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Even though I’m not as cool as the Coreys, I am now officially licensed in the state of Washington. It only took an hour at the DMV. I say only because I’ve spent many an hour at many a DMV and this one, well, it was fairly painless.

I also got my passport and my marriage license yesterday. I think all of the name change stuff is complete, but I’m sure something will come back and bite me in the ass later. I’m not being pessimistic. It’s just what happens.

Danny and I went and saw this movie on Saturday. It was even better than expected. I really can’t say anything to do it justice except that I would watch it again in the theater and buy the DVD on the day it comes out. I loved it.

I think I wrote about this several months ago, but I’m too lazy to go back and look. Anyway, unemployment has allowed me to indulge in some of my favorite guilty pleasures. Correction: it’s allowed me to indulge in some of my favorite CHEAP guilty pleasures. These are mostly limited to TV shows.

• Anything on the food network: I love semi-homemade cooking and unwrapped. I could do without the silliness of good eats, but that show did teach me how to perfectly poach catfish. I like the meals on 30 minute meals, but Rachel Ray bugs the crap out of me. Maybe it’s just her accent. I heard her say the Spanish word ‘tapas’ like Tap-ass at least ten times on today’s show.
• Project Runway: any season, any rerun, anytime.
• E news
• E True Hollywood Stories
• My Super Sweet 16 on MTV
• Adult Swim on Cartoon Network
• HGTV
• Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel

I got my car licensed today. Yay! It took an extra call to the leinholder on my car but they finally faxed over a copy of my title. Hey, the third time’s a charm, right? Now all I have to do is get my new DL. This shouldn’t be too hard. I just need to be patient and wait for my passport to come in. We’re going on 6 weeks now. Tick tock.

Maybe by the time I start school, I’ll have the car stuff taken care of. Today, I got an emissions test. That was easy and fairly painless. However, when I went to register my car, the folks there informed me that I did not have a copy of my title, but instead had a copy of my title application. Ugh. This was the only piece of paper my credit union sent me when I asked for a copy of my title. Therefore, I have to wait for them to find the ACTUAL title, make a copy, and fax it to the licensing office. I doubt if this will be finished by today. Argh. I knew this was going to be a pain but I never imagine that it is ALWAYS THIS much of a pain. Plus, I’ll still have to deal with the shock of actually PAYING to register my car. In TX, it cost about $60. Here, I’ll be lucky if it’s less than 200. Yuck.

So, I wasn’t able to get my new driver’s license or car registration. I’m stuck in sort of a catch-22. Well, not totally but it’s still frustrating.

I couldn’t get my DL because I could only provide two forms of valid ID with my married name: my CA DL and my SS card. I also had my birth certificate, but they would not accept this because it had my maiden name on it. They would have accepted my marriage license, a passport, or a credit card with my new name on it. I don’t have any of these additional items because my marriage license is at the passport office. Once I get my new passport, I’ll get my marriage license back. I also don’t have a credit card with my name on it because I can’t change that without my marriage license.

To look on the bright side, I don’t need my new DL just yet. I just have to get my vehicle registered sometime soon and that doesn’t appear to be a problem; no passport required! Whoohoo. I also don’t have to retake the written driver’s test like I did in CA. That was an unpleasant surprise. Bleagghhhthhh.

After realizing that I only have three weeks left until orientation starts, I decided to get my butt in gear and take care of those annoying, but necessary, tasks one must do after moving/getting married/changing last names. Since Monday, I’ve changed my name with school, gotten a student ID, scheduled an appointment with the business school career counseling center, and picked out a laptop. I’ve also cooked dinner and done laundry. Now, I’m heading over to the DMV to register my car and get a new driver’s license. This is by far my least favorite task, but it will be easier to do it now than after I start school.

In other news, the weather is awesome. It is cloudy and cool with a slight breeze. We are no longer baking upstairs. We finally got screens on our upstairs windows and it has helped a lot.

Off to the dmv. Wish me luck (and speed).

Mom was here for nine days. We took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of them.

My mom and I just got back from Orcas Island. We had a great time. I’m tired and chubby. We ate so much good food. We went on a short hike yesterday but it didn’t put a dent in my gut-jiggle. Trust me, there are worse things to complain about. The weather was gorgeous. I’ll have to go back there again. Mom had fun too. I’m going to post some photos soon. I hope Daniel doesn’t hate us since he couldn’t make it. I’ll just have to take him there next summer. I’ll be here for at least two years so that shouldn’t be a problem.

2am, Sunday morning

I need more sleep but I’m just not ready to turn in yet. I probably would be watching infomercials but I have a guest and watching TV does not help her sleeping schedule.

My mom arrived on Thursday night (actually Friday morning) and we’ve been hanging out having a good time. We’re leaving for an actual vacation on Monday, but for now, we’re just running errands and enjoying the slower, calmer part of her visit.

Danny went back to Austin early yesterday morning. His flight from Seattle to Dallas left at 5:56 am. To get to the airport in time, we had to leave our place by 4:15. Danny didn’t go to sleep that night and I slept for about an hour and a half before he woke me up at 4. Driving to the airport was fine, but it was surprisingly busy once we arrived. It turns out that most people took the advice that they should arrive at the airport no later than three hours before their flights. This resulted in tons of folks there at 4:30 am for 7:30 am flights. Danny got through okay but he had to be shuttled to the front of the line to check in on time. He made it to Austin safely and is now probably snoozing away at his brother’s apartment.

As for me, I got home around 5:15 am, played online for a while, and then crashed until 10:30am. Mom and I had lunch and then I came home and slept for another four hours. She drove up north to a “live music party” that a friend of a friend was hosting. I was invited but passed on the 90 minute drive. Instead, I ate leftover pizza, watched some of The Princess Diaries: Royal Engagement on cable, played Mario Kart, and played online. I also called my brother to find out if he was ready for his trip up here to join us.

When I finally got up this morning, my mom told me that my brother had called her to say that he woke up with a fever and a sore throat; not good. He’s rescheduling his flight for Thanksgiving but it looks like he’ll be on the fever diet of liquids and vitamin C for the next few days. Fortunately, my dad is going to drive up and check on him tomorrow and see if he needs anything. I worry about my brother. I know he’ll be fine but DAMN it sucks that his trip up here was ruined. I hope he feels better very very soon and gets enough rest.

Other than that, not much else is going on. I’ve been kind of moody and it’s not time for PMS just yet. Maybe it’s because I’m unemployed and I don’t have a schedule. I’ve decided that I just get depressed for no reason. It’s not major and it’s not long-lasting but it happens. I was mildly depressed at my old job. I was mildly depressed when I stayed home from work and now I’m mildly depressed that I’m unemployed. I think I’ll be fine once school starts. One of my friends works part-time and says that she hates it even though she has more time to herself. I think I understand what she means. I should appreciate my time off but I get this overwhelming feeling that I’m falling behind. I guess I feel like I should have everything ready for school, but not everything at school is ready yet. I just have to wait for email updates. I’ll be fine I just hate the waiting. I’m sure when I’ve been up for 48 hours working on a project I’ll miss all of this free time. I think if I start exercising again or at least put myself on some sort of schedule I’ll be happier. I sit around and watch the food network. Then, I go look for the cats. I do other stuff, but that’s the default. Then, I start thinking about everything I SHOULD be doing. I need to just make a list and do it. Unfortunately, that would require work and I also get distracted easily. Sigh. I’ll quit whining and go to bed now. I miss Danny.