Come on -- we know how to celebrate even if separated!

[mendeleev 68]

Hey, VJers! Like a lot of people hanging around here, I want my I-129F NOA2! (I wouldn't mind my I-130 NOA2, either.) We've been carping about that lately, as the service centers seem to have taken a long (ill-deserved?) spring break! Come on! I'm 50 years old! I don't get spring break anymore

But, precisely *because* we are married, a lot of us (all of us, I hope!) know how to celebrate good fortune even across big distances separating us from wives and husbands.

So, tomorrow morning, five years ago, my lovely wife was invited to help take a foreign delegation to the ballet, as a part of the social program for this pair of visiting scientists. Now, we both agree that we didn't notice each other too much that night at the ballet (it was Swan Lake and it was the best ballet I'd even seen in my life, up to that point). But those days in Novosibirsk were fateful for us. By the weekend, sparks were flying across a language barrier that, in the coming months, through letters, we learned to overcome. In those first days, the language barrier was really funny.

We both understood English (she rapidly started correctly my written grammatical mistakes) -- but she couldn't understand my American accent and I couldn't always understand her beautiful accent. She doesn't speak English with a Russian accent. Its not a British accent, either. It is an accent quite peculiar, beautiful, musical, and all her own!

Over the years, we managed over 16 months together and now, with my new job, we are in the longest separation we've ever had. It is a nuisance, but it really doesn't matter.

Because now, this lovely woman is my wife. And, as part of our honeymoon, we saw more ballet both in Novosibirsk and, even better (!) at the Marinskii Theater in St. Petersburg. (The ballet at the Marinskii is, without doubt, the very best I've ever seen.)

So, now we are separated, addressing the stresses of separation and impending emigration/immigration -- but tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we celebrate. I hope some of you will join us. Maybe, during the coming days, those examiners at CSC and VSC will give us occasion to thank them -- and give us more reason for celebration.

For now, I want to celebrate five good years.

[MissStacey 1]

You have every right to Celebrate!!!

[Dwarf_Ogress 0]

Now that is love! Celebrate to your heart's content, you earned it!