So this morning I got my legal name change orders from the court and drove as fast as I could to the Social Security office to change my name with the feds. Got my little waiting room ticket, filled out the name change form, sat down with my cherished copy of Wind in the Willows, and expected quite a wait given the crowd in there.
After 10 minutes, I got called to a window (this is NOT fiction, I swear!). I handed the smiling lady my waiting room ticket, the court order, my request form, and my driver's license. We chatted for a minute while she pulled stuff up in the computer and then she picked my license up to examine it. She looked back at me and said, "But this is <boy name>'s license." I kind of snickered and she looked back down at the counter. Then she smacked her forehead and went "Oooooooh!" and we both had a good laugh. I told her it happened to me all the time and she agreed that was probably the case.
And so we chatted for a few more minutes while she entered everything into the computer, and she was just this lovely, radiant person who I could tell really loved people. It's always refreshing to find someone like that when you go into a service office. In fact, I'm going to write a nice letter about how well I was treated.
Then she excused herself to go get the receipt of the transaction so that I could verify the accuracy of what she entered. She brought back the paper and, given what I knew about changing information with Social Security, it still had "M" for sex. I didn't say a word, but the woman helping me looked at it said, "Oops, I forgot to change that" while circling the little M. And so, just like that, I became an F with Social Security.
All I can think is that I must have done
something right to have that happen...
In any case, I'm on top of the world right now and my entire trip to Social Security took all of 20 minutes, and in the middle of the day too!
--------------------
And no, my letter of commendation will NOT include the fact that she changed my sex in the system...
