Not-so-good things recently

I’ve been absent from this blog recently and believe it or not, that’s not because I have nothing to say. To the contrary, I have too much to say and can’t prioritize. Tough shit, I know.

- Just when we thought we were done fighting one bureaucratic battle, another one came along. This time, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
People! All we are asking for is a chance to do the right thing. Tell us what to do and we will do it. But, apparently, that’s too much to ask. Fucking motherfucker fuck!

- I’ve been overwhelmed by the difference in reactions between Bulgarian and non-Bulgarian media sources on the release of the Bulgarian Medics from Libya. I can’t believe the cynicism of people in Bulgaria and the level of personal involvement in people elsewhere. Everyone here seems to be most excited about the fact that they won’t have to see any more news coverage on the issue. People outside are happy that the medics will get a chance to put their lives back on track. And, sure, I am exaggerating. But not by much. What happened is an enormous achievement in the global effort to protect human rights and many many people have contributed to the resolution of a terrible situation. I simply don’t understand how, in the light of all this, all you can do is point fingers and act annoyed with journalists for doing their part in publicizing a MAJOR political and human story

- I subscribe to a mailing list where people send out jokes and funny stories and links to silly youtube movies. I am shocked and appalled by the amount of sexism, women-bashing, and self-hatred that women send. Like it’s not difficult enough already.

- In preparation for our wedding-wedding, on top of everything else, I am reading a short history of Bulgaria so that I can answer our friends’ and family’s questions when they all arrive for the festivities in August. I am still at the opening chapters of the book (founding of the Bulgarian nation) and I’ve got a 1300+ years of history to cover yet. Already, however, I am truly entertained by the large brush strokes and vast generalizations that the authors make and I keep wondering if that’s how our stories will be told, some 500 years from now.

- I am mad, mad, mad at the way some people conduct business in this country. The way they talk to their customers. And the way, they try to make you feel it is YOUR fault that THEY did not get their job done right. And, yes, it IS BTC that I am talking about.

Sorry for a mostly-whiney post, but, honestly, in the last week or so, I’ve felt like life was leaking out of me and I needed to vent. I will follow-up with a list of VERY GOOD THINGS. Soon.

Now, I need a drink.

Weekend at the 7

We are spending the weekend at the 7 Rila Lakes!
Kyle's never seen them before.
Actually, I've never seen them either.
I'm so excited we are going, I'm about to piss myself.

Will be back on Sunday with photos.

Ta-ta!

The math of immigration

The good news is that as of today, Kyle is the proud owner of a permit for continuous residence in Bulgaria. The bad news is that we need to go through the whole thing, all over again, in 6 months. Let me explain.

In order for the foreign spouse of a Bulgarian citizen to reside in this thriving economy of ours, they need to possess a residence permit. They cannot apply for a permanent residence right away. They need to jump through the hoops for several years in order to earn the right to apply for permanent residence. Also, it is NOT up to them to decide how long their continuous residence should last. The state has decided that the maximum period for continuous residence is 1 year. It costs 500 leva. After your one year is up, you need to re-apply. And pay another 500 leva. You can only apply for permanent residence after five years in the country.

The interesting thing is that a 6-month continous residence permit costs 200 leva. In other words, if you apply for your permit twice a year, you would end up paying less than if you did it all once. I.e. you have a monetary incentive to deal with the whole bureaucracy of obtaining the permit more than once a year.

So, I did the math, and realized that after:

- submitting 10 application packages
- making at least 20 trips to the immigration office (one to submit the application and one to get your passport stamped)
- living here for at least 5 years
- and paying 2000 leva to the state of Bulgaria

...PERHAPS, maybe...some time in the summer of 2012, Kyle will be given a chance to apply for permanent residency in Bulgaria on the account of being married to me.

Thanks for the good wishes in advance. But, seriously, can someone please shoot me instead? Or give us a consultation with an immigration lawyer as a wedding present...There MUST be a way out of this nightmare!

Wedding planning

As you all know, Kyle and I got married in December but we are having our wedding-wedding in a little over a month. On August 25, to be precise. To make it easier for people to stay up-to-date on various types of information, we created a website, of course.

Earlier today we asked our guests to share their music requests for the big day. Music is very important to both Kyle and I. It was also the reason why we got together. So, it only made sense to take that particular aspect of the wedding especially seriously.

Obviously, we cannot invite all our readers to come join us in August. However, you are all so important to us and we would like have you there with us in some way or another. So, how about you send us your wedding music recommendations! Think of it as a way to be there even in your absence!

A night in the life of...

In case you wondered what a night in the life of the K-G's might look like...well, here's a glimpse. Tonight, after watching a couple of episodes of the Sopranos and downing some glasses of wine, we opened a Best Simpsons Avatar Contest which consisted of the following four steps:

1. Create a Simpsons avatar that looks the most like the other person
2. Create a Simpsons avatar that looks the most like yourself
3. Compare
4. Don't laugh. No. Seriously.

Here's Kyle's version of me:


As you can see, in his version, I've got a serious case of Tennessee hair. Also, I am wearing a shirt of my favorite color (well, pink, of course) AND a classy pair of red shoes.

