With Apologies To The INS

Yesterday, I described the INS as "Bush's Keep The Darkies Out Department". Well, I do think that most of the Bush policies have been racially, religously and socially bigotted, including the creation of the sinisterly-named Department of Homeland Security, and that the system is still stacked against the non-white, non-English speaking applicant. All that said, the "officer" who interviewed us was less of a quasi-Nazi stormtrooper, and much more of a kindly aunt. From criticising the government and the country during a videotaped interview, to allowing us to leave to get a missing piece of paperwork and then return to finish the interview, she was a pleasant and helpful person. So, the government and its policies may bring to mind the actions of jackbooted lunatics with funny mustaches, but the people working within the system aren't necessarily of the same mould.
That missing bit of paperwork was the only hitch in what was indeed a formality. Yet again, the lurching bureaucratic monster that is immigration failed to tell us about something important we'd need later on, and we were lucky to be able to work around it this time.

So I have a green card, which is neither green nor a card, and a splitting headache due to a lack of sleep and a sudden and unexpected heatwave in these parts. It is so strange to walk around in the beating sun and see the lakes still frozen over.