Ninja by day, student by night

This summer is passing by so quickly! I got an email from my professor regarding my internship/independent study and all my materials are due next week! It isn’t as bad as it sounds though, I’ve been super-busy working on various projects so I have a lot to show for my time.

For me, the end of summer classes means that I have to start preparing for fall. There’s a lot to do, and I’m really excited and a little nervous about all the potential awesomeness for my last semester.

Still, I’m in “summer” semester now, and I just realized how happy I was today. I married a great guy, had a great wedding, made some new friends, painted some kickass pictures, and learned more about web development/design.

My summer hobbies have been working on my garden with Gogu-ji, doing some paintings, learning about making quilts, and reading a ton about web technologies and design. I’ve also made a habit of trying out a new Indian recipe after I visit my in-laws, because Gogu-ji’s mom has been pretty good about teaching me something new every time, so I practice making Indian recipes. I still need a lot of practice, but I learned to roll out rotis, make parathas, make daal, Indian salad, and cha. In return, I’ve made breakfast (eggs and toast) for them and had them try my homemade salsa. I even made my first loaf of ciabatta from a no-knead bread cookbook that I got from my mom. It was good but my yeast was a little old so it didn’t rise as nicely as it should (but it had really good flavor). I’m sure my next attempt will be better, I have fresh yeast and now I know what to expect.

I’ve been slowly learning AJAX over the summer, I found a library book on it, but the code was horribly outdated and it had a ton of typos in it. Although it was troublesome, I think I learned a lot by troubleshooting the code.

I haven’t had many opportunities to take photographs, except at a few weddings, but I think I’ll make more opportunities when fall starts, it’s been too busy with work and being a newlywed.

As for the married thing…well I love being married to Gogu-ji, and I feel pretty good inside, especially with respect to being a part of his family. There are so many ways that things could go wrong but we are all being patient and kind with each other as we get accustomed to the changes.

Last weekend we had a really nice dinner at one of the relative’s house, and I got to get to know them a bit better. I was a little nervous at first because I wasn’t sure what to do, but I realize that the Punjabi lifestyle is pretty much the same as the Mexican lifestyle, where the women help each other in the kitchen. It’s actually a really good experience for me because I get to see how to set up the area for a dinner and what types of food and snacks are typically served.

Since the family is vegetarian, I got to enjoy some of my favorites, like daal, subji and paneer, rotis and bhurta. I’m not a vegetarian but Indian vegetarian dishes are really the highlight of my dining experiences. It’s also what I’m focusing my efforts on, because I have a few vegetarian friends and I would like them to feel like they can visit me without any worries. The health benefits don’t hurt either.

In any case, I’ve been so busy trying to complete my requirements for my summer internship credit, I just have to get everything signed off and dropped off to my advisor by Thursday.

Hope everyone is having a great summer

So here’s the thing, you can learn from my messy transactions and be a smart bride, or you can run along and waste time.

Ladies changing your name…buy 2 certified copies of marriage license when you turn in your marriage license, it’s fairly inexpensive, I think mine was $4 for one copy in Prosser. You want one copy to keep at home for those unforseen circumstances and a copy for immediate use.

When you have a day off go to Social Security with your certified copy and current driver’s license, they will update your social security card and mail you a copy that will come in a few weeks. No charge.

Give 24 hours or more for the update to go through the computer network, then go to the DMV. If you are like me, where I had to update my address, change my name and get my EDL (enhanced driver’s license), you will need a few things. I needed my current valid driver’s license, a bill in my name at my new address for the address update. You will need your certified copy of your marriage certificate to change your name, your current valid driver’s license (prove that you are a WA resident) and I also had my passport to show that I’m a U.S. citizen, but there are more ways to prove that, see the DMV site for a list of acceptable docs. You also need to know your social security number, but you don’t have to have the card. The DMV person needs to be able to find your SS with your new name in order for them to issue you an EDL, but they’ll give you a temporary driver’s license so make sure you get prettied up.

Now that you got that done, you can then do your passport change if you need to (that’s what the second certified copy of your marriage license is for, they have you send it in, so you don’t get it back).

I still need to update my accounts and talk to work about my name change, and I’ll update if I need anything unique when doing so.

Hope this saves you some time