In my version of me...


...I look like Carmela Soprano in Season 4 of the show, when somebody had given her that terrible mullet-inspired haircut but we still loved her because she has such great personality.

Kyle thinks that he's very good at this kind of game and that I...well, not so much. And, I'll admit, his version of me is a lot more flattering, although that's a strange thing to say given the circumstances. However, I think that my version of HIM is far superior to his own.

But what do I know...I've had too much wine already.

Hey, how about you be the judge?!

Notes on a baptism

My husband is one of the newest additions to the Christian Orthodox Church. Highlights of the event include:

- Kyle repeating three times that he renounces Satan: Отричам се. Отричам се. Отричам се.
- Repeating three times that he becomes one with God: Съчетавам се. Съчетавам се. Съчетавам се. Which, of course, was harder than a tonguetwister.
- Kyle's Godmother , Kris, attempting to spit at him only to be stopped by the priest: You are supposed to spit on the Devil, not on your Godson.
- Kris bowing at Kyle only to be interrupted by the priest: Bow to God, not to Kyle!!!
- My mom trying her hardest not to laugh.
- Me trying my hardest not to laugh, hiding behind the camera. Failing miserably.
- Our grandpa sitting in one of the big throne chairs, his legs not reaching the floor.
- The look on everybody's face when the priest pulled out a pair of scissors. Kyle's thoughts: No, no, no! We already did that!!! In the hospital!!! When I was a baby!!!...
- My dad going Oh, shit! mid-way through the ceremony after realizing that his camera memory card was already full.

The priest thought it would be awesome if we gave Kyle a Christian name. Mom and Grandma loved the idea and picked the "most vegetarian" of all Bulgarian names. According to Kyle's baptism certificate, I am now married to Nikolay Robert Grady.

Good things recently

Because Madlen's been bugging me about this for a while and because it's actually been a REALLY good week:

1. Celebrating July 4 with Kyle and Elena at Flannagans. Best veggie burgers and most expensive tap beer in Sofia, I swear.
2. Abandoned hotels on the top of the mountain. Look for evidence on Kyle’s flickr page.
3. Celebrating a year of working at Netage. Time flies when you’re having fun!!!
4. Looking forward to my husband’s baptism this coming Saturday. We were not aware of the significance of the day (07-07-07) until I found out that grandma needed to pull some strings to get the local priest make an opening for us. Apparently, everyone and their mother are getting baptized, getting married or both on that very same day.
5. Last night at the Save Strandja protest a boy came over and introduced himself. His name was Krum and he reads our family’s blogs. He thought he’d say hi. And good thing he did. It made both Kyle and I so so happy! Hi, K!!!

How've YOU guys been?

Public Service Announcement

Hey y'all!

I've been struggling to pull myself out of a serious case of post-vacation letargic mode for...what...three days now. You know how these things work...You go on vacation, have fun, come back to the office and need to go on vacation to relax and recover from being on vacation. High temperatures and programming courses (programming courses, that's right!) that start at 9 o'clock in the morning don't help. So blogging's been relegated to the back burner. My bad.

HOWEVER

I thought I'd give my friends over at HMSU a shout-out and let you all know that their 7th Annual Open Air Summer Drum 'n Bass festival is coming up this weekend. They've got an excellent DJ line up and have been working their butts off to put together the best possible outdoor music event. I've been particularly impressed by the fact that they've hired some of Sofia's top bartenders to work the bar up at the venue AND they've hired a company to de-bug the place. And when I say de-bug, I don't mean secret services wiretapping crap. They've got people killing ticks and fleas as we speak. More power to them.

In addition to the musical happenings, this year for the first time HMSU decided to organize a series of lectures and presentations to complement the main events. People will be speaking about event promotion, flyer design, motion graphics and other cool stuff like that. I am presenting a lecture on music promotion on the internets and I'm biting my nails, I'm THAT nervous. But they thought I had things to say and I decided to trust them more on this one, than trust the self-doubting urge of my overheated mind. So, I'll be at кино Люмиер at 10 AM on Friday morning, together with Tony Raijekov and Kiro from mp3.bg. All lectures and workshops will be free of charge.

I've been thinking about my presentation non-stop in the past week or so and I am going to try really hard to make it useful for people who are interested in promoting their music online or those who are interested in exploring the limitless marketing opportunities that the internets provide. Also, I will be modeling a new dress that my little sister sent me all the way from Germany. Thanks, G.

In all seriousness, though, the festival is a perfect example of how friendship and fandom can work together for the common goal of bringing something awesome into the world. HMSU are really just a bunch of guys who like drum 'n bass and are willing to go waaay out of their way to share their passion with the rest of us. That, in itself, I think is a good enough reason to support them.

Netage teambuilding 2007

In case you've wondered why I've been MIA for so long...I was all the way south to Katarino for our annual Teambuilding weekend. There will be more pictures to come but for now I will leave you with this one little thing, created by Plasmo:



And now, halas, it's Monday...

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