Holiday

It's been a great four-day weekend. Technically tomorrow is still going to be a holiday, but we are doing some necessary shopping (like a new desk + chair for me) as well as going over to a friend's for fajitas. I was initially planning on taking next week off, but I had another project offered to me and I took it.

Good thing, too, because I just realized I had forgotten my Bulgarian residency card was up for renewal on the 9th of May. I thought it was due in June, and was off by a month. It's about 400 USD for a year, and on top of a desk and chair I'll likely be dropping over 600 USD next week, so it's a good thing I had another project roll in or I'd be cutting into our credit card pay-off fund :)

On the plus side, Demand Studios is a great way to supplement income. You can do 3 articles in an hour, which is worth 50 USD, and if you do that every evening you can easily pull an extra 250 dollars a week (that's 1k a month folks), so I'm going to be spending my evening hours doing at least 3 of those. Normally I only use DS for those times when the other work is a bit thin, but I'm going to be doing some in the evening hours as well to make up for my forgetting about my residency card.

The plus side is this is the last time I have to renew the card. After living here for 2 years while married to a Bulgarian resident/citizen, you can switch your temporary residency card over to a permanent residency card, so next year when this time rolls around again I'll be able to get my permanent residency and not have to worry about it ever again. Thank goodness because dealing with the Bulgarian bureaucratic system is like having your teeth pulled out at the same time you are getting your pubic hair ripped out by a midget with a nail gun who's simultaneously driving nails into your feet and ripping out your toe-nails.

Getting my residency card consists of: going to the police station and getting the application paperwork. Getting new passport photos. Getting a declaration from my wife, stating that she is "providing" for me while I'm here (as in, providing a place to stay), which we then have to get notarized. And unlike in the US where any bank can provide notarization, here there are special offices that deal with notarization, and they are always 2-3 hours behind in waiting lines. Then, after that, you have to get everything copied in triplicate, then go back to the police station and stand in line again, pay a fee, stand in another line, pay another fee, stand in another line, turn in the application, then wait 2 weeks, come back, stand in another line to get your card, and dread having to come back and do it again next time. And to top it all off, remember that customer service I mentioned doesn't exist here? Now imagine all of what I just said, only with people who don't believe in queues, butting in front of you, clawing their way through, and people behind the counter who seethe with hatred over the fact that your Bulgarian language skills aren't up-to-par (a sentiment I recall having myself in terms of people who come to America but don't speak the language, so I can't fault them for it). So my wife usually comes along (bless her heart) to make sure I don't get screwed somewhere along the line.

Anyway, that's my vacation blurb. I'm cooking steak and eggs and potatoes for breakfast (sooo healthy I know! It's my cheating weekend!) and I've got taters and eggs boiling to make potato salad this afternoon. Talk to you next week sometime!