she can vote!

today i went to the federal court in hartford to watch my dear friend, chelsea, be naturalized as a citizen of the united states. it was a great experience. i loved seeing all the nicely dressed people ready to become u.s. citizens. i believe that there were 54 people receiving their citizenship, representing 26 countries. here's chelsea and her family waiting to go up and receive her certificate. her husband and baby are already american citizens and so i joked that her son could always rub it in that he was a citizen first. (yeah, once again, i know i'm so funny.)

here's chelsea with the judge (who had already taken off her zebra striped reading glasses). when she first came in, the judge asked the requests and the court officer said how many people were requesting citizenships and how many name changes. the judge than granted those requests. then all the nominees for citizenship were asked to stand and raise their right hands while the clerk read an oath of allegiance (which repeatedly mentioned being willing to bear arms and go to war when ordered to by law) to which all the nominees repsonded: "i will." then the judge stepped down and awarded the certificates and the clerk became the "court photographer". i loved hearing where all the individuals were from and seeing them gratefully come up and receive their citizenship. there were even a couple of shall we say "quite senior" nominees, and i was especially touched to see it mattered to them.

chelsea and her family with the judge.

chelsea and her cheering squad outside the court building. immediately after this picture, chelsea went to register to vote!!!

i helped "americanize" chelsea more by making her do the charlie's angels pose with me. although in this picture, i think i was the only one really in character. i love how laurel looks like she's doing a "tina fey pose of sarah palin" (did that make sense? if not, watch this clip).
yeah, and i didn't quite remember the pose right. laurel was holding the "rifle"* but i guess she was suppose to be in the middle. next time i find someone crazy enough to do the pic with me, i'll do better. (for the record: my sister, cousin brit and i have done this pose on a couple of occasions now.)

*pat told me this morning that it's a walkie-talkie, not a rifle. i forget that charlie's angels was in the day when life was still sacred on t.v. and rather than being shot people were knocked out cold by a swift kick, a hefty punch or a strong whack over the head with a ceramic plate. i'm feeling the need to redo this pic; tice and nat - are you up for it on tuesday?