As thankful as I am that something in this whole name-change process has been simple and painless, I'm also slightly disturbed at how easy it was to change my name on my credit cards. You'd think that they would ask me to verify in some way that I actually got married, but no. All they did was verify some security information on my account (and in one case not even that) and voila! I will be receiving new cards with my new name on them in 7-10 days.

The DPS office was only slightly more complicated in that I had to show them my actual marriage license to make the change. But, honestly, what else more would anyone need? Don't ask the Social Security office that question. Thanks to Jess I managed to make some sense of the jumbled mess that is the Social Security paperwork you have to wade through to apply for a card with your new name on it. To top it off, if I don't want to wait in line at the office (which I've heard I don't), I have to mail them my ORIGINAL documents (i.e. drivers license and marriage license) for verification and then trust that they will send them back to me, which they promise they will (yeah right).

On Jess's advice I will be mailing them my temporary paper license once I get my new license with my new name, along with our marriage license, so they can verify that my new last name really is Otis. Apparently the marriage license is used to verify my maiden name and not my married name, but they don't tell you that on the paperwork so there's no way for you to know that and how are you supposed to know that you should get your name changed on your license first so they can use your drivers license to verify your married name because for some unknown reason the license that proves you got married ISN'T ENOUGH TO PROVE YOU GOT MARRIED! Go figure.

In an effort to be ever more Dooce-like I made a visit to the dermatologist to have a spot checked out on my ear. (Before you start to think my obsession has gone to far and I need professional help, I DID NOT do this to be like Dooce. However, her incident did make me more aware of the fact that I need to pay attention and take care of my skin).

A couple of weeks ago Otis noticed the freckle I've had on the rim of my ear for a few years and asked me to have it checked out. I said "ok", but never took any action. Until this week when I finally stopped to check it out myself and noticed it had changed quite a bit a looked kind of funny. This morning my dermatologist removed said scary freckle and sent it off to the lab to be analyzed. The doctor said it definitely looked odd, but not any type of melanoma (whew!). Probably just some "abnormal cells" that, if left to their own devices, would probably become more of a problem in the future. Good thing we put those abnormal cells in their place before they got too out of control.

I should find out the status of the lab work next week. I'll let you know what I find out, but I'm really not too worried about it. From now on I will be putting 40+ sunscreen on my ears as they are one of the most common places to get skin cancer (according to my doctor). I encourage you all to do the same.

Just now I saw a girl wearing red leather shorts. Red leather shorts, you ask? Yes, RED. LEATHER. SHORTS. I actually had to do a double take because I first thought she was wearing a red leather mini-skirt. For a brief moment I was relieved that it wasn't a mini, but then became more troubled by the fact that they actually make red leather shorts and that someone would actually buy them.

Now, I'm no fashion guru, but I'm pretty sure red leather shorts fall outside the realms of socially acceptable attire. Even for Rock Stars. And especially for accountants in training.

Dooce's most recent post inspired me to write about my own dating experiences. So here goes. But before I begin you should know that if anything can be said about me, it's that I have staying power. Staying power that has often proved to be to my detriment.

I started dating Guy #1 when I was 15. I dated him mostly because I wanted a way to get out of the house and he had a car and payed attention to me. It wasn't for his looks. And yes, I do realize how pathetic that makes me look. I didn't say this would be an ego-boosting experience for me. From certain points of view you could say I used him, but so did he so we're even. I broke it off with Guy #1 after a year and a half because he pretty much lost his mind and I realized staying with him would probably end up being detrimental to my desire to stay alive.

I dated Guy #2 for about 6 months starting the spring semester of my senior year in high school. He was cute and, well...that's about it. He was your typical self-absorbed jock type who ended up cheating on me, which is when I broke it off with him. Smart, huh? I really have no explanation of why I dated him except that he was cute and asked me out. I wish I had more to say about my dating experience with him, but I really can't remember anything. You can see how much it meant to me.

Guy #3 was a re-bound that lasted 3+ years. Yes. I said 3 YEARS. He was a nice enough guy, easy to look at but not cute enough to be afraid of, and he treated me pretty well. I spent most of my college years dating him. The one thing I really liked about him was that he was into cars. This was the period of my life that my fledgling fettish for cars turned into a full on obsession, and I really do owe it all to him. But despite this shared obsession it wouldn't last. There were two things about him that ended up being the downfall of our relationship: 1) He suffered from severe anxiety, and 2) his mother controlled his life. I broke up with him after realizing I couldn't spend the rest of my life with someone who couldn't see past the next panic attack.

I started dating Guy #4 right before I graduated from college. This ended up being an almost 3 year relationship, with a 4 month break somewhere in the middle. Truthfully I probably shouldn't have started part 2 with him, but what do you do? Matters of the heart are complicated. He was a good guy, but when it came down to it, not the right one for me. I got a great dog out of it, and if I hadn't dated him, I never would have come to Austin, which means I never would have met Otis.

This is the part where I say "it all works out in the end". And you know what? It all works out in the end.

If you take away anything from this post, it should be that I made some colossally stupid dating decisions. I encourage you not to follow in my footsteps if you're stil out there in the dating world.

Click here.

The ONLY way I know this is a dog is because I found it on a photo stream of dogs. Otherwise I would be inclined to think it was a weasel that haplessly wandered into a radiation zone.

Also, um, is it Hindu?