Thursday, March 27, 2008

I've been feeling a little like a groundhog who saw her shadow one fateful winter's day and then went back into hibernation until warmer weather arrived. I can see blue sky as I type, so I'm going to emerge from my blogging black hole and post an update. Here goes:

We all traipsed to the prefecture today (only had a 2-hour wait, even with my appointment, which is not too bad) and I drove back home feeling hopeful that I will actually get my 10-year residency card this year. I don't think I elaborated on all the things I was asked to bring -- I'd say about 15 extra items that I wasn't asked for last year -- but my husband and I made a good faith effort to collect all requested documents plus extra copies and anything that might come in handy just in case the person decided to surprise us with a new request. We had quite a packet of papers that we ended up lugging to our appointment, and of course we weren't asked for at least 1/3 of it. This was quite predictable, but the trouble is that I am not willing to gamble on which third of the documents won't be necessary. One guy got hauled out of there in handcuffs by 2 people in plainclothes...not sure if he did something really bad or if he failed to provide his handwritten letter of motivation or whatever, but let that serve as a reminder to me not to take any chances.

One of the new things I was asked to provide was a translation of a certified copy of my birth certificate no more than 3 months old. Or something along those lines, at any rate. I have the original copy of my birth certificate, so when I asked if I could provide that instead, the very nice woman at the prefecture said oh, no, it was definitely important to have a new certified copy. I explained that there was no way for me to be able to receive the copy and have it translated in time for my actual appointment, and she told me to bring the original as well as proof that we requested the certified copy from the US, and then turn in the translation when I pick up my card. I'll spare you all the rigamarole of what I went through to try to get this stupid copy of my b.c., but it did involve effort on the part of multiple persons. Did today's lady even ask for my birth certificate at all? No...no, she did not. As soon as I got home from the prefecture, though, the postman rang my doorbell and delivered the certified copy. Maybe it will come in handy someday.

Now it seems that the mayor of the town I live in has to approve my request, and then they can process it for printing. If he so desires, he may request a personal interview with me within two months. If he doesn't get back to them within this time frame, then they'll just go ahead and print my residency card. So there you go. I'm still a bit nervous since I applied for my residency card last year and they only told me I was getting a regular 1-year card when I arrived to pick it up. I hope there won't be any nasty surprise like that this year; at any rate at least I'm ready with my stupid certified copy of my birth certificate.

In other news, my cat apparently has an ulcer. I will also spare you the gruesome but terribly evident details of how I knew she was sick, but I ended up dragging her back to the vet this afternoon. We went in January with slightly less icky signs of her malaise, and the vet didn't find anything despite a battery of tests. Today, however, he did find actual evidence of a gastric problem so we left with a prescription for 2 kinds of pills and special easily-digestible food. Now, our vet seems to be a good one and I like him very much, but according to him Tallulah is not affected by any kind of new baby stress because cats just aren't easily stressed out by that kind of stuff. And maybe cats don't get ulcers out of stress, but I've been pretty sure that Baby Hot Foot has been a source of anxiety and I have to wonder if this is the result. Dunno.

The lucky thing for us is that she's supposed to take the same kind of medicine for her ulcer as The Babe did for her reflux, so I can take those leftover pills to the pharmacy and ask them to transform them into itty bitty kitty pills. How often do you see that kind of coincidence, huh? They're Mopral sisters. Weird.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, it has been a couple of bad days. Hope it gets better soon. Sorry about Tallulah, but hope the medicine works.
Take care and have a great weekend