Change Thy Name

I just got married about 3 weeks ago now and one of the most dreaded parts of getting married is the combining of both people’s lives. Now I am not speaking of the emotional and mental part of the union, but where the real meat occurs…finances and government! And for those ladies that have to change their name, I hope you are organized.

If you are like me, I am a fan of the wife taking the husbands name. And in doing this, there are quite a few steps that are necessary in becoming one surname. One of the things I found for my wife (1st online reference to her – feels good) is this service called missnowmrs.com. Its $30 for the deluxe, but the basic should be enough to get most through what they need. In all honestly it can be done on your own, the website just helps you with the questions and pre-fill the forms for you to send out. My suggestion for all the women out there changing their name is to do it in the following order.

1. Department of Motor Vehicle (In NYC $15, $80.50 for renewal)
2. Social Security (Free – NYC)
3. Passport ($75)

Each of these can be done through a simple search of the item needing to be changed and the text “change name”. Now what my wife and I did was mail our license in before we went on our honeymoon, so that when we came back it would be waiting for us, as it did. We then needed to take that marriage license to the DMV as proof of the change, which then gave her a temporary drivers license with her new name on it. We then took the marriage license, social security card and passport (old name) with us to the social security office (they no longer accept drivers license as a form of ID). And finally we went to the post office and mailed out the forms, pictures, money order and original marriage license. What’s important to note in this process is that the passport office wants a certified copy of the marriage license, which would take time to obtain since we just received the license itself, so we just sent the license since the other government documents could be done 1st and we don’t have plans for international travel for some time.

I was with my wife through this entire process. I would say as long as you are organized and take 1 day off to get this done, it isn’t as horrible as one might think. All the other stuff, bank accounts, professional licenses (she is an attorney), cell phones, etc. can be just notified via phone…usually. We also took a scanned copy of the license in PDF format so that it could be emailed to whoever would need a copy.

If you do your homework, prepare and get the paperwork in order you too can truly become ONE!

I wonder…22010

“And I wonder if you know
What it means to find dreams…”
The growth of one’s life can be measured in multiple ways, but for the purposes of this discussion I would like to highlight one metric: DREAMS!
1 yr. ago - Background Story

When I was a kid, I had all sorts of dreams. Some of them I forgot, some of them transformed while others I grew out of. One of them was to fall in love with a person who I could share my life with…Nytimes.


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So as we begin our lives together, I am not disillusioned that there will be good and trying times ahead, but with as fast as our vows went so can life. And I in this short existence we have labeled life, I have 1 question for you…

“You ever wonder what it all really mean
You wonder if you’ll ever find your dreams?
~ Kayne West, I Wonder”
I have and she has a name: Christy Nixon!!!


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NOTE: The inside joke that occurred during the ceremony was about the presentation of the vows. I decided to write my vows in a note (in High School we use to pass notes to eachother, folded up in a special way). The night before the wedding, I spoke with Christy and until this moment we had not discussed any details about our vows. But tonight she told me how she originally wanted to write her vows on a note as we did in high school, but decided to do it differently on the day of. What is interesting, she called me only 15 minutes after I shared the details of my plan with a good friend of mine. Who I used at the wedding as my witness to this idea not being STOLEN!

Distinguished Wisdom

“So what I tend to do is to think of today as the past,
It's funny when you comin' in first but you hope that you last,
You just hope that it lasts…” – Drake, Lust For Life (So Far Gone)

I will be turning a ripe age of 28 this November…2 years till the date that most look at as being a milestone. I have yet to turn 30, so I can only speak of how it is to turn 28, of course while I am still 27! As I have gotten older time has been playing tricks on me, years turn into what feel like hours…it is as though today is the past. But, I do not say this to say that it is over by any means. If today is the past then we are always having a new beginning.

I previously had a post on my blog: No Excuses… which featured a video from Michael Jordon (MJ). Michael Jordan was recently inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In an interview he did with Michael Wilbom on ESPN, MJ was asked why was this induction, that for anyone else would be symbolic, something he wouldn’t want to have. His response was that he felt as though it was something so finite, the end of something. As we go from summer to fall and inevitably into winter, we must remember that there will be a spring (Global Warming is for another discussion). Would the dream of immortality lose its luster if there were never an end?

I have watched movies where the main character feels as though he can write his life better than “the higher power”. But, what ends up happening is he rewrites his life by filling it with only pleasure, no pain. In the end he is worse off, having gone through no struggle, no opportunity to appreciate the life he was granted. Could you make the choice for you to lose a father at a young age or watch your child suffer through leukemia? There are a number of terrible things that can and do happen in people’s lives, but I believe it is that will to conquer that is innate in everyone that truly helps us all grow.

In youth we learn; In age we understand ~ Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Cousin Murdered - No Information in Digital Age

This occurred quite some time ago, but today for some reason it is one of the most popular - most read stories on CNN. I do not know why, but it just is. What happened to my cousin, I wouldn't want to happen to anyone...let alone a child! In this age of so much advanced technology, no one to this day has any information that can lead to the capture of the person who committed this crime.

Along with everything else going on today , I had to take a moment to recognize the reality of the world around us as individuals. If anyone has any information that can help, please contact me or TIPS via CNN.