New Year, New Name, New Schedule

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012. 


2011 was a busy year to say the least. We started the year as fresh college graduates. I took a semester off, worked part time and applied to grad school. Omid began the year with the grueling task of finding a job. It wasn't long after he started his job that we became engaged. Then it was celebrating several of our friends graduating and a very special wedding of some very special friends. Then I was starting another job and working full time. Then it was finding an apartment for the both  of us and moving me into it. Summer went by pretty fast and before I knew it, I was quitting one job and starting my first semester of grad school. This was also the time when I said goodbye to some of my closest friends as they ventured off to different parts of the world. And before my first semester was over, Omid and I were married. Then came due dates for final papers (while moving Omid into the apartment). Then our honeymoon and then Christmas. Yes, 2011, you were a very life changing year. There were fun times, exciting times, stressful times, and downright exhausting times. And I look forward to 2012 being a lot less eventful (fingers crossed). 


We have started the year off by putting our apartment together. If you read the previous post, then don't worry. Things are looking a lot better around here. Still working on thank you notes though (slowly but surely, they are getting done). I have also taken advantage of having this time off from school to start the ridiculously time-consuming task of changing my name. First attempt was Monday, the 2nd. I had the day off work and thought "What a great day to go to the social security office and DMV." I have no idea why it didn't occur to me that everyone else would have that day off work too. FAIL. So I went to the mall with some friends instead. SUCCESS.


On Tuesday, I was dreading going back to work after having such a long vacation. I woke up, took a shower, got cute and arrived at work only to realize that the remodeling happening in our office wasn't done and there was nothing for me to do. Perfect - I didn't have to work AND I could go to the SS office and DMV. The Social Security office was the first stop. It wasn't so bad. I showed up with my form filled out and only had to wait an hour. The hour would have been a lot better if I had a smart phone or at least a book. I had neither. I watched the woman next to me play games on her iPad. The woman behind me was approached by some creeper who kept asking her all these questions about her Kindle Fire. Hm, maybe I was glad I didn't have fancy technology things. Next Stop: DMV. I checked in at 1:07pm. I asked the guy if he had any idea how long the wait was. He refused to give me an estimate. I got my number and proceeded to the waiting area. Every chair was taken and there were people standing all along the walls. I decided to take a seat next to a pregnant lady sitting against a wall. If I believed in Hell, I imagine it would be something like the DMV. When I listened to the numbers they were calling, I realized there was more than one number system they were going by. I was 270, and all I heard was 47, 423, 705. Finally, I heard a 235. Realizing I would be there for a VERY long time, I left and walked to the Walgreens in the same shopping center. I bought two magazines and some cheetos. I ate half the bag of cheetos while I walked back because you aren't allowed to bring food inside. Then I shoved the other half back in my purse. I came in, took a seat between the pregnant lady and trash can and waited. An hour went by and they only had gotten to 240. I began to lose hope that my number would even be called. Pregnant lady was 250. We bonded. She waited 3 hours before they called her number, which ended up being the same amount of time I waited. By 4pm, I was STARVING and almost missed my turn because I had to wait 15 minutes to pee. But I made it. I got my new (temporary) license, and was informed that I would have to come back in a year and do it all over again when my license expired. AWESOME. But still, I left the DMV with a sense of victory. Yes, I conquered that horrible place of darkness and didn't go completely insane while doing it. I celebrated with a half bag of victory Cheetos. 


The worst part is done. But I still need to mail in my passport stuff (get a new photo taken first), change my name at work (requiring my new SS card that should be here in 2 weeks), and change my name at school (they want a copy of my marriage license too - seriously?). I am also in the process of changing my name on all of my accounts and credit cards. Now I understand why some women never change their name. Geez.


Beginning of the year also means changing of schedules. Being in Grad school, means I still view time in terms of semesters. Because of his job, Omid's schedule changes every quarter. So for January through March, Omid will be working Sun.-Wed., 1pm - midnight. Quite a change from his schedule last quarter: Sun.-Wed., 8am - 7pm. Thankfully, I have class Monday nights and Tuesday nights. And we live close enough to his job that he can come home during his break and eat dinner with me on Wednesdays. The only down side is that as soon as Omid gets home, we basically need to go to sleep within the next 30 mins (especially me, who still has to be at work at 9am). But neither one of us feels like we should be going to sleep because he just got home. I am a night person as it is, so his new schedule isn't helping me go to sleep any earlier. Lets just say last week, I averaged a 1:30am bedtime. Not good when I have to wake up at 7:30am. It would be okay if I was one of those people who only needed 6 hours of sleep at night, but I'm totally not. And then, I sleep about 10-11 hours on the weekend to make up for it (also not good when you have a lot of stuff you need to get done). Hopefully, it will be better when classes start on the 17th and I'm too exhausted to stay up past 12:30 anyway. But we aren't there yet, which is why I am awake at 12:13am writing this post instead of getting ready for bed. We'll get there...