November 2016

Quite a lot happened this November, the least of which was the temperatures plummeting of course.

I'm sure most people reading this will be aware of the big political event that happened this month, as it was all over the news - but I'm not going to dwell on it, because quite frankly anything political angers and depresses me. All I will say on the subject is that it is not worth destroying friendships with someone because of who they voted for - we are all human after all. So please, just do yourselves a favour and let it go. Life is too short.

On a more personal note, I had some sad news earlier this month - a friend of mine from back in the UK passed away. She was an elderly woman who was friends with my grandma, and who me and my brother became friends with when we were kids. I used to go and visit her a lot and keep her company, as she lived alone. Sadly her health began to decline a few years ago, however I still went to visit her and also helped her by doing food shopping for her once or twice a week. It was especially hard saying goodbye to her just before I moved to the US last December, because I had a feeling there and then that it would probably be our last goodbye - with her passing, I feel like a part of my past passed on with her, along with all the memories she had of her own life - however, I can find comfort in knowing that we were able to do say our goodbyes, and that she's not in pain anymore.

November had some better moments though - for the very first time, I got to take part in the annual American tradition that is Thanksgiving. I spent it with my lovely wife and her family, we had dinner (albeit without the traditional Thanksgiving turkey), played a very lively game of 500 Rummy, and got to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade on telly, complete with all the colourful parade floats. It was pretty enjoyable on the whole.
I also got that good news from immigration that I'd been waiting for - my permanent residency has been approved! It took long enough (11 months!), but it's now there and black and white, I am now a legal alien. I should be getting my resident ID card in the next three weeks, and then the next step will be to get a social security number - and then I can finally start applying for jobs. Not gonna lie, I'm very nervous about that, but then again who wouldn't be? It's long overdue.

As always, I'll leave you with some artwork - inspired by watching the Thanksgiving parade, I doodled up my monster character Greenie as a parade balloon. And while I'm on the subject of artwork, I decided to create my own separate Facebook page for my artworks (thanks again to my good friend Shane for help with that.), if you want to check it out, you can find it right here at BluebottleFlyer Arts.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving, even if you're outside of the US - till next time.