That's Mrs. S to you!

Give me a name...and I'm yours forever
~ The Cadets

It only took four months and fifteen days but I finally did it! I finally dragged myself to the local SSA office and changed my name!!! Woo hoo! I was apprehensive as I've read soooo many not-so-nice stories about the name changing process with the SSA and thus was expecting a similar horror story. I got to the SSA office a few minutes after 12pm on thursday. A very windy thursday at that. I walked in and looked around quite expecting someone to point me in the right direction but as is the manner of uncouth people, everyone looked at me and then looked away not even acknowledging my greeting smile. That gets me everytime. Will a measley 'hello' damn you to hell for all eternity? Why not just say it! Why am I always digressing! Anyways, I walked in and looked around for some direction when the "Start here!" sign caught my attention. I moved closer to the sign and noticed the computer screen underneath the sign. On the screen were three options indication pretty much asking 'Why da heck have you come here to bother us today?'. I made a selection and out came a ticket with a number on it. I went to sit down while I waited for my number to be called. There were all of 7 folks in the waiting room, including one security officer whose job I assume it was to point people towards the computer to sign in. He was busy chatting away with a military guy talking about '...all them Koreans' and '...all them Chinese'. I tried not to listen as I didn't want to be inundated with mind numbing ignorance. Has any intelligent conversation ever contained the words 'All them Koreans'? Coarse rednecks.

Behind the counter were two SSA officials who were as slow as molasses! Cheese and crackers! When they were done with a customer, it took them a full five minutes to call the next person. What the heck?!?! Needless to say I was irritated at the lengthy wait and redneck talk it was all I could do to keep from walking out. I verified and re-verified that I had all the necessary docs. When I could no longer kill time by verifying, I watched Friends on the 13 inch TV in the waiting room. Do they still make those any more? (13inch TVs I mean) I made a mental note to myself to get the DVD set of all seasons of friends. "N130!" I jumped. Yaay, my number had been called! I walked up to the counter, gave the SSA official the form I'd printed and prefilled, a certified copy of my marriage certificate, and my passport. and that was all. I was out in 10 minutes. I spent a total of 30 minutes and now, I'm Mrs. S! My new SS card should arrive in the mail in two weeks.

I was excited until I went through my list of all the other stops on this name changing bus...and there are a LOT of stops. So many different companies and organizations to contact. Why on earth is this process so tedious? It's a wonder anyone actually changes their name? This process really should be streamlined and simplified.