fun with social security

you thought people watching at the DMV was interesting. try going to the freaking social security office! holy jesus.

i went on friday to get my name changed. i arrived just after 1pm, and there were probably 15 people there. i took a number and grabbed a seat and luckily had a book with me. i looked around a bit and decided most people must be there to collect some sort of check or something. i don't mean to be rude, but they all looked pretty down and out. dirty and poorly dressed and such. some even looked totally out of it... ie, not sure if they knew where they were... that sort of dazed and lost look in the eye.

i sat minding my own business and reading the adventures of kay scarpetta for about 20 minutes until a cloud of alcohol rolled in. this man had to have been drinking since last christmas. and where does he decide to sit? next to me. holy hell he smelled awful. stale liquor mixed with new liquor mixed with general funk. bleh. i tried to inhale the air to my left instead of the funk coming from my right, but it didn't work so well. then they called his number and he came back and sat on my left so it was all around me, envelopping me like a thick cloud of smoke.

in the midst of all this, the lady is calling numbers... 40, 41, 42, 43, etc. my number was c234. i started to get curious and figured they must just be calling the last 2 digits and i must have been forgotten. so i said something to the security guard, who notified the number calling lady. well, my drunken friend could not believe that i was sitting there letting people go in front of me! he slurred several words of encouragement to me about being aggressive and getting my rightful time with the number caller, how he had my back and i shouldn't let them do that to me. i assured him that i was fine, i had my book. he insisted on slurring several more things at me and attempting conversation, but i kindly responded with short quips and pointedly shoved my face in my book.

finally, i get up to the lady and she says, "you have a 'c' number." then she looks at the security guard and says, "she's a 'c' number, i'm not calling 'c' numbers." and she looks at him (not me) until he comes over and points me towards the chairs again. thought that was kind of rude myself, that she couldn't even bother to tell me herself that it wasn't my turn, she had to rely on the security guard. as if i were just one of the vagabonds in the social security office on a friday afternoon! hmph!

anyway, of course when i sat down again, mr. liquor had plenty to slur and he began to remind me a lot of flava flav. had he had a giant clock around his neck, he could have been him. only a little more out of it.

i observed several foreign people come in to obtain US social security numbers. this was rather amusing to me, as the security guard would ask them if they had filled out the form. they would nod their heads. he would say can i see your form. they would nod their heads. he would say the forms are in that basket. they would nod their heads and sit down. he would walk over and point to the forms and say you have to fill out this form. finally they would get it. sadly, i saw this same sequence of events happen a couple of times.

finally, the lady called my real number. i went up with my form and my passport. she said, "do you have your marriage certificate?" and guess what. i didn't. MORON! in my defense, the form didn't say anything about bringing your marriage certificate, but i did think it odd that they didn't want any documentation of why you were changing your name. but instead of asking to be sure i had all the right information, i sat my ass in crazyville for 45 minutes until i learned that i would have to leave and come back another day.

so this morning i went again, armed with everything i needed to become mrs. lydia eve klinger. luckily, no one was at lunch this time so the numbers (even the "c" numbers) were called fairly quickly. i was in and out before i could even really pay attention to the nutjobs around me.

and now, it's official. i am lydia eve klinger. exciting!

settling in

man, i can't believe how hard it is to settle back in to the real world! i want it to still be our wedding and honeymoon. :) i am finally getting back into the swing of things at work, and actually have been pretty busy for a change. we have recruitment for the residency starting at the beginning of november, so there has been a lot to do for that. it's funny, it never occurred to me when i was in wedding lala land in september that i'd be coming back with just a couple weeks to go before recruitment started! but i'm managing just fine. :)

so monday was my 3rd chiniversary--the 3rd anniversary of my chin surgery. it is weird to think it's been that long. seems like that was forever ago! i actually forgot about it this year, which surprises me because it's like a second birthday or something to me. my friend leslie called and left me a voice mail wishing me a happy chiniversary monday night after i'd gone to bed so i didn't get the message until last night. i had to call bryan immediately because i couldnt' believe we had BOTH forgotten! but we have had a lot going on so it's understandable i guess. :)
well, i thought our lives would slow down when the wedding was over but our "social schedule" is busier than ever. tonight we have leslie and her friend kush coming over to fix our computers and try to recover the honeymoon pictures that have disappeared, friday we are going to the drag races (bryan asked if i wanted to race sabine, my eclipse. i declined.), saturday is my 10 year high school reunion (getting old!), and sunday some of our friends are having a housewarming party. then tuesday we go get our wedding pictures! hooray! i can't wait. of course you will all get to see them as soon as we have them!

guess i will get back to work... duty calls!

back and married!

it is hard to believe that two weeks ago today i was getting ready to get married, now here i am back to the real world, working, with no wedding planning to distract me and no deadlines awaiting me!

the wedding was amazing. i honestly could not have hand picked a better day. the weather was perfect, there were no snags to speak of and the reception was so much fun! i only wish i had been able to talk to everyone a little more, but with 150+ people there, that was virtually impossible. most of you who read this were there, but i thought i'd share a few pictures that people have sent me anyway. i love reliving the day. :) once i get my pro pics i'll share those as well.

here's me and my dad about to come down the aisle. i got teary eyed briefly when i saw bryan but managed to hold it together pretty well...

here is the a nice picture of what the ceremony looked like, how it was laid out and stuff. i apologize to anyone who was at the top and couldn't hear! someone told me bryan and i were funny because we kept looking around at the audience instead of at each other... well, i would just like to say for the record that i was ridiculously in love with not only bryan at that moment, but all of my family and friends who shared the day with us!

believe me, when it got down to it, there was only one person i was paying attention to: my husband!


and then, they were mr. and mrs. klinger...
when we were introduced at main street station, bryan insisted on carrying me up the stairs. it was fun and exciting, but i swear i was terrified he was going to step on my dress and we would both tumble back down the stairs!in the end, we had a wonderful day and it was definitely worth all the planning and worrying over... i wouldn't mind doing it again, even... with the same man, of course. :)