Immigration

I've been thinking about immigration a lot lately. My family were immigrants, and so are the students that I teach in Kansas City, Kansas. I found it striking that Kansas City, Kansas, has had high numbers of immigrants for a hundred years, and that the house in which my grandfather grew up  now houses immigrants from Mexico.

207 S. 8th, Kansas City, Kansas (near Strawberry Hill)

Immigration is as American as apple pie, but it is one of the most hotly-contested issues in American politics. I do not know much about the state of our immigration policy, but I hear how difficult, time consuming, and expensive it is for people to come here. In 1899 European immigrants were at an all-time high, and by the 1920s the Dillingham Report caused the government to pass legislation (The Emergency Immigration Act) to restrict immigrants by numbers (3% of of the population already living in the United States), ability (must be able to read), and race (anyone easily assimilated into "American" ways). The legislation blocked people from Southern Europe, Russia, and a large section of Asia from immigrating legally because they were desperately poor and had religious views that contrasted with Protestant Americans. Who called for the report and subsequent legislation? Nativist groups, according to the best source available, Wikipedia, states, "Nativism typically means opposition to immigration and support of efforts to lower the political or legal status of specific ethnic or cultural groups because the groups are considered hostile or alien to the natural culture, and assumptions that they cannot be assimilated." Sounds racist to me...

Here's an interview on NPR about the long-lasting effects of the Dillingham Report: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/28/170494504/dillingham-commissions-ranking-of-immigrant-groups-affected-u-s-policy-for-decad

 It also sounds like current legislation in states like Arizona are attempting to pass. "Nativists" hold deficit views of other cultures, and because we had done a horrible job of teaching social studies in this country, the same racist legislation is being passed in 2013 that was passed in 1911, over a hundred years ago. 


^{History is repeating itself. What are we going to say to our children's children when they look back at our policies today?}
 

New House and Recession

St. Louis Arch

Our first home

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

We were so excited to be in a new city with a new life. We had just purchased our first home! In addition to the rabbit and Stella, we got another dog. We just kept adding and adding. Stella was named after a jazz tune called Stella by Starlight and Chowder is a Boston Terrier, so Chowder seemed like a fitting name for a mess of a dog.

Chowder and Stella

For work, I had an accounting job that I hated. My boss was rude and insensitive. I quit after six weeks. I contacted a coworker at Champion Windows and got another accounting job, answering phones and scheduling appointments. However, they were overstaffed and I often went home early because there was not anything to do. In the fall of 2008, we elected a new president. I dressed as Sarah Palin for Halloween that year. Then, the bottom dropped out of the economy, and our perfect lives.

The Recession, 2009

We went ahead and bought a new car on New Years Eve, 2008. I'm still driving that car. In February of 2009 I was laid off. I came into work that day and my supervisor cornered me and said that the discussions they had about staffing resulted in me having to go. They knew I was in school and was not going to stay at that job forever. I was out of work for six weeks, with a new car payment, three animals to feed and take to the vet, and an expensive mortgage. Walt decided to buy a new truck during this time. We still fight about that truck every once in a while. While I was laid off, I took education classes and decided that teaching was the direction my life needed to go.

Luckily I got a job at a bank in April of 2009. I REALLY liked that job. It was fast, they gave me some responsibility, and my co-workers were really fun. I worked there throughout the recession, trying to pay bills and take classes at UMSL. Walt's job was very stressful, and during the spring of 2010 we felt like it was time to move again. I was going to have to quit work to focus on school full time, and we could not afford our house payment on one salary, so we put the house up for sale, I applied to UMKC again, and Walt found a new job at another charter school in Kansas City.

We couldn't sell the house, though. From June to August we bit our fingernails, waiting for people to come look at it. No offers were ever made. We couldn't understand. The house was so cute, the location was great. So we moved to Kansas City anyway, but because we still owned the house, we had to move in with Walt's mom and dad. That six month period was the worst of my life.

I'm eternally indebted to my in-laws for letting us stay with them for free. We did not even buy groceries most of the time. But our lack of privacy and the feeling of dependence was hard for us, since we had lived on our own for five years. We went back to St. Louis once a month every month until January 2012. I applied through our lender to do a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure on our house. We had maxed out our savings and retirement making payments on a house we weren't living in, so we gave it back to the bank. (You can see the pictures of it, inside and out, here: http://www.trulia.com/homes/Missouri/Saint_Louis/sold/98207-6452-Southwest-Ave-Saint-Louis-MO-63139#photo-14)

We lovingly dubbed the house our "vacation home." I still miss it.

Cincinnati

In 2006, after graduating from UMKC, we moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Walt had been accepted into the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a teaching assistant on a full scholarship. He was going to get his Masters in Jazz Trumpet.

