Best Lab Meeting... EVER!
Friday morning at 9 AM is when our lab meets to discuss the week and hear one lab member present his or her work. We also get bagels. This morning we were 5 minutes late, as per usual, and we went ahead and started with the announcements. Standard issue statements about cleaning up after yourself and choice tidbits about when the boss is going to be off travelling to meetings were dispensed first. Nothing really to get excited about (except telling people to stop ordering so much damn glycine). Bob's presentation went along smoothly and we were done right on time.
Oh, but Jˇrome (a postdoc in the lab) has one more thing...
"Today, at 4 PM in the Village Hall I am getting married to Dorothy [his live-in French girlfriend]"
She arrived a couple of months ago after suffering for 2 months without him. They struggled with a lot of visa issues and immigration status and university red tape for the next couple of months while Dorothy was working as a technician in another lab. The process was very complicated because her degree does not exactly match anything that the US accepts from an accredited university. She has more than a masters, but not quite a Ph.D. The final solution from all offices involved was that she could stay and work if she registered as a grad student, paid tuition, took classes, but just worked like a normal person. All of these hassles and her visa status would still not be guaranteed based on space in the program in which she was registered (J-1's suck like that).
One univiersity offical remarked after hearing of the struggle, "Geez, this wouldn't even be an issue if you were married."
For two weeks they secretly plotted a devious loophole-inspired marriage. In fact, the parents were only informed of their plans yesterday. It turns out that in NY it's even easier to get married than in Vegas! No blood test or anything, you just have to have a passport and wait 24 hours before you actually get hitched.
The Port Jefferson Village Hall usually does marriages between 5-7 PM, but they are doing this one early so the couple can go on honeymoon to the David Bowie concert at the Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre tonight at 7:30.
Lucky for them that they're not gay. *eyeroll*
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Turns out it's about as difficult to get married in Chicago. When we were married we went downtown, waited in line at the Cook County Clerk's office, showed our drivers licenses, and we had ourselves a marriage certificate. The priest signed it three days later and *bang!*, *pow!* we were married.
Posted by: Jeff Utech | June 4, 2004 04:03 PM