Quick background before I dive into the fun stuff. Dats and I got married mid-July, just before my birthday, and then he left a little more than a week later. Prior to that, we haven't seen each other aside from 2 weeks in September last year, and a few weeks in the spring before that. We've been together for about 6 years before the whole military picture, but as a military baby I'm accustomed to long breaks, paperwork, and never knowing what's next. I really didn't expect him to join, but I fully support him as I always have and will.
I just detest standing in line.
We got all the big stuff out of the way days after the wedding. He was here on RAP but I was able to take care of most of it myself since conveniently, I live here. SS name change, passport, re-enroll in DEERS, Tricare, POA's, a joint account to supplement our individual ones, a trip to Finance, all that good stuff. I canceled our honeymoon hotel booking and opted to surprise him with a night camping on the beach to watch the sunrise where America's Day Begins. We missed it, but managed to catch a glimpse the day before, so it wasn't so bad. Odd that we missed it, seeing how we're normally early-birds, but we enjoyed the secluded beach and short hike all the same. Caught the dinner show at SandCastle later that evening, and to top it all off, I was invited by the magician to participate! How did he know it was my birthday? I'll never know.
With all that taken care of I thought I would be off the hook for a good month or so. Spared from the lines and the waiting so I could enjoy my single-y spent newlywed bliss (since he had to go back so suddenly). I was wrong. He called last week to inform me that he's going TDY for 2 weeks and then slotted to deploy in September. Good grief, that changes things. Now we have to deal with wills, more POA's, more paperwork, authorization, account cancellation/suspension, finding a new place, and MOVING...while we're already 8000 miles apart. Now it takes about 2 days of straight travel to get from Guam to Georgia and I'm out of leave, so he's got about a week to get stuff straight. Pray for him please! I won't be following him out there until November at the earliest, so right now it's getting his stuff in storage and making sure I'll be able to get it out when I get there. Then comes my mess to deal with. If you have the answers to any of this, please share! It would help so much, and I'd really appreciate it.
Do I need a Georgia Drivers License? If so, can I just trade in my Guam one?
Do I list Georgia as my new domicile? I won't be returning to Guam to live anytime in the foreseeable future.
If I list Georgia as my domicile, will I be filing taxes there from now on?
I've been scouring the web all day trying to figure some of this stuff out, so brains fried as to what else I might need to think about. I'm going through the predeployment checklists and over half of it doesn't apply to us (yet). I'm filling it out anyway, to err on the side of caution. It helps a LOT. I'm trying to customize it so that it's easier to navigate. I'll probably post mine up when I'm done for whoever else may need it.
This is our first deployment, so I'm not exactly sure what to expect of it as a spouse. I've got the being lonely part down pretty well so far, so I'm going to try staying busy and thinking of it as just a few extra months apart. I won't be leaving Guam until at least November, and he'll be gone by then. It's August... and he'll be back next year. He'll miss our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and his birthday (he's turning 28!) as a married couple. Its only been what, 3 weeks and I miss him terribly. I don't recall how I managed to do this multiple times before. I can't wait to see him again.
No comments:
Post a Comment