Putting it out there

After a long rehearsal last Monday night we went out for some beer with friends, and we actually had a fairly heated political discussion during which two friends felt that most Americans were doing well and happy with their lot. The other three of us were not in agreement, and I read this on NY Times this morning that certainly helped to substantiate our point. Even those who don't "know it" can certainly feel it.

In Judith Warner's blog, she wrote,"based on a new set of data from the I.R.S...It showed that America’s most wealthy earn an even greater share of the nation’s income than they did in 2000, at the peak of the tech boom. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, the Wall Street Journal reported, earned 21.2 percent of all income in 2005 (the latest date for which these data are available), up from the high of 20.8 percent they’d reached in the bull market of 2000. The bottom 50 percent of people earned 12.8 percent of all income, compared with 13 percent in 2000. And the median tax filer’s income fell 2 percent when adjusted for inflation (to about $31,000) between 2000 and 2005."

Boy, that gave me another dose of reality as I realized that I make just pittance above the median income in the United States. I, with a B.A., and M. Mus., and someday a D. Mus, am barely doing better than the median income. By the way, I make less than 40% of my boss' income. That sucks. No wonder people are discontented, even if they don't know it yet. Judith Warner wrote about the media's inability to perceive the state of Americans' discontent as a factor in mis-predicting the presidential potential of Hilary Clinton. The media has abandoned the fast disappearing middle class and our needs; therefore, they could not foresee Hilary's popularity among the vast majority of Americans. It's Saturday, so my thoughts go no deeper.

USCIS Sucks!

What is this USCIS, you ask? Well, it is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and I had a run-in at the local office today as I tried...yes, tried...to obtain a Certified True Copy of my Certificate of Citizenship. Since it is illegal to photocopy this certificate, I had to make an online appointment to ask for a G24 in person. The G24 certifies the copy of the certificate so that it is legal and can be authenticated. Apparently, on my certificate, it states that my name is "Wei na Yang aka Wanda Wei na Yang," which differs from what they have on the computer system. They only have "Wei na Yang" in the system, so this "Wanda Wei na Yang" is not legal. Hello, isn't this what the aka stands for? The original CIS officer had no problem with me signing as "Wanda Wei Na Yang," so why should Officer Griffin be any different? Hello, I can has phonics? This caused so much confusion for the local office that they are requesting my "dead" file from the bowels of Immigration vaults somewhere in order to verify that it's okay for me to be also known as "Wanda." This verification isn't even required on the G24 because the inventors of this form understood (at one time) that when an immigrant first comes to this country, most likely the name will be the anglicized form of their original name, and that once naturalized, they may also be known as something else. I proved that I am the person on the certificate with no less than 2 forms of photo identification, so all they had to do was fill out the G24 and send me on my way. Instead, when I asked if I could have a time frame for when my file may come in because of adoption paperwork's time-sensitivity, I was stonewalled with at least five minutes of "I don't know," "I can't tell you," and "I can't." After a subsequent conversation with another asswholery "Officer Dean," I have determined that the local offices never see the actual Certificates, so they panic when it becomes clear that the script they usually follow will not suffice. Not only that, Officer Dean asked me how long my certificate had been lost, and when I told her that I have the actual certificate, she had to go talk to a supervisor. I doubt that she talked to any superior. They like to lie, truly.

Goddamn it, I am a U.S. citizen, and I do not deserve to be harassed like this. So, this morning I arrived at 8am for my 8am appointment, and had to take a number because the appointment means nothing. Seventy minutes later my number was finally called, and when I walked up to the window Officer Griffin tells me that she will have to, at an unspecified later time, call me after she verifies that I could be also known as "Wanda." She could not verify as to how many days or weeks this may take, but that it probably won't take years. Nice, huh? So for now we'll bypass the local office and send a notarial statement with a copy of the certificate to Washington D.C. so that it can be certified. I hate Immigration Services. I also had an unexplained fear of going to them, and now I know why.

DOH!

We've now signed up for the Dragon Dossier Service with Great Wall China Adoption, and no, it does not mean what you think it means. We are now using the agency to assist us in the document certification and authentication stage. They send us a FedEx envelope, and we send them the stuff they say we need to send them. Whew! This should make things easier. Today, I have obtained the notarial seal for the copy of my Chinese Birth Certificate, and tomorrow morning I have an appointment with Immigration to obtain a certified copy of my Naturalization Certificate. The picture on it is hilarious. My hair is so tall; actually, more specifically, my bangs are really tall. Besides that, Ben has ordered new Certified Birth Certificates, and we will go get our police reports real soon. Oh yeah, we both have appointments for our physicals this Thursday, October 4. Funny little story about that...well...

The CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) unveiled a new set of regulations at the beginning of this year, and for some reason we both thought that the weight requirement was a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 or below. We have operated under this assumption, especially regarding our early summer Phase One South Beachness. You can see the whole list here. For fun, I thought I'd look up the regulations again, just in case we had missed anything, and lo and behold, I discovered that the BMI requirement is 40 or below. So, instead of Ben trying to lose five pounds in 10 days, he can actually be as heavy as 279 pounds and still be within range. DOH! Not that he wants to weigh 279 nor do I want to weigh 248, but we could:-P This will most likely result in some bier trinken by my beloved very soon. He has abstained for the last 10 days or so. What discipline! Our terrible collective memory has resulted in us getting in better shape, even if we feel a little bit blond today. Whew! I'll keep you posted as we keep gathering speed on this adoption journey.