Oksana and I thought it would have been cool to walk straight downstairs to the post office after the oath ceremony and submit the paperwork for her passport.  Earlier in the week we even went so far as to take new passport photos at home and get them printed at Fred Meyers.  We didn’t know for sure if she’d actually receive her certificate of naturalization at the ceremony or if it would take weeks to receive it by mail.  The latter seemed likely, so we didn’t plan on standing in the post office line.  Besides, my parents were with us and it wouldn’t be fair to have them wait around.

Oksana had to take care of one or two financial crisises at work, so she dropped us off at the hotel.  I ran over to McDonald’s for drinks and passed the time talking with my mom.  Oksana was back with us barely a half hour later and we were off to go shopping.

Home Depot was first, but we didn’t do much more than browse.  Don opted to stay in the car; he’d brought a book.  We left Home Depot for Auke Bay, to drop off Don before more shopping.  Oksana opened up our apartment and turned on the PlayStation for him, just in case he wanted to fell like a Guitar Hero.  When she got back to the car, my mom asked if we could stop real quick at a convenience store to buy my step-dad something to drink.  Took us maybe 5 minutes.  Just before she went back into our apartment, she grinned and said, “If he’s playing the game, I’m going to buy it for him.”

She walked in, he was playing Guitar Hero.  “Do you really like that game, Don?”

He didn’t miss a beat.  “Buy one!  Go buy it!  Just make sure you get two guitars!”  We added Fred Meyer on our list of stores to visit that afternoon.

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