Laughing Boy
male, 48 |
Software Developer
Brisbane / Australia
member since 28.08.2005
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November 2008
June and July saw her over here again.
We had a wonderful time, and this was actually the longest stretch we'd spent full time in each other's company. While she was here, she did the Landmark Forum (and I reviewed it) as well as coming to all the professional development stuff that I attend, and she went home with a very different world view! The day after the Landmark Forum, she'd cleaned up a bunch of stuff with her family (like not having spoken to her mom in 2 years), and she and I set some deadlines for our lives. The most important was that we were going to get married by the end of January 2009.
We'd sent in the fiancé visa application but did not find out until two days before she was due to return that somehow the cheque had been left out, so it had been returned for resubmission. That put a kink in our January 2009 plan. She was flying all over the world to get home, and home was no longer in Chicago but in Birmingham, AL for her post-grad work. By the time the returned visa application had found its way to her and I'd put all the up to date supporting material together it was the beginning of this month, November.
So we're not expecting to get the visa until the end of April at the earliest. In the meantime, I'm going over for January, February, and a bit of March so we can plan the wedding and I can check out the local business scene in readiness for when the visa does come through.
In the meantime, I'm crossing the I's and dotting the T's of my existing business so that by the time I head off permanently it's running smoothly without me and has become an income stream. That's all looking very good, so I'm expecting to effectively retire in January as I first go over. That said, I've got a couple more projects that I like the look of, so I'll still be busy I expect!
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February 2008.
My fiancée did indeed come and visit over Christmas. Three weeks went all too quickly. But it was long enough for her to connect with some of the key people in my life, and have them get what she and I are up to.
She's busy applying for post-grad courses in neurobiology right now. This may well lead to us living somewhere other than Chicago when I move over. I don't know how I feel about that, as I liked Chicago a lot. However, I had no feelings at all about Chicago before I visited, so who's to say I won't like wherever we end up.
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Sept 2007.
Just had a comment left that my profile is a wind-up. I've always been an admirer of clockwork, although attempts to understand it have usually resulted in broken clocks.
August saw me visit the UK to celebrate by mum's 90th! My delicious fiancee joined me for the last few days and we also celebrated her 21st! My life! I span the generations single-handed.
Then back to Chicago with her to plot and plan and progress our schemes of love and marriage. Would that it were so simple that we could just marry, but we can't, so we're squeezing every last bit of value out of the problems that we face.
She's remarkable, my fiancee. Many years separate us, but I've never felt so well partnered as I do by her. She is right at my side, supports me, inspires me, and holds me to account, and allows me to do the same for her.
I wish that there were more in the world like her.
We're considering her visiting me here in Brisbane this December. I'd like her to see my world before we turn our back on it, and she wants to meet my daughter, who is blossoming in the wonderful care of her parents, mum 1 and mum 2. I am blown away by how good they are as a couple, and with her. Not only do I have no regrets helping them to have her, I'd be more than willing to help them have another. I know few straight parents who are as good as they are. They've made sure that she has a continuous supply of male and female company, so she won't grow up lacking a strong male influence. They're not daft, those two!
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July 2007.
I'm a dad. Wed 27th June 2007 saw the birth of my biological daughter, Cody. Her parents are a couple who live many hours south of me, whose ability to have children of their own has been hampered by the fact that they are both women!
It's taken us about two years to negotiate how it was all going to work, and then get down to business (think "turkey baster"...) and produce our little wonder. I'm not going to go into all the details of the agreement that's in place between us, but suffice it to say there is one, and it's to everyone's benefit.
I've discovered that my the way how my little toes seem to be slightly on their side is not down to bad shoes when young, but is apparently genetic. My daughter has them!
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April 2007.
The next visit to Chicago is organised for May. Just a quick one for a couple of weeks, as in August there's a much more comprehensive trip planned. My mum will be 90 in August, and my fiancee 21, so we're combining forces to celebrate an Eleventy-First birthday!
In the meantime, my finances improve immensely, vital to ensure that she and I can be with each other as soon as possible. I would imagine that I'll be taking longer and longer trips to the U.S. during the latter part of this year and the early part of next so that she and I can come as close as possible to living with each other before I apply to U.S. Immigration for a fiancee visa.
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Nine months after the last update, (it's now December 2006) I'm in Tel Aviv catching up with my girl. The last two trips have been to Chicago, which I like a lot, and now to Tel Aviv where she's on a visit started as a birthright trip and continueing as a visit to family.
While she's finishing college, I have to travel to be with her during her breaks. This works well for both of us - she can get on with her studies and I can get on with getting stinking rich!
2008 should be the year we finally get together permanently, when she graduates and my business plans get me to a point when I can effectively stop working full-time, so I can afford to move to the States.
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BIG NEWS!
This wonderful woman and I are getting engaged. We are going ring shopping tomorrow, Monday 27th March 2006 to make it official.
The trip to Chicago has been an unqualified success. Now I need to work on how to get telecommuting work that I can bring over to Chicago from Brisbane. She does not graduate until the end of next year, so until then, she wants to stay in Chicago. So until then, I'm going to fly over, stay for my 90 days allowed without a visa, then scoot back for a while, and then do it again.
So, anyone in the North Chicago area (ideally around Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Lake Forest) who's got a spare room or granny flat that they'd be willing to rent to me? Cheap as possible!
Anyone got a car they'd be willing to sell me, cheap as possible again?
Anyone know of any great software development projects I can join in with that will allow me to be that mobile?
I'm putting it out there!
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Update! No longer single!
In an extraordinary relationship with a wonderful woman online - I'm going to meet her in Chicago in March. If we get on as well in person as we do online, we have agreed to marry!
YAAAY!!!!!
One-man-band developer, contracted to around 30 businesses in the last five years or so. Funnily enough, I now know a lot about business! Got a degree in literature, so I have a wide taste and appreciation for lit, film, music, art, and all the other stuff us humans have been clever enough to create!
I'm English, but live in Australia, and find it still weird here five years in. I bought a book of Robert Crumb's work, and no-one else here has heard of him. Hmmm....
So, this is the internet, and the law states that I must discuss my musical taste, so, suck on this: Brian Eno, Fats Waller, Led Zeppelin, Mozart, Underworld, The Beatles (The Rolling who?), Jan Garbareck, The Birthday Massacre, Tom Waits, The Ethiopians, old school David Bowie, David Holmes, Joanna Newsom (that's one fine weird woman), Michael Nyman, Parliament, The Who, Steve Reich. You get the picture: artsy fartsy thinky-head eclectic with balls. |
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