Watch Out For Those Commas...

I convinced my hubby to go with me today to officially change my name. We started out at the Social Security Administration. After we wove in and out of several office complexes, we found the building and went inside. It was pretty painless and we were in and out in under 30 minutes. We decided to brave the DMV and get a new license while we were at it. BIG mistake!! The fact that it was mostly standing room only should have been a clue that this was not going to end well. We found two seats and filled out the paperwork.... then waited.... and waited.... 30 minutes came and went.

Even though the DMV had the potential to use 13 help desks, they intermittently used about 6 at a time. They have this bizarre number system with a letter and a number (we waited intently for B 76). There were all sorts of numbers and letters called T, R, W, even P... no B. No B's for 45 minutes. When they finally called B 74, I almost jumped out of my seat (excited to hear something remotely close to our number). At last after almost an hour and 40 minutes B 76 was called! Everything was going so smoothly! I have to get one of the new licences with the hologram picture, so they needed to take my picture. I asked the lady if I could smile, because several people had told me that you can't smile on the new licenses. She said I could as long as I didn't show any teeth. I asked why and her response was: You'll see when you get your license. What does that mean??

We were almost done and I was looking back over the paper so I could sign and we could be on our way when Jason noticed that there were too many commas they way they had my name listed. It would have read: last name, first, and 2 middle names. We tried to explain to the lady that I'm just tyring to make Mary Catherine my first name. I'm not taking any names away, or adding anything for that matter. She got a supervisor who said that she had never heard of anyone doing that before. She said she'd have to go look it up in "the book". She came back and said that I couldn't do that without a court order. So how is it that it worked for the federal government?? I guess I'm going to have to wait to see what it looks like on my actual license.

The DMV gave me a temporary paper to use as a license until my official one arrives. I went to put my old license away later this afternoon when I realized there were holes in it that weren't there earlier!! I asked Jason what did these letters mean?? It looked like CI I O V. He said: Void. I was looking at it backwards. Needless to say... it's been a long day!