It's Autumn...

Almost, anyway. It's only a few days away. It'll be official this coming Saturday.

How time flies, eh? It seems it was only a few days ago when we welcomed this month and now it's almost over. I guess that's what happens when you're busy...which we have been I must say.

My journey to become a citizen was finalized yesterday. I attended an oath taking ceremony along with 90 others from several other countries. This was a long time coming. I was eligible to apply more than 5 years ago but I opted not to rush it. There was no reason to rush it. So what gives this time around? Travel purposes. It's easier to travel once you're a citizen of this country. Also, I want to vote.

When I applied for my residency here some eleven years ago, we spent thousands of dollars. That's mainly because we hired a lawyer to aid us. I have to say it was worth it considering we didn't know the 'ins & outs' of the immigration laws back then. All we had to do was provide our lawyer with needed documents and he did [or his paralegal probably did] the leg work. This time around, we decided to do it all ourselves. With 'all' I mean filing the papers ourselves. That's it! After submitting the documents, I just waited for the immigration office to contact me to let me know the next step. All in all it took about 5 months to finish everything. No sweat at all. And yesterday was the culmination of it all.

I have another journey I have yet to finish....my driving. This one needs a lot more practice on my part. I am not a willing party on this one but it has to be done sooner or later. I have about a year to make sure that's done or I would have to re-apply for another permit...and I would hate for that to happen. Ugh!