My stomach is feeling gross right now. And reading about Zephii's barfing extravaganza didn't make it much better.

Anyways. I'm trying to figure out vacations/trips home. Here's possible vacations:

1. I have a week off in October and I could potentially go home for a few days just to hang out
2. My cousin is getting married in November in MA and we're trying to see if we can somehow both go out
3. My sister is moving to Germany and I thought hey! Christmas in Germany! For the both of us.
4. Going home mid-January, the both of us, just for a visit and hang-out
5. When we eventually move back to the USA I want to take 2-3 weeks to go out west and see some cool shit. My SO hasn't been there and I know it'd be cool.
6. We have $300 in Avianca voucher we have to use by next July so maybe going somewhere in Central America. Belize? My SO is adamantly against going to Mexico and Guatemala, even though I'm sure we'd be fine.

I was talking to my SO today about vacations and he gets all grumpy saying we don't need to spend money, etc. He says he doesn't like "wasting money" and I told him that, to me, vacations and visiting family is not wasting money. But he does have a point. We're about to make an international move which is expensive, and neither of us make that much money here. Especially now that he's working part-time.

The other thing we have to work around is his classes. He has university classes on the worst possible days- Friday, Saturday and Monday. WTF! I guess we'll have ZERO weekend trips until the trimester is over in December. I asked him if it would be possible to miss one class and he gets all grumpy like saying if we plan a vacation on his class days then something else will come up and make him miss another class. Or something. He also loves to bring up the Cuba trip which made him miss two diff eq classes which he says is the reason he failed the class. Evidently this was my fault since when we had the issue with the flights I asked to come back a day later. He didn't mention to me that would make him miss an extra class. I told him he should have told me about it and he said he didn't so I would be happy and enjoy Cuba. But he's sure still holding it against me now. (plus, I think the reason he failed diff eq was because he basically gave up after Cuba. He stopped going to class! Anyways)

Finally- we have the stupid visa. It's been 6 months since we sent in the petition and it's "normally" supposed to take under 6 months to get approved. I've mentioned before, but now USCIS is saying that petition approval will take 6-12 months. So we have no freaking clue when we'll be approved. It could be tomorrow. It could be in March 2014. I want to make a trip home before we move so I can take a load of stuff. What I don't want to happen is to take stuff home, and then not get approved for another 4 or 5 months. Or take a trip home with nothing and then get approved a week later and have to take another trip home with stuff. It's just a huge freaking crapshoot.

So basically- I want to go on vacation. Yes, we've had two big vacations this year (to CO to get married and Cuba). But I get restless. Especially since with my SO's classes we can't even take a weekend trip anywhere! I have money to go on a trip myself and I have more flexibility. But I'm sort of tired of going on trips by myself. I love my husband and I want him to come with me. A trip home by myself- no biggie, but if I'm going somewhere new I want him with me. And honestly, even going home I want him there, too. I mean that's where we plan on spending at least the next couple years of our lives. I want him to like it there, too. Plus my family loves my husband and they miss him too.

We've decided to plan for a trip to USA home in mid-January. Which might conflict with our 1-year wedding anniversary. I sort of promised my SO's family we'd celebrate it with them. Since they weren't able to come to the actual wedding. I think it'd be nice to incorporate them. Maybe even have another small ceremony? I don't know. I think they were really hurt they weren't able to come. Well my SO's mom at least. So, we'll see.

On to nicer stuff- I'm so happy my SO is now working part-time! He only works 3 days a week. It's great having him around more. He's less stressed out (well, unless I'm talking about expensive vacations ) and has more time to get stuff done.

Work has been crazy. I really think if I knew I would be here for another 4 or 5 years, I would NOT continue working at the school. I know I turned down that better paying job earlier in the year, but a lot of that was based on me thinking that I would be back in the USA before the next school year started.

Well my tummy feels better now. I'm going to get ready for bed and read a little. My SO's off playing pool with his whipped friend. (this guy decided to marry this girl who he's never lived with before and neither of them know how to cook or clean and both of them are broke and he wanted to buy a new expensive house and she's super jealous and if he doesn't text her constantly she freaks out... etc)

Have a good night/day!

PS- My friend from high school makes short films. He recently made this one. It's 20 minutes long so if you have some time to kill go ahead and watch it. It's political and my friend is very Afrocentric as you will note in the movie. But I think it's extremely well done. I have to admit- my favorite part is knowing all the "actors". They were all my friends in high school! I used to have such a crush on the guy who plays "Reggie".