New week, new name

This week was mostly dedicated to officially changing my name and becoming a Georgia resident. Anyone who has gotten married knows what a hassle it can be to change your name. Changing it at the same time you are converting all of your Massachusetts things to Georgia things only makes it even more of a pain.

Even though we got married over a month ago, in my mind my last name is still Eddy. People love calling me Mrs. Porter *wink wink smile* and I love it too, but inside I'm thinking yeah kind of, not really..someday. To me my name is whatever my drivers license and credit cards say my name is. I have not been signing my name as Jessica Porter either, because I haven't had any proof in my wallet to back up that name. Well, 2 days ago I got my official temporary Georgia drivers license! The permanent plastic one comes in the mail in a couple of weeks.

At the Department of Driver Services while waiting for my number to be called, I realized that hey I'm going to have to sign my new name on my ID and it has been months since I practiced. So I signed Porter a bunch of times all over the inside of my check book and decided I was ready. One of my least favorite letters to write in cursive is the letter r, so I had to get over that. When the time came to actually sign the screen with my signature that would be printed on my ID, I was so scared and preoccupied with the questions the DDS worker kept asking me (Tell me again why your lease you signed on August 13th says Jessica Eddy when you were married before that on July 31st, why doesn't it say Porter there, hmmm??!) that my signature got a little messed up. Not the Porter part, but the Jessica part. I showed Rob my ID and he said it looks like my first name is Dustin.

After that fiasco I went to the Social Security Office and applied for a new SS card with my new name on it. Then I went to the county tax commissioner's office to get my GA registration and license plate, which was more of a zoo than the DDS. I was convinced they were going to send me away for missing some piece of paperwork or something after waiting for 25 minutes, but luckily that didn't happen, and now both me and my car are official Georgia residents.

I'm still waiting for the name change to go through on all of my credit cards and bank accounts. Next up will be changing the passport so that I am all set for the New Years Caribbean Cruise!!



Thought I'd throw in this picture to celebrate NFL games starting this week. How appropriate that my team is playing the Atlanta Falcons...go Steelers, kill Matty Ryan.