form N-400
as i drove to meet my mother, i glanced down at the "Application for Naturalization" on my passenger seat, with the edge of "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of the American Empire" peeking out from beneath it. i had one of those moments of smiling irony and verklemptness. i seriously had a moment of doubt. i had already gone ahead and checked "yes" for the "i oathe that i am, as required by law, willing to bear arms on behalf of the united states." i just have to keep reminding myself of the importance of voting before complaining.
i wonder if i'll be classified as a naturalizedcitizen instead of just a citizen... i mean, i sound and look like an american. i don't eat like one, but that's a different story. but you hear about it all the time. when they arrest some guys for buying funky bomb-making chemicals, they always manage to qualify the citizenness of them with the "naturalized" part. like, "america isn't lame enough to create jerks like this, but we're lame enough to let them in anyway."

that's me. about to be let in anyway. :-D