Where The Streets Have No Name

[annuin]

And that would be New Jersey. The more I have to drive anywhere in Jersey that doesn't involve the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, the more I hate it. I spent altogether way too much time getting lost trying to find Raider's hotel this evening to pick him up, and the directions said it was like maybe a mile or two off the parkway. Liars. "Follow the signs to the Raritan Center" ... my ass! there was one sign, then they all vanished, as signs are wont to do in Jersey. This has happened so many times when I've been trying to get places in Jersey, the signs just vanish and leave you to just wonder where the hell to go to.

Eventually I found it and picked him up, drove him back up here. We had dinner at Applebees and talked for a while, and then I drove him back down to Edison. A bit of a trip for just dinner, especially as it's about an hour and a half each way, but he's stuck in a hotel for the workweek, and we hadn't seen him since October 2001 when we drove up to Rochester. It was fun though, even if short lived.

Earlier in the afternoon I wiled away almost 2 hours in the doctor's office. I love when you get to wait a half an hour even though you had an appointment and were there about 10 minutes early anyway. Had 2 vials of blood taken for the HIV and syphillis tests INS makes you do, got another measles booster (apparantly you need two, and the one from my 2001 fiancée visa immunisation round counted, but of course I have no paper record of the one I got as a child, so they needed to administer the second one), and I got some skin tuberculosis test where they inject some fluid under your skin and you get to come back in 48-72 hours and they ascertain if you've been in contact with tb. For my fiancée visa I had a chest x-ray, apparantly they needed to do the skin test instead of use the x-ray for the requirements.

So between Thursday 4pm and Friday 4pm I need to walk-in for them to finish the tb test, which I believe boils down to "If your arm hasn't swollen to nasty proportions, then you haven't been in touch with tuberculosis" ... yeah, thanks. So far it's been 8 hours and all I have is a red mark on my arm from blood under the skin, ditto for the other arm where they took blood, the measles shot barely left any trace. Hopefully my arms won't be all sore tomorrow when we have karate.

Monday's karate was interesting. The shihan taught the class, which was the first time I'd been taught by him. His wife, who's a sensei, was also there, as well as another sensei and our mostly regular senpai Eduardo. A pretty busy class. We figured out later that the reason the shihan taught the class was because Monday was the 10th anniversary of the passing of Mas Oyama, who founded Kyokushin. Our shihan was also telling us some anecdotes and such, he trained and graded under Mas Oyama when he was a boy and such. Because the shihan was teaching the class, it meant that we got to see the third dan sensei and senpai Eduardo doing some sparring when it was just the upper belts. Eduardo's very interesting to watch, watching him is like watching a cat... perfect balance with everything he's doing, and lots of strength, but hidden with a grace that makes it all look so easy, even though you know it isn't. Supple and sleek. And he nailed one of his opponents with a really nifty sweep too. Interesting stuff to watch the upper belts sparring. We might end up going to watch a tournament in June, as there's one being hosted in NYC (Kit, interested?)

We also found out how old senpai Eduardo is during some changing room chatter. He looks like he's about 28 or so, as he comes across as mature and serious. Turns out he's 20. Not that it matters at all, he just seems a lot older. I think PreZ is thinking of needling him about the fact that he was the topic of discussion in the women's changing rooms ;) Strange how ages can be misjudged so easily. I had a case of it in the doctor's office when the nurse gave me a copy of my immunisation sheet and told me that I should have that because I might need it if I applied for school o.O I'm not sure how old she figured me for (and if she'd paid attention to the forms she'd have seen my birthdate), but I'm past the average starting college age by a fair margin. That said, I don't think too many people realise my age just from looking at me, which suits me just fine.

Comments

[lucidiot.livejournal.com]

The skin test is commonly referred to as a PPD. I work at a NYS IRA (group home for mentally disabled adults). It's the law for us to get one, and trust me, you'd know if you had an adverse reaction to the test, my friend did. I've totally never heard of that for a school though. I'm guessing that's what INS is?

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Immigration and Naturalisation Services. They changed the name twice in the past two years, first to BCIS (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services) and now to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). Usually when dealing with people on the phone it's easier to say INS, people seem to know what that acronym means, unlike the new one that nets you blank stares sometimes.

But I'm not an American, just married to one, so working on residency stuff.