Solo mini roadtrip!

Solo mini roadtrip! So much joy around this, but here are the top three reasons this small but big thing in my life is worth celebrating: 1. Me alone in the car with my best playlist is just about one of the most therapeutic things I can do for myself. What used to be a daily event for blowing off steam and connecting back with myself is currently a once in a blue moon occurence which I am just enjoying the heck out of! 2. It is a sunny day! I try not to complain about the tug-of-war between spring and winter, but yesterday's snow squalls were just plain brutal. 3. The reason for this mini roadtrip was.... giving my fingerprints for immigration! It has been a ridiculously long story of why I am still on an extended visitor's visa in Canada and now that my application for permanent residency is officially in the system and moving forward, I am breathing so much more freely! Hip-hip-hooray!!! #lettingjoyin And the bonus joy comes with gratitude toward Latvia for teaching me how to go ahead and just ask the question. I arrived for my appointment 30 minutes early (you can never be too careful with timing when navigating big city traffic). The paper explicitly said don't show up more than 10 minutes before your appointed time. There was a line of 50+ people out the door of where I needed to be. It is not lost on me that once upon a time I would've gotten into that line without asking questions. Once upon a time, I would've waited until 10 minutes before my appointed time as requested by the paper. But I went ahead and just asked the question and I was whisked right in so that my fingerprints were done and dusted fifteen minutes before my appointed time. Part of why the immigration process has been so frustrating for me is that while small pond Latvia taught me to just go ahead and ask, I haven't even had access to being able to ask the questions here in the big pond especially with everything being online and remote these days. It's a relief to know that even if I can't always find a way to ask the questions, when the opportunity does present itself, it still holds true that it sure never hurts just to ask.