It's already March, and I find myself paying attention to time like never before. Here are some Harper's Magazine-like statistics, as of March 3, 2008:
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123: days that Juan has lived in the U.S.
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14: friends we had over to celebrate Thanksgiving, just 3 weeks after Juan's arrival
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5: pies eaten at Thanksgiving (and for several days thereafter)
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3: parlor games, including charades, played by some and endured by others between dinner and dessert on Thanksgiving
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57: days that we've been married
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24: days we had after the wedding to submit Juan's applications for residency, work authorization and 'parole' (permission to travel outside the US)
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1: lawyer hired to help us navigate the overwhelming amount of paperwork required to submit said applications
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4: snow and/or ice storms Juan has seen since arriving in the US.
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75: times (estimated) Juan has taken public transportation, including Metrorail.
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3: observations Juan has made about people on the Metro:
A) people don't talk to each other;
B) people seem obsessed with their iPods and cell phones;
C) there seems to be an unspoken rule that men should not sit next to other men; that is, when the only seats open are those next to men, any man boarding the train will choose to stand rather than sit down.
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5: vaccinations Juan had to get in order to apply for permanent residency
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3: actual injections received (some vaccinations combined, thankfully)
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4-8: weeks that we expect to wait for Juan's work authorization to come through
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9: days after arriving that Juan found an ESL theater group looking for someone to play "a Mexican man". He said "sure, why not?"
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14: cast members who participated in the project
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130: hours of rehearsal required in the final weeks leading up to performance
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500: people who attended "Beyond the Simple Present," a play featuring an all-immigrant cast portraying the lives of newcomers in the U.S. Juan played a starring role as "Luis".
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1: white squirrels spotted by Juan (and no one else) in our neighborhood
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0: people who believed that what Juan had seen was a squirrel and not, say, a rat
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1: photos Juan took of the white squirrel (seen at right), proving us all wrong
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10: friends' parties we've attended, none of which have included dancing. Juan wonders why these are called parties at all.
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4: times we went Contra dancing at Glen Echo Park before I started getting too dizzy and nauseous to do all of those turns
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5: days after our last Contra dance that we suspected there was a reason...
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1: mysterious blog postings you'll have to endure before more news is provided
Meanwhile, I've posted some highlights from the wedding, below. Enjoy.
