Newest American citizen

August 3, 2006

My wife Lesley became a US citizen today.  I was so proud, yet stupidly forgot to take a camera.  I turned on my camera phone for a moment, but you’re not supposed to have cell phones on in fed buildings(?).  I got one small snap, but it’s horrible.  The chap next to me said he’d take a picture, but his battery ran out right as he snapped her pic, so we didn’t get it. 

So, now she’s completely legal and can’t be deported!  However, we’ve got a new semi-issue on, and that’s the passport.  She had to turn in her greencard, and also ship off her only original naturalization paper to get a passport.  So until that’s returned (expedited service - 2 weeks hopefully) she’s got no real papers (we made a photocopy but it’s not the original!), so it’s a little strange.

The officiator was a rather nice guy, but was publicly anti-Bush.  He made a few comments about ‘the president’ and would roll his eyes, or made some type of somewhat sarcastic face when he said it - it bothered me some.  Probably bothered the 4 servicemen there too, but no one said anything.  By the way, I didn’t know one could be in our armed forces and not be a citizen - I would have thought that would be a requirement.  Did this change at some point???

I recorded the ceremony on my iriver, but there were so many loud kids around me (4-6 years old it seemed) that I’m not sure much is really audible of the speaker’s comments.  Side note - there really should be a blanket rule against having kids in functions like that.  If they’re asleep, or well-behaved, perhaps make case-by-case exceptions, but the moment they misbehave, they should have been kicked out - it ruined it for the other 100+ people in the room there for a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony.  There was one chap who was good with his daughter - she was probably 9 months old and would cry/make noises some.  When it started to get bad, he simply took her out of the room.   I publicly thank this man - from India, if I heard him correctly - for people a responsibly polite person.

Posted in Family, Personal