(mostly) better than anticipated

 i barely slept last night, i spent at least five hours churning mental simulations with an imagined consul and no matter what i imagined nothing made me feel any more capable of sleeping. although i did have one seemingly good idea - trying to apply for refugee status instead. a little research into that in the morning made it seem a little less plausible, but still...

what really happened was that we finally sat down with the consul, who immediately lowered the tension by admiring gd's tattoos. ultimately, there's not a lot that can be done for us but it made a huge difference speaking to somebody with a sympathetic ear and they've assured us that they'll try to speed up the notarization of the documents as much as possible.

otherwise, we really don't know what's coming and we're looking for a less temporary - but still temporary - furnished place to stay in the meanwhile. and if one thing positive's coming out of this ordeal, it's that we're taking on a bunch of much-needed fixes and minor renovations in my mom's apartment so we're leaving it better than we found it.

...

mr smear and i have been in an interesting space the past few days - we've had some rough moments, but we've had some constructive conversations come out of them. by and large, i think we're doing well.

...

gd's friend's passing is still shocking. the funeral was utterly heartbreaking.