Everything turned completely upside-down this afternoon.

Until a few hours ago, my plans in the immediate, upcoming months were fairly well laid-out:

I would fly to Chicago this Wednesday. Over that time I would visit with friends in the Chicago area but spend my time mostly with Grampa and Aunt Kathy. After a couple weeks, I'd fly back to Asia, take a several weeks catching up with friends, then attend weddings of relatives in Hong Kong. Come mid-autumn, I would fly back to Chicago to pull a shift caring for Grampa in his home for several weeks. In 2009, I'd move up to Vancouver--my green card would certainly be ready by then.

That timeline can't work as I planned. This afternoon I received two pieces of news that change everything:

• My application for permanent residence has been in bureaucratic limbo for the past 10 months. The Canadian consulate transferred it over for the final step--an additional background check--to another agency in Ottawa. It got lost somewhere in-between. That other agency never received the application. It will now take an additional year--from today--for the next step to happen in my immigration process.

• Grampa died this afternoon. I'll still be flying to Chicago the day after tomorrow. Rather than spending time together and making arrangements for taking care of him at his own home, I will be attending his funeral.