It's a gateway drug...

Coffee.

Coffee is a gateway drug.
I don't mean you're going to start smoking pot, shooting up heroine, and eating LSD.

For someone who has decided to stop drinking soda and other sugary drinks, coffee will fuck that up.

It starts out pretty innocent...
You drink a cup or two of home-brewed coffee in the morning before school/work.
One day you sleep in and don't have time to make your coffee so you grab something fancy, like a Cáfe mocha, since, you know, you hardly drink them anyway.
Then after a while you realize how easy it was to sleep a little bit later and just have someone else make you this delicious chocolaty caffeinated beverage...
So you start taking it every day.
You start to crave more sugar, and so you have a diet coke with your lunch every now and again, still drinking a lot of water too.
Then you want even MORE sugar... so you switch it up to be a regular coke...
THEN you're having a cafe mocha every morning and a regular coke with your lunch every day.
The sugar cravings get horrible.
You want more candy and chocolate and ice cream and you want more caffeine too.
So then you have a coke later on after lunch every so often...
Then every day...
Then one day you buy an energy drink, which you haven't had one in over two years...
You've hit rock bottom.

"Then next thing you know you're hiding in basements drinking hardcore energy drinks!"

Coffee turned me onto caffeine and sugar. It got so bad that I was gaining weight, always tired, and my skin looked awful.

So I quit coffee.
I will, from now on, only drink green tea for my caffeine.
Low fat milk, cranberry juice, water, and green tea with honey.

I started yesterday. I happily consumed four "grande" cups of green tea.
Today I only consumed two and a half.
I am sleepy, but I've also been exhausted from school.

The honey in my tea definitely helps me fight any sugar cravings.
I will eat a little bit of ice cream after I finish my dinner.
I'M NOT HOUDINI, OK! BACK OFF!

I quit coffee, and I think you should too. Unless you have fantastic self control. Asshole.

Dont' want a paper gangster...

I'm currently printing out 19 pages of information in relation to getting my husband's Visa.
19 pages of stuff to read on the computer is hell. Fuck that.

I'm printing out the whole Affidavit of Support stuff.

I'm a bit surprised, actually. I did think this was going to be ridiculously difficult work.
The only pain in the ass is reading everything to make sure you don't fuck up.
The only people I know with any experience in the Spousal Visa area is my parents... and things have changed in the past ten years.

What I have learned in my experience with getting a Visa. A Spousal Visa, actually.

Originally, we were thinking to get the Fiancé Visa, but it came to be our understanding that since I am a permanent resident (for now!) in Finland, it would be easier for us to get married and apply for the Spousal Visa.
So we happily got married, had a nice little wedding, real pretty.
I had my name changed to his, I no longer "live with my parents". A lot of fun and exciting things.
I'm a real person now! I'm almost an adult!

So, anyway, the process began.
We did all sorts of research. We discovered which forms we needed to fill out, the fees, etc.
First step was the I-130, the Petition of all petitions.
We also filled out the G-325, our biological information.
Included necessary stuff and mailed it in, along with a receipt to prove we paid the fee.

Who knows what we did wrong?
Yes, we fucked up by mailing it in.
But you know what was rad? I just had to show up to the Embassy a week after they got it, because they called me. I had to bring my passport (and apparently money).
They refunded the money, since it was to the wrong account, and then gave me all the forms which were needed for my husband to fill out, and plenty of instructions.

The lesson learned: Contact the Embassy if you're even remotely unsure about something.
Nothing is in black and white, except the text, as long as it's on a white background. I found that the forms really like the color blue...

So my husband is doing his part, working on the medical stuff and all the important papers he needs to prove he's not a criminal or will be bringing with him some crazy European disease, like Polio or Swine Flu (he needs the vaccinations :D).

My current job is supply The Affidavit of Support (I-864). The tricky part is I am not a permanent resident (although I am an American Citizen) and I have no income whatsoever.
So I have to rely on my family, or someone close to it for this.
Which is tricky, seeing as how the economy took a nice dump on my family.
We're not poor by all means, but our best choice was let go from his job (as we were expecting due to foreseen events) the day after he went to an interview, fingers crossed he gets the job!
Our preferred choice has been unemployed for two years, although they have the funds to take care of my husband, as the guv'ment desires.
So I'm just doing the research to see if my family member qualifies...

Let's hope for the best!

Once I highlight important information in these 19 pages of Affidavit of Support information, I'm going to "buy" new furniture, to see how much money it would cost us. Shipping versus buying new shit...