Yesterday I had my appointment to take care of all my medical testing. Bill: $279. I got my physical, vision tests, chest x-ray, urinalysis, shots and blood work done. Pisser of it was I had to fast for one of the blood tests. By the time they got around to sucking out 5 vials of blood I hadn't eaten in 16 hours.

I didn't just have a little 'faint'. I checked out of that hotel for a good 2 minutes! The last thing I remember is telling the nurse, "I'm starting to feel dizzy", then I slumped over in the chair. When I came to she was holding me upright by my forehead with an icepack. I was soaking wet with sweat. I couldn't see or hear anything.

Slowly I could begin to make out sounds and a silhouette. Apparently they were trying to get me to take a cup of orange juice but I couldn't see it and I was so weak I could hardly lift my arm. They wheeled me into a room and put me on a bed. 15 minutes later I finally had enough colour in my face so they let me sit up. It was fun and all but I felt like I was on drugs the rest of the day.

Today I had to tackle the fingerprinting. I finally got my card from Albany. Dropped $15 for some guy to ink me downtown and another $50 to send it back to Albany.

Then I went to the Registrar's office at Canisius to work on my diploma authentication. I thought I had to get a certified copy of the original, like everyone else, but noooooo. New York State requires the actual diploma, so now it's going to get all messed up with signatures and stamps. They want $30 for a replacement copy for myself.

I dropped another $3 for the county clerk's signature, $10 for the State to verify the county clerk is for real and another $7 for US to verify the State is for real. This will probably take 3 weeks with the use of Fed Ex overnight super expensive service.

Hey, at least I made some progress before I head out of town! I fly to Houston tomorrow so I can say good-bye to my thousand relatives and help my mom drive her 'new' car home. Which is ironic because she doesn't drive really.

when you gonna ring it, when you gonna ring it?

theecarey messaged me with this and it reminded me i didn't mention the funnies of sunday afternoon.

someone came in through our outer front door and stole the doorknobs off our front doors. for serious. they were the fancy ornate ones like pmt have on their door, traditional old buffalo home knobs. yep, walked right in and yanked them bitches off the door.

i wonder if it's the same pecker heads that stole my bike.

I finally have one thing going smoothly. After about 20 phone calls to various clinics and doctor's offices I found a place that can do all of the tests required for my visa. I'll have that all done tomorrow. Bonus: it's going to be much, much cheaper than I anticipated.

I'm still waiting on my fingerprinting card from Albany.

I just found out I also have to authenticate my diploma with the same lengthy process as the fingerprint card.

Let me hear you say, oh shit!

My leave date is not going to happen July 16.

It seems Buffalo's fingerprinting department is a one man show. He was on vaca forever. Then he yelled at me saying, "You're just trying to make things difficult for me aren't you" when I told him I do not have my own card.

Silly me to assume a fingerprinting office has the actual cards you get fingerprinted on. No, I have to call Albany to have them mail me a card because my employer from the middle east did not supply me with a NYS identification recorder. True story.

I'm so far behind in the process now I probably won't make my leave date of July 16.

I had such a beautiful dream last night. I was walking through a lovely forest full of redwoods and giant ferns. The sun was beaming strands of brilliant light to the forest floor. I could hear a few insects, a few birds, but I knew I was alone. I came upon a small hot spring. The surface sparkled in shades of aqua. I removed my clothes and slipped in. I drifted in the floating abyss. I was overcome with peace and happiness. I wanted to stay there forever.