Odds and Ends -- 13 December 2012

Odds and ends.  A little of this and a little of that.  A nice way to say, “I don’t have a good, single idea to write about, but I have a lot of various little thoughts, so I’ll just put them together and call it a blog post.” 

Maybe it’s a lazy way to keep the blog current, but I haven’t been able to coalesce one of my bigger ideas into a cogent piece of writing that actually makes sense, so here it is.  Besides, I wanted to be sure I got at least one more post published before the world ends next week.

The Spirit is Willing, but the Body?  Well, not so much.

I wrote a little while back about going to a tango class and about how dreadful I felt about it.  Still, I was determined to keep trying.  Well, that determination still lives inside; however, my body has not been cooperative.  For a number of weeks now, I’ve been dealing with some really severe back pain, so dancing is just not in the equation at the present. 

On the plus side, I’ve hardly noticed any aching at all in my ankles or knees.  Oh, I’m sure it’s still there, but the signals get blocked on their way to my brain by the heavy traffic emanating from my lower back.  It seems the sciatic nerve and lower vertebrae have priority in the pain communication system.

I visited a doctor here about a month or more ago, and he was dreadful.  I was anticipating a master chiropractor, but instead he just looked at my feet, told me to walk straighter, then proceeded to pummel my legs and butt.  The bruises lasted for a week, but that’s about all the results I received.  Maybe I’ll find a good chiro when I visit the U.S. next month.

Getting back to dance in 2013 is still a strong intention.  Once I fix a few ancillary issues, I’m going to give it another try.

The Trip is Set

I’ve finalized all the details of my U.S. trip in January.  The last parts were to book a couple of hotel overnights and get past the inadequacies of United Airlines’ Web site to make seat selections on my Lufthansa flights.  A quick call to Lufthansa took care of that.

I’ll certainly be glad to say goodbye to United Airlines.  The only downside is that when I fly again, I’ll be starting from scratch with regard to miles on a new airline: KLM.  But, you have to start somewhere.

The one thing I am NOT looking forward to is driving rental cars in Massachusetts and Colorado in January.  I just hope they'll have he sense to put winter tires on those things.

A bigger question I've been considering lately is whether the Ukrainian immigration authorities will let me back into the country.  They've been tightening the laws, and I am not sure the way I've been doing things will continue to work.  So...

Getting Legal

My immigration status in Ukraine has become a major concern lately.  I have been intending to adjust my status for some time now so that I can have the kind of temporary residence status that won’t require me to leave the country every 90 days or pay some money for passport stamps when the time is up.  I’ve been worrying that sooner or later the immigration authorities here might deny me reentry into the country.  Then I’d really be in deep do-do.

Recently, one of my client companies upped the ante by telling me that, starting in January, they will only be able to pay me if I have full official working status in the country.  So I've been digging into the immigration law, trying to understand all the recent changes and see just what the best path is for me to follow. 

National laws are never easy to understand (politicians do this deliberately), but the immigration laws of Ukraine are especially difficult.  It’s like whoever wrote them had drunk a whole bottle of vodka and then been punched in the head by Vitaliy Klitchko before they started writing.  It’s a pain to try and understand it all.  But I’m making progress.

To be honest, however, I have to say that this exercise has made me really pause to think harder about whether I should stay here, or whether the time has come to go back and figure out how to make a go of it in the USSA.  Overall, I’d have to say that Ukraine still wins – I mean I do have a niche here, doing something I really enjoy and am good at, that I would never have back in America – but I do have my doubts, and I don't have any strong relationship ties here. 

Most Ukrainians I know can’t understand why anyone from America or Europe would actually WANT to stay here.  And that sentiment often makes me question my motives too.  I have a lot of thinking to do, and not much time to do it.  Perhaps some great opportunity will reveal itself to me during my January trip and answer my questions.  But, that didn't happen during my 2011 trip, so I’m not holding my breath.

Stay tuned!

Oh, Those Silly Politicians!

The part of America that sits between Canada and Mexico was recently subjected to a bruising election.  The Obamsheviks squeaked by, and the Republicants basically held serve in the House.  Libertarians did a lot better than usual, meaning their presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, actually garnered more than a million votes nationwide.  Of course, that’s a drop in the bucket and doesn't mean much. 

Now the federal government has settled back into its usual game of rewarding all its favored constituencies: big labor, big business and themselves, while giving everyone else the shaft.  We hear the usual divisive, idiotic, over-the-top rhetoric from the same lame party leaders, while the debt piles up and the country careens toward fiscal calamity.  It’s all so boring.

Perhaps the USSA government should try the Ukrainian model: fistfights and nude protesters!

As we've seen countless times before, the opening session of the Ukrainian parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada, erupted into a pandemonium of pushing, shoving and punches.  It’s become so normal here that people just expect it.  But, believe me, no one I know is proud of it at all – it’s an embarrassment. 

And to complete the sideshow, the opening session was also greeted with protests from Ukraine’s Femen protest group.  These are women who go bare breasted to draw attention to their grievances.  They DO get attention, so it apparently works.

Frankly, I think a little fisticuffs in the USSA Congress would really liven things up.  I’d love to see Alan West go at it with any of his counterparts on the socialist side.  And how about a no-holds-barred cat fight between Nancy Pelosi and, perhaps, Kristi Noem?  And over on the Senate side, I’d love to see anyone take a shot at Chuck Schumer. 

Oh well… while American politics will probably never be as entertaining as in Ukraine, the results of the politicians’ “work” will certainly be just about as worthless.

So… that’s enough “Odds and Ends” for now.  The glass and a half of wine I had a while ago gave me a creativity spurt, but now it’s just made me tired.