 1927
"--I went away from you. I have had three more sherries. I vowed I would never see you again, but I cannot keep my vow. Albiet I come back to my love for you."
Caradoc Evans to Oliver Sandys
9 June 1930
"--My good qualities have been so frozen and locked up in a dull constitution at all my former sober hours, that it is very astonishing to me, now I am drunk, to find so much virtue in me..."
Alexander Pope to Martha Blount
"--When shall we pass a day alone? I have had a thousand kisses, for which with my whole soul I thank love--but if you should deny me the thousand and first--t'would put me to the proof how great a misery I could live through. If you should ever carry your threat yesterday into execution--believe me 'tis not my pride, my vanity nor any petty passion would torment me--really 'twould hurt my heart--I could not bear it..."
John Keats to Fanny Brawne
11 October 1819
"--I love you terribly today. The whole world is gone. There is only you. I walk about, dress, eat, write--but all the time I am breathing you..."
Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Murry
28 March 1915
"--If I look at nature with the eyes of a sensitive reader, when I hear music or see paintings or--but why go on with a list of all the things which have come to life in me only through you?"
Alban Berg to Helene Nahowski
Spring 1909
"--My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again--my Life seems to stop there--I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving--I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you."
John Keats to Fanny Brawne
13 October 1819
"Not believe that I love you? You cannot pretend to be so incredulous. If you do not believe my tongue, consult my eyes, consult your own. You will find by yours that they have charms; by mine that I have a heart which feels them."
William Congreve to Arabella Hunt
1690
"--There is so much you want to know. I remember your phrase: 'Only whores appreciate me.' I wanted to say: you can only have blood-consciousness with whores, there is too much mine between us, too much literature, too much illusion--but then you denied there had been only mind...I love this strange, treacherous softness of you which always turns to hatred..."
Anais Nin to Henry Miller
9 March 1932
So, I've decided to collect excerpts from some of my favorite love letters in history--to pay homage to some of these wonderful, thrilling tales--the grotesque, sexual, brazen, and passionate.
"--Methinks I could write a volume to you; but all the language on earth would fail in saying how much, and with what disinterested passion, I am yours ever."
Richard Steele to Mary Scurlock
1 September 1707
"--Oh, my dear, I can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don't love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don't really resent it."
Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
21 January 1927
"--I went away from you. I have had three more sherries. I vowed I would never see you again, but I cannot keep my vow. Albiet I come back to my love for you."
Caradoc Evans to Oliver Sandys
9 June 1930
"--My good qualities have been so frozen and locked up in a dull constitution at all my former sober hours, that it is very astonishing to me, now I am drunk, to find so much virtue in me..."
Alexander Pope to Martha Blount
"--When shall we pass a day alone? I have had a thousand kisses, for which with my whole soul I thank love--but if you should deny me the thousand and first--t'would put me to the proof how great a misery I could live through. If you should ever carry your threat yesterday into execution--believe me 'tis not my pride, my vanity nor any petty passion would torment me--really 'twould hurt my heart--I could not bear it..."
John Keats to Fanny Brawne
11 October 1819
"--I love you terribly today. The whole world is gone. There is only you. I walk about, dress, eat, write--but all the time I am breathing you..."
Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Murry
28 March 1915
"--If I look at nature with the eyes of a sensitive reader, when I hear music or see paintings or--but why go on with a list of all the things which have come to life in me only through you?"
Alban Berg to Helene Nahowski
Spring 1909
"--My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again--my Life seems to stop there--I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving--I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you."
John Keats to Fanny Brawne
13 October 1819
"Not believe that I love you? You cannot pretend to be so incredulous. If you do not believe my tongue, consult my eyes, consult your own. You will find by yours that they have charms; by mine that I have a heart which feels them."
William Congreve to Arabella Hunt
1690
"--There is so much you want to know. I remember your phrase: 'Only whores appreciate me.' I wanted to say: you can only have blood-consciousness with whores, there is too much mine between us, too much literature, too much illusion--but then you denied there had been only mind...I love this strange, treacherous softness of you which always turns to hatred..."
Anais Nin to Henry Miller
9 March 1932
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