Life Flows Better With Visa

(Post title - Visa's new advertising campaign, an advert for which you can see here.  No, Visa's not paying me to share this; I just think it's cute.  Another fun World Cup ad, this time for Nike, can be found here.  More on the World Cup will be posted tomorrow.  And, as you will understand when you reach the bottom of this email, this post title is meant ironically.)

I had been having a good day today.  I really had.  I slept in luxuriously.  I called the service that the consulate uses and spoke to a very nice, if not very helpful, woman, which made me feel slightly more in control of the visa situation.  I went to the National Building Museum to help my friend Alex, who works for the Washington Wine Academy, set up for tonight's Toast of the Town wine and restaurant tasting event, which I was really looking forward to attending.  I had a lovely long Skype date with Jon.

And then I got an email from the consulate.  Yay, I thought.  An email!  News!

I can't copy and past the email here in case the consulate somehow finds out and denies my visa because of privacy issues, but basically it said that they have to do more research on my visa and they estimate it will take up to twenty business days from today for a decision to be made.

TWENTY BUSINESS DAYS.

OMFG, as Gossip Girl would say.

There's a sinking feeling in my stomach that says that this wait is not a good sign.  I'm rapidly losing my positive outlook on this whole situation.

1. Twenty business days from today is July 9 - that's a full month away.
2. I'm going to have to completely scrap my flight - that's $1200 down the drain.
3. Another flight will have to be purchased - that's another $800 gone, maybe.
4. Jon and the boys will have to start house hunting without me.
5. This is another month in which I'm unemployed, essentially, and not making much money.

These are the first five "oh crap" outcomes of this situation that I can think of.  I'm sure I can come up with more.

[Expletive.]

Jon's being a darling about the whole thing, obviously, but he's just as frustrated as I am.  We both feel so powerless!  I have to be careful to not take my frustration out on him, because it's not his fault at all, but I definitely sometimes feel overwhelmed by what's going on.

I'm still going to go to New York - seeing my friends up there will be lovely - but I'm not sure there's any point anymore in even trying to go to the consulate.  I did email them back asking why there was a holdup - why my application demands further enquiries - but I don't expect a response.  We'll see.

Yargh.  Yargh times 10 to the nth degree.