Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Closure~Out with the old, in with the new

What's Mike doing?
It's something about the new year that makes me want to start fresh, it's a new beginning; a clean slate. Each year, my mom would make us all clean the house and make sure all the clothes was washed before the new year. So this is my closure for the end of the year.

I FINALLY took care of all the paperwork associated with changing my last name. I trekked over to the Champaign SSN office and got that changed, then I found out that I could mail in a request to the Honolulu DMV to have my license changed. After that, I changed all my credit cards. I will start the new year with a wallet full of new IDs and credit cards.

Second thing to clear up...Thank you for all your comments about the pros and cons of living in Hawaii. I appreciate all of your responses and will use them in the decision-making process.

We are still in the process of figuring things out about Hawaii and the mainland. The fact that I did not do my homework and that there is no August graduation/deposit deadlines for doctoral students means that I cannot receive my degree until mid-October. And to defend my thesis by April 17th is out of the question for various reasons. That put a wrench in our plans so I'll be in Champaign longer than expected. I made a mistake by posting on this blog about it. We ended up hearing back from people in Hawaii about all sorts of things that we did not even know about ourselves.

He's feeding the squirrels. FYI, the trash bag was already there. He was trying to feed the squirrels Kibbles and Bits, but they didn't like the dog food.

And in case you were wondering, this is what Champaign looked like last week. This is what it looked like today. All the snow is gone and it's the middle of winter!

5 comments:

K and S said...

I think it took me at least a year before I did all the paperwork to change my name! I hope 2009 will be a good year for you and Mike :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, I think it looks more sunny there than here in Hawaii! I hope you both have a great new year!! :)

Razzie said...

Hey Lauren, so far the trip here has been good, though the only decent meal i have really eaten is the macadamia and banana pancakes and the malasadas from Leonard's. All our dinners have been so so. We went to Yummy's Korean one night(I only had Taro bubble tea, but my parents food was not too bad, just not awesome) Then we ended up eating at some bad chinese restaurant and I don't even remember where else, but it hasn't been memorable yet. I have reservations for Shokudo for Thurs and I hope that that meal impresses me. Thanks for all your suggestions, we have had a lot of fun so far, see you next week I'm sure, let me know if you want me to bring you something back.

genkitummy said...

Thanks Kat! I hope 2009 is a good year for you too!

Lori-It's surprisingly sunny here, but just cold.

Razzie-After talking to my friends and family back home it sounds like it's an icky time (all the rain, the blackout, etc) to visit Hawaii right now. I hope you like the food at Shokudo. Mike hopes that he didn't steer you in the wrong direction about any Chinese restaurants. Call me if you wanna ask about any other places to check out in Hawaii.

Unknown said...

Bummers about being forced to graduate later than you expected. I remember paperwork and administrative deadlines as being some of the most frustrating parts of getting my degree(s).

On the bright side, if you guys need a side income stream during your extra time in IL, Mike is a trained sandwich artist!