2020-01-27 – I’m working on an attitude fix.

I used to say: “OMG! I have a too-busy week. How am I going to get through it?” But then I get through it and say: “TGIF!”

So TGIM! TG I have all these cool things to do!

Appointments almost every day after work.

Meeting with an old immigration client to give her a paper from the government and may try a little of my fledgling Spanish on her. LOL. I’ve had three immigration clients so far and they’ve all been great. It’s always kinda intense when we meet to prepare their visa petitions. But eventually they sign the package (always more than 100 pages of documents) and I ship it off for consideration. Bye-bye client (except for a very occasional status check or document delivery).

Next.

Last week I told the agency I was ready for my next client. My translator and I passed the conflict-of-interest check, so the file is being prepared. I expect to get it this week. Then it’s time to schedule the next first-client meeting.

This is an interesting process. The reason I need a translator is that my Spanish is not ready for prime time, but the client doesn’t speak English—at least not comfortably. But scheduling my first client meeting with the new client is something I have to do myself. The logistics doesn’t work any other way. (No, I don’t have a secretary, much less a bilingual secretary.)

The first time I did it by calling the client. It was awkward. After two calls, she put her kid on the phone. The clients have “secretarias”! But I can’t really count on that. Since then, I’ve made appointments by text. But the rhythm of texting gives me a chance to use Google translate. It works pretty well. So I expect to have a new first meeting set up early this week.

The rest of the week is fairly routine, but fun. I have my group guitar lesson at the Old Town School of Folk Music. We’re doing a nice blues song and I’m having less trouble with the speed of it than I usually do.

And there’s my Spanish lesson, which I do with Kit. Our Spanish teacher is back from his vacaciones in Colombia. Can anyone tell me why “vacation” is plural (“vacaciones”) in Spanish? We go and try catch a few words during a two-hour barrage. He charges us for an hour, but doesn’t seem able to stop. I’ve been working with the Duolingo app while he’s been gone. It’s pretty good. And I follow Spanish periodicos on Facebook and try to read some of their stories.

Then there’s Rebe. We’re now in level three of obedience training. Each level seems to be insanely much. Esta semana we are working on a sequence of commands before we’ve gotten the individual commands solid. So we’re out in the cold practicing with her every day.

And finally, there’s writing this blog. Glad I’m back at it. And more work on my novel. TGIM.

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