Travel and Other Plans in Day by Day

Time does fly. I will be, too, at the end of the week. I doubt I’ll be online very often while I’m in New England. We have a full agenda: Freedom Trail in Boston, a couple of days in Rockport, exploring the Minuteman history in Concord & Lexington, connecting with all the Italian cousins at a big dinner, spreading my brother’s ashes, then back to Boston for nightlife scene.

I was complimented on being Italian (“good for you”). It’s not something I accomplished and I’m not so sure it’s always something to take pride in. I believe I’ve written before about my hit man uncle who was framed by J. Edgar Hoover (he died in prison a few years before it was proven and he was exonerated, but he was no angel). When the show “The Sopranos” aired, I didn’t watch. I thought it was depressing.

ANYWAY…someone else asked me why I was seeking dual citizenship with Italy. I don’t really have a good reason other than I’m eligible to do so. My youngest son asked me to help him qualify by gathering the necessary documents. My son wants dual citizenship because it’s a Millennial thing: many are having their babies in other countries (such as Costa Rica), so that their children will have dual citizenship.

The way I read the requirements, I thought he’d have to claim through me. I’ve since learned that I don’t need to be in the mix, but by that time I’d invested over $300 in birth, death, marriage, divorce, and remarriage certificates for the two of us, so I decided to go forward with it for me, too.

Here’s how Italy decides who is a citizen:
When the ancestor immigrated to the US, he/she was an Italian citizen. If that person did not renounce their Italian citizenship, you claim through them.

Well, at first glance, I thought I was disqualified because my great-grandfather, Carmelo, renounced his Italian citizenship when he naturalized.
But there’s a loophole! His son, my grandfather, was born in Italy and did not come over to the States until he was two years of age (too young to legally renounce citizenship). He was considered a US citizen through his father, but HE never actually renounced HIS allegiance to Italy. Because of that, I can apply and so can my sons (eldest so is not interested).

I hit some roadblocks, including finding my grandmother’s birth certificate (turns out she went by her middle name), and I’ve just started the process of getting my grandfather’s birth certificate from Italy, and that will take a very long while. That’s okay because my next step is to make an appointment with the Italian Consulate to start the apostile process (where they sew each document together with a ribbon) and that can take up to a year.

So I don’t have a good reason for doing this other than I can, but with the craziness that is Trump, perhaps dual citizenship isn’t such a crazy idea after all, you know?

The other things consuming a lot of my time are church related. I put together a study of James, but the first session didn’t go too well. Most of our group wasn’t there (illness, travel) and of the five of us, three seemed disinterested. The only thing that DID interest them was talking about their Keytone diets.

The other thing is the non-profit. A move was made that essentially makes me a figurehead with no authority. I’m making some counter moves in order to protect my interests (I have invested a LOT of time, money, and effort to get this puppy off the ground), but I’m kind of hurt that people close to me participated in these changes without telling me. I also understand WHY the changes were made and don’t necessarily disagree with them, but why was it done so surreptitiously? In the end, my counter moves will protect my interests, but my opinion of 3 people I’ve trusted is in the toilet where it apparently belonged all along. I’ve not said a word to them about it. I turned this non-profit over to God in the beginning and any corrections that need to be made are up to Him, not me.

But I do ask God to reveal backstabbers to me, whether in business, at church, and yes, even in Prosebox, so that my eyes are fully open even if my mouth is shut. “Keep friends close, but keep enemies even closer”. There will be a Chapter Two on this story, eventually. For now, it is in God’s hands.

Work has been crazy busy. I won’t miss it when I retire one year from Sunday. Oh! Speaking of! I am on Medicare now so when I get back from New England, I’ll be going to a new doctor and intend to get to the bottom of several issues. I’d been putting it off because high premiums (over $1000 per month), high deductibles, and transitioning from private coverage to Medicare could bankrupt me/drive me crazy. I’m hoping to concentrate on my health and nothing else when I get back. Or at least make it the #1 priority.