Time flies when you're having fun

Exactly one month since my last post. A quick recap of what has happened in those past few weeks. First in July we went to Miami for GALA 08 where we watched and listened to tens of choruses from all around the world. We ourselves, performed on July 17 and had great feedback on our set. Check my friend Norman's page for some excerpts of our performance. Also check Norman's and Rick's pages for pictures of our trip. I did not use my camera a lot on that trip since we were pretty much always together.



Upon our return to San diego, I found out that I had my Oath Ceremony to become a US citizen scheduled 2 days later. On July 23, when I arrived at the convention center where the ceremony was to take place I could not believe the line. It was going around a whole city block. Thousands of people were waiting. When I finally made it inside after 3 hours lining up, I got lucky. For some reason each person was assigned a numbered agent to go to sign the paperwork. There were 9 agents each with long lines in front of them except for agent #3 which is where I was told to go. There was only one person in front of me so it took 30 seconds. Once everyone was finally done signing up and had taken their seats, the ceremony begun. I found out that there were 1701 people from 91 countries becoming citizens that day. Of course they all had brought friends and family, now in the auditorium, which explained the long lines. The ceremony lasted a little bit over and hour. We all took the oath together and I was officially an American after 17 years in the country that I now call home. This November will be the beginning of my 18th year here, which will be the longest I have lived anywhere. I always thought of this as just a formality but I was actually a little chocked up with emotion. When I left I had a big smile on my face. After the ceremony, I immediately registered to vote! I also went to the passport desk to find out that I had to go to the office in Los Angeles because they could not have it done in time for work and for my cruise. The next morning I drove to Los Angeles and after a few more hours of waiting and a computer glitch at the Federal Building, I finally got my US passport around 3pm. A relief since I was flying the next day and leaving the country the following week.

On August 2 Matthew dropped me at the airport for my flight to Washington DC. I was a little worried because the flight which was wide open when I listed myself a few days earlier was now full. I decided not to freak out and that all would work out and I would make it to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I was to meat my family the next day. When I got to the gate, I took my book out and was trying to ignore the crowd around me hoping that they were not all going to DC. I suddenly heard my name called over the intercom system. I went to the podium and the agent told me that one of the flight attendants was sick and asked me if I would be willing to work the flight otherwise they would have to cancel. I said I would thinking that would be a way to assure a place on the plane. After going back and forth with the Crew Desk because I was not in uniform and did not have my manual with me (I cannot work without it), it was finally agreed on that I would use the manual from the sick flight attendant and since I was dressed nicely (as I always do when I travel on United) I could work the flight. A couple people asked why I had a pink shirt on and looked so much better than the usual uniform, but most did not even notice or know what had happened.
I arrived in DC the next morning and went to the gate for the next segment to Saint Thomas. There again the flight was full and I ended up using the jumpseat. The cockpit was nice to let me sit with them for most of the flight. On the jumpseat in the cabin you cannot read, eat or sleep. I actually did not sleep in the cockpit either because I could not really tell the pilots to shut up and turn off all communications,but I was able to read and eat in peace. We arrived in Saint Thomas and after about only 30 minutes on the ground the new passengers arrived and filled the aircraft again. Thank God this is only a 20 minutes flight to San Juan. In San Juan, my bag did not come out and after checking with baggage services, I was told that my bag was either in Saint Thomas or in DC or somewhere else. The only thing they were sure about was that it had left San Diego with me. Since the cruise was leaving the next day that did not look too good but then again decided not to worry. There was nothing I could do about it anyway; I filled in the lost report and I figured I would have a good excuse to go shopping. I went back upstairs since my family was arriving 2 hours later. I had lunch, walked around the airport, checked out the hot latinos boys and almost 2 hours after my arrival, I got a call telling that they had found my bag in Saint Thomas, had put it on a flight to San Juan and that it had just arrived. Yeah. The guy who had taken my report even brought it up to where I was. Now where was my family? They finally came out and I was so happy to see everybody. After lots of hugs and kisses we finally got in a couple of cabs and headed to the hotel. To be continued....