DENIED, Again

I'm feeling hammer, slammed, pummeled, pounded and not in a good way. It seems that 2007 is configured in such a way as to make my life a living hell. ARGH. If it's not one thing, it's another.

So, the story... I have a lead in LA this weekend. Fulfillment. Yay, how fun is that. And knowing that I have had trouble crossing the border before (a year and a half before) I go to the airport 3 hours early. Plenty of time to deal with the immigration officers and such, right? And I have got all my paperwork in order this time (that seems to have been the problem last time), and CTI has double checked everything with an immigration lawyer, and I have chatted briefly with said lawyer. I am going to apply for my TN visa, you know, the visa that came out of the NAFTA free trade agreement. FREE TRADE. Remember that. Sometime before 9-11. The whole purpose of the TN visa is to make it easier for those Canadians that qualify to cross the border in an expeditious way. Good thinking right? Make it EASIER. But what they failed to think through is the people making the final decisions on who is or is not qualified, now that is is not being done at Embassies and such, are not lawyers or policy makers, but the border guards. The border guards that for whatever reason seem to have a hate on for me. So, you got it, DENIED, again. Only this time, besides just taking my mug shot and my finger prints, oh yes, that is what they do when you are denied (or rather have your application withdrawn), they take a sworn affidavit where they type my answers verbatim into the computer, where they captured every piece of information imaginable, including my mother's very Icelandic last name, and all the details of what I said, so there is no possible way that I can re-look at my situation and present again in a different light. I feel like they are trying to capture me in a box, and make it impossible for me. When, in actual fact, I am not a criminal, I am not trying to screw anyone over, and I just want to do my job.

Now maybe it is just that I desperately need a vacation, and I don't have the brains to create that myself and so the universe is helping out. Or maybe it is just so that CTI is forced to have me lead in Canada, and by extension, Vancouver most of the time (never a bad thing, I LOVE the home leads) - but I am not loving how sullied by record is getting and being worried when I try to cross the border now even just for social reasons (knowing full well that they will pull me aside just as a matter of course at this stage). I am frustrated, and pissed off and disappointed. Clearly I need to get this handled in some more decisive and all encompassing way. It's off to see the Wizard, I mean the Lawyer, for me. That and nursing my annoyance and grudge against the Americans for a few days.