Cincinnati is a beautiful city, situated on the Ohio River. It was a lot of fun to move to place neither of us had been before, away from family and friends. We truly had to rely on one another for everything. I recommend it for everyone's marriage!

Cincinnati, OH from the Kentucky banks

The Purple People Bridge

We actually lived in Northern Kentucky, just on the other side of the river from Cincinnati. It was sort of like a suburb. Fort Thomas was such a cute little town and was really a fort at a point in time. The barracks were down the street from our apartment complex.

We enjoyed going to Cincinnati Reds games, and munching Gold Star chili (they put cinnamon and cocoa in their chili, and it does not have beans). We also got a puppy when we lived there. Meet Stella.

In 2008 Walt finished up his program at CCM and began applying for jobs. The first and only offer he got was for a charter school in St. Louis, Missouri. We really wanted to move back to Kansas City, but St. Louis was closer than Cincinnati, so we packed everything up, took a scouting trip to St. Louis, and bought our first house!

Our Wedding

Walt and I met at UMKC, in band of course. We also lived in the same apartment building. He was on the tenth floor, and I was on the fifth. We had friends in common, so every weekend we saw each other. He finally asked me out in 2004. We had been walking back from rehearsal to our apartment building when a friend of Walt's joined our chat. That friend lived on my floor, so we had to wait for him to get off the elevator before Walt could ask me. He almost didn't, but I'm glad he did.

Our first date was on 4/4/04. He took me to the restaurant in which he worked at the time (because he got a discount and I could drink wine underage), we saw a scary movie on the Plaza, and walked through Barnes and Noble for a long time. I think we both knew then that we would get married. Walt proposed on Christmas Day, 2004 (the same year). It was quick, but we do not do anything in a small way.

We were so poor (and still are) so we had a lot of help planning the wedding. I made my dress, just like my mom did. She helped a lot, and so did my grandmother. The materials cost me $60. I borrowed the cathedral veil from my mom's cousin (both she and my mom wore the same veil). We had the cake and pictures donated by family members, and another family friend did my flowers at cost. We made all of the food by hand, with A LOT of help. It was mostly Polish food.

First dress fitting

Getting the train hemmed just right, in flip flops again

July 2nd was blistering and humid as a greenhouse. The church had not turned on the air conditioner until we arrived at 2pm to get ready. The ceremony started at 7pm, and it was still really hot, especially once all of the people arrived and filled the tiny church. All of our pictures show our really red faces.

The ceremony itself was a formality. I did not want to do it because of stories I heard about how my dad was acting. But it ended up fine, in the end. I hired a cellist to perform my favorite Bach Cello Suite in G (you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZn_VBgkPNY). Our band director, Dr. Parisi, played piccolo trumpet for us, and the church pianist played my favorite melody from the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZbvluHcNo).

Flower Girl and Ring Bearer

Christi, Ashley, me, and Rachel

Matt, Pastor Don, Walt, and Kevin

Danny, Stephanie, Kevin, Walt, Bret, Jake, and Derek

We drove away in an old truck and the boys jumped in the back of it.

He pinky-swore that he wouldn't do this. I had cake in my dress and on the bottoms of my shoes. We have trust issues.

After it was over we all drove the Johnson County Civic Center to dance and eat. We ran out of beer, a family member was asked to leave because he was getting mouthy, and my mother complained about how loud the DJ was. I would have rather not done the reception, too, but we have some silly stories to tell now.

Conservatory of Music, UMKC

Because I loved music so much in high school, I had decided by the tenth grade that I wanted to pursue music in college. In 2002 I was accepted to the University of Missouri-Kansas City on a full scholarship in Flute Performance.

My dad packed up my stuff and drove me to Missouri from Texas. My mom couldn't come and we  both cried and cried. My first room mate was African American. We were room mates for three years. When I look back at how I behaved and the things I said, I was so stupid. I wish I was still in contact with her.

Music school was hard. Flute lessons was a four hour class, and I was expected to practice that much OUTSIDE of rehearsals, which I was not used to. But I made really great friends, some of whom I still talk to today.

My First Apartment, Twin Oaks

The Country Club Plaza, as seen from my first apartment.

 After a couple of years I began to wear down. I had reached a plateau in my playing and the seriousness of the program was becoming difficult. I was one of three undergraduate students, competing against five-seven graduate students at all times for chairs and ensemble placements. I debated quitting.

But, during my sophomore year I met Walter Brown. He was a trumpet player in the same band as me. He taught me how to listen and enjoy music in ways that I had never been able to do.

Walt, 2004

Christmas at Crown Center, 2005

We got married on July 2, 2005 (see the relating post) and took our senior years together. We even had some classes in common. Together we completed the remainder of our programs (he was a music education major) and we graduated together, on the same day, in 2006.

Walt, my mom, and me at the UMKC Commencement