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I still haven’t heard from the UK Border Agency. And because of Labor Day, I likely won’t until Tuesday. My original flight was on Sunday, so I’m going to have to act fast in the morning to change or cancel my flight. My mother is actually on the phone right now with Travelocity, trying to get somewhere with refunds. We’ll see.

I’ve been really stressed these past few days. As you can probably tell. One thing that I keep being reminded of is to think positive. Maybe everything seems messed up. But it’s not hopeless. There are some good …

Good news first. I heard from the UK Border Agency a few hours after my last blog.

Now bad news. They want more paperwork from me, by snail mail.

More specifically, they want a transcript–the official one, not faxed or emailed–of my schooling at UBC. If they do not receive it within 4 business days, or if it is the wrong document, they will cancel my visa application. I called UBC and found out the fastest they can mail me my transcript was 2-4 business days, because I live in the USA, not Canada. I decided picking it up in …

There is a possibility I will have to postpone my flight.

Let’s start at the beginning. The US made changes to their student loan system this summer, so they didn’t let me apply for a loan until July. After that, it took my school a while to send me the official papers that say I have a confirmed loan. I had to send those papers to the UK Border Agency in Los Angeles with my visa application (on top of that, I had to send them my original passport). This whole process led to me sending in my visa application …

Some people don’t like airplanes because of their fear of crashing, or the stress of travel, or the lousy complimentary peanuts and pretzels. I, on the other hand, enjoy flying very much, and it’s not necessarily because I find it a thrill, or because I like airplane food.

Once you’re seated, all of your bags are packed, allowed on the plane, and stowed away safely. There is absolutely nothing you are supposed to be doing. No work, no cleaning, no need to look at that to-do list. It’s free time to do whatever makes you happy, whether it’s sleep, reading, …

Eleven days and a wake-up.

Then I board the plane to Scotland.

It’s a little unreal. I haven’t packed yet. We did a garage sale this past weekend, but I didn’t sell much more than an old HitClips keychain music player and a Russian nesting doll shaped like a cat (the smallest doll inside it was a mouse). My mother sold more of her stuff. We’ve started going through old photos and other boxes, since my mother’s moving too, in about a month. But it doesn’t really feel like I’m leaving. Sure, when I went to Canada, it felt …

In the past few days, I’ve been considering changing my twitter username. @robotofdoom is a rather dead inside joke for me now, and it doesn’t really reflect who I am. I also want to make this name consistent across all the other social networking sites I use, including blogger. I want a name that sticks, like @coollike and @nerimon have (who are worth looking into). As I mentioned in my last blog, I’ve also been starting to collect dragon things. So, I want to have my name be dragon-themed, if possible.

While I was brainstorming about this new online name, …

I do not like summer for the one thing most people associate it with.

Heat.

If summer was not hot, but perhaps occasionally mild and sunny, I would be happy. Summer, to me, does not mean just warmer weather. It means a break from work, perhaps a vacation, time for things you don’t otherwise have time for. And this summer, though it seems like it with my writing, I’m not working that much. I couldn’t even really get a job. So I don’t need this much heat, making me feel like I couldn’t get anything done even if I wanted …

My short trip to Portland, Oregon was, in every sense of the word, wonderful. The weather (which is a perfectly fine starting point for any conversation, in my opinion) was rather cool most of the time, but the sun would make its appearances. On one such afternoon, I sat outside with my godparents eating dinner, and we watched a squirrel pluck a golden plum from their tree and eat it down to the core. Their cats are the sweetest things, one named Mr. Whiskers and the other Sweetie Pie. They get along quite well, occasionally grooming each other or racing …

Let’s see, where are we… I’ve started the arduous process of getting a UK visa, finished Anansi Boys, and not been in the right frame of mind for writing, so didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. But I did go somewhere interesting last weekend.

Mom and I met with her cousin at Teahouse Kuan Yin, a marvelous little shop in Wallingford (for those not in Washington, it’s a little neighborhood of Seattle). They have hundreds of teas, most of them served loose-leaf in a teapot on a tray. Also on the tray is a small hourglass telling …

So, today I was reading Anansi Boys, the sequel to American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, and his amazing writing got me inspired to try something new. It’s going to be a new blog, entitled “The Story of Elizabeth Muir, and Other Sudden Inspirations.” I want an outlet for stories and maybe even poems that aren’t related to my big novel project. I have a desire to write new things, and I haven’t been doing that, since I’m editing my novel. The first major story I want to write for this new blog will be in multiple installments, the number …