Edinburgh, the Regency, Steampunk and Immigration Update

Edinburgh
I went to see Stephanie in Edinburgh this last weekend which was lots of fun. It is funny how some people I knew for years and quite liked I have entirely fallen out of touch with. And so it is amazing how enduring a friendship I've had with someone I knew at first only for my extra half-year in Scotland after my official year abroad, and lived a city away from at that! We went to the SCA dance practice in Edinburgh and I realized I hadn't been to that house for seven years! (Before I even met Stephanie for that matter.) It was still filled with an amazing collection of medieval instruments, just as I remembered (it's funny how much I've thought about their amazing house and instrument collection over the years, having only seen it once, and now twice). Ron even got them to tune the hurdygurdy, one of his favorite instruments thanks to it's features in Madrigirls concerts. Speaking of which, one of them saw my madri-hoody and asked if I was actually in the Madrigirls and we got into a discussion of where all we'd performed and when we were performing next. We were thinking of going to the couple's medieval concert the next day, but we'd worn ourselves out sight-seeing by then so, unfortunately, we missed it.

They had an "Open Doors" day where lots of buildings that are usually closed or private or cost money to enter are open to the public for the day. We went to see Duddingston House, this old 18th century manor house on the far side of Arthur's seat from the main part of Edinburgh. It was very pretty. From the outside you'd expect someone old and stuffy in a smoking jacket to greet you at the door and ask you to please wipe your feet, but inside the foyer it is now decorated with modern pictures of naked women! It was startling and very funny. The furniture was all quite mod as well. But for once it rather worked. I mean I would rather have seen matching 19th century furniture, but they did quite a decent job with getting the 21st century decorating to compliment and blend well with the 19th century decorating. And it was nice to see that the spaces are still being used.

Then we went and saw a 12th century (well, parts of it) church and around the corner from that stopped for a drink in the Ram's Head, "the oldest pub in Scotland" and mused over how many oldest pubs in Scotland there must be. They did claim to have records of existing in 1370-something which is admittedly impressively old (if accurate) and had anecdotes about Mary Queen of Scots and James the IV/I stopping for drinks there on their ways between Edinburgh and the next palace over (Craigmillar Castle?).

Then we went to the Regency era bit, "New Town" Edinburgh and I got to see the Assembly Rooms and a couple Regency townhouses. Very fun. I wanted to go to the Georgian House which is actually all decorated up in proper style, but they still charged money so we skipped them. Still we saw in the next town house over which was very nice. Apparently some of the restoration work was a bit misguided, the ceilings overly ornately painted and that sort of thing. But we were told the doors and handles and such (which I loved) were quite accurate, and of course we got to see the layout of the house with recieving rooms below and bedrooms a floor up. Sadly the kitchen and servant areas below stairs and the highest floors were not open, but it still gave me a better feel for a smallish upperclass town house. These were certainly not of a size to be holding balls or even very large tea parties! But if dancing was what you wanted it was only a few streets over to the Assembly Rooms which also had a large performance room and some smaller side rooms and a decorated room with columns downstairs. There you could see distinctly the main parts of the building from the serving corridors and servant stairs. I still wonder how they managed to light those huge chandeliers so high up! And wouldn't you get wax dripped on your fine clothes below?

The next day we went to the Queen's Gallery and looked at Renaissance paintings and drawings. Very nifty. Stephanie and I were taking garb notes and Ron quite enjoyed it as well, though more from a "how did they achieve that trick of perspective" aspect than our "how did they make that neckline" perspective.

Role Playing
The Glasgow Uni gaming society is back in full swing. The first two Tuesdays they hold "one-off" games while people come and find us and try out this crazy role playing thing. This time I played a crazy game in Steampunk alternate Victorian England. I've never been in any role playing game with so much player vs player fighting! I was involved in very little of it...just one fight. Well two if you count the one were I was ready to step into a knife vs pistol fight if I'd been needed. *Rolls eyes.* It was very silly, but I enjoyed my character thoroughly even if I think he had more of a Regency feel to him than Victorian. Who can blame me after all that Regency-era sight seeing over the weekend. He was "an officer and a gentleman" if ever there was one. Hehehe. He was also one of the sanest people in the group. Rather than breaking and entering or accosting members of the constabulary, he achieved his aims by going to have a brandy at the gentleman's club and hob-nobbing with the right people. Next week full length campaigns start up and I hope I can find a good game.

Immigration Update
Also on Tuesday we received yet another request for more documentation. Fairly pointless documentation. I've already started gathering up what they need. This time they want me to entirely resubmit the last form with this supplemental stuff added in. Can't they add a few sheets of paper to an existing file? It truly is pointless too. I'm not claiming to be rich enough to qualify on my own, but they want additional proof of what meager funds I have to my name which they're just going to pronounce not enough and then go, "oh look, but she has a co-sponsor". If I was going to lie, surely I would have claimed to have plenty of money! But it's just another hoop to jump through. Bureaucrats! The emails we exchanged with them before the letter came about what the hold up was were opaque and downright misleading!

So, at this rate, although I know this will upset a number of you out there, I think it is increasingly unlikely that we will be back in the US for Christmas, let alone Thanksgiving. Believe me, while there are some bright sides to this, it is not what we wanted either. But every back and forth with the NVC takes about 2-3 months and it seems we'll have at least two more rounds to go (settling this revised form and documentation, and then the medical and visa interview).

I can hardly believe it's been about a year and half since we turned in the first forms, and well over two years since we married, and we're still stuck in limbo. Hey, write your senators and congressmen! Although I fear they have bigger fish to fry right now.

Politics
Those of you who know how phobic I am of paperwork and how I've been using up most of my tolerance for forms on immigration stuff should be impressed to hear that I've actually managed to register for an absentee ballot! A big thanks to the couple people who reminded me a couple weeks ago to look into that!