Name Change

I recently had my name changed back to my maiden name. I did it for a few reasons, none which were because I was getting a divorce. My family did not seem to have any issues with it. My mother I just think disowned me, but it's not a big deal. There are worse things in life, and if going back to my maiden name is a big one ...well maybe she should have appeared in court like I did yesterday.
I have previously mentioned the process in which it takes to change your last name back to your maiden name. You first have to fill out forms that are available online. Second you have to go to downtown Atlanta to the Family Law Office. You must then have those papers notarized. Then you walk across the street to the County Clerks office to then have papers drawn up and pay like $400. The county clerks office then assigns a court date to appear in front of a judge. You then take those papers down to the Daily Report and they publish your name change in their Newspaper for a certain amount of time. You then appear in front of a judge, take the oath, and give her the reasons why you want your name change.

I did this and what the county informed to tell me or anyone else is that you must live in Fulton County for 6 months in order to do this. So, I had to return yesterday to appear again. This time the trials that were to happen on January 2nd happened on January 3rd. These trials or court appearances were criminal trials.  I sat in the court room for 3 hours and felt like I had seen it all. One man came in handcuffs and was accused of breaking into homes in a crappy neighborhood of Atlanta. He lied to the cops and had a gun on him. The public defender was skinny as a rail and full of herself. The Prosecutor seemed to be a nice enough guy who was simply stating facts about the case. The lady was pathetically pulling strings trying to get this guys case thrown out. It was straight out of a movie. There were also other cases brought in front of the judge. You really have to love what you do in order to be there. I was bored. I would say the only thing that surprised me was the behavior of the staff and the defenders/prosecutors. They had most likely been there a million times. The judge knew them. They sat there and talked their coworkers and friends in the court room. It really made the judge upset. Even the bailiff's were loud ! It was such a sign of disrespect I was really disappointed with the entire situation.

After explaining to the judge why I wanted my maiden name back I went back down to county courts office and paid to have copies made of my name change. It was $2.50 per copy for a piece of paper with a stamp on it. I now have the task of going to various county place to change my name such as the DMV and the Social Security office. Mother Trucker !! The crappy thing is it will take all afternoon and the county employees are obviously going to be totally rude. It's worth it though...