Thank you all so much for the nice comments!
I am now waiting for my phone call telling me that the Order to Show Cause is ready to pick up at the court house. It will be super when I get that final detail nailed down. I will email the scan of it to the Monterey County Weekly and I then only have to wait until July 18th for my hearing.
An interesting side note about the clerk at the court house. After reviewing my paperwork for the name change she asked where I got the documents. I said on line and she turned to her files and pulled out the Change of Name and Gender forms. She asked me if they apply to me. I said not yet. It was so sweet of her to check on that for me. I wonder if there will be a problem with similar confusion with the judge. I'll be ready to answer properly.
Claire, I had to pick one from the approved list of papers in the county. I sat there in the court house calling them on my cell, I had expected to pay $50 but for a name change they really charge a lot more. I got quotes from over 400 down to 235. The one nice thing is that the Weekly will notify the court directly when the four postings are complete. As for changing now, once the selection is made on the filed forms, it is not possible to change.
Tink,
I do go by Maggie Kay in some forums. When I got mentioned on
trans-ponder.com's podcast that is what Mila called me. I did a couple of voice messages that they included on their podcasts and I also gave Mila a model. She has a photo holding it on the About us page on the web site.
Cindi,
I didn't have this step in my mind as being that huge but as I think about it, leaving my male name behind after all these years is huge. My mother originally believed she was having a girl to be named Margaret. When she was told I was a boy, and what name to call me, she didn't have a name so she picked one at random. As a result, I have always felt that my name was wrong for me. Now, it will match my true self!
Maggie
