My Name Is Now Official! Court Was Successful!

Virtual court was very successful, and I won my case. I'm sure it didn't hurt that I had my oldest niece, Catie and Chickie Mama as my witnesses. They've both known me practically forever - LOL. I should be receiving the official judgment in the mail and then I need to get busy getting a bunch of things taken care of - first of which will be an updated Driver's License. I'll have to start a list, though. There are a lot of governmental entities that will need to be contacted to make sure my information is up-to-date and accurate. I might be able to finally get a new passport too! That would be delightful. 

Thank goodness for my days with WildFit during the COVID 
shut down. I got used to using Zoom at that time, and it wasn't 
horribly difficult to get back into it. The lens cover for my camera 
is quite a small slide lever. Getting the video turned on so that 
I could appear on screen was almost the hardest part - LOL. 

DH, of course, was totally grumpy about the whole thing. He's already grousing because we need to check my signature on the deed for the house. It has to have my legal name, and if not, I'll have to arrange to get it revised. I'll check that out this afternoon, I think I know where he has it. I'll also check on hours at the Social Security office to make sure I can be at one of the locations in tine to be one of the first people let through the door for service. 

I will be drowning in documents for a while. I'll need to make 
sure that everything is updated to my legal name ASAP, and 
then I can arrange for other things that may need to be tweaked. 

Anything and everything official will need to be checked. My driver's license is the only thing I know I don't have problems with; my problems with renewing it is what led to this whole thing. I simply didn't have the correct documentation to be able to get a new license and my current license expires on my birthday next year. 

I'm extremely fortunate in my friends - near and far. For 
the court, my oldest niece and my dear friend Claire 
stepped up to the plate for me to be my witnesses. I can't 
thank them enough! 

Claire and Catie - what fabulous friends and relatives. I couldn't be luckier. They've both known me practically forever, Claire since 1993, Catie since I moved up here in the mid-1980's. They were the perfect witnesses. I think the Judge appreciated an easy case for a change - LOL. Now the harder work starts, as soon as I receive the official judgement, I'll need to get it notarized, then I can have a copy for me and a copy for whatever entity I'll need one for. My bank can do that for me without any problem. 

I'm celebrating today. Although I still have a lot that I'll 
have to do, the major roadblock has been removed. 

So ... whew!!! Whoopie!!! Thanks for all of the positive thoughts and prayers - they worked! LOL I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Today is My Virtual Court Day - A Lot is On the Line

Today is my virtual court hearing for my official name change. It's not like I'm changing to something outrageous or even new, I'm trying to get official recognition of the name order I've used for decades. I use my middle name as my first name, and because I have a hyphenated last name, I just drop my original first name completely out of the picture. 

We'll see how this all goes today. I'm hoping it will go 
smoothly, but there are no guarantees. I have my two 
witnesses lined up to state that they have never known 
me as anyone other than who I say I am, but since I didn't 
supply documentation to back everything up, I'm not 100% 
sure things will be resolved today. *sigh*

It's bittersweet, but it has to be done. My first name was my father's choice, and he was a student and aficionado of Greek mythology. I was raised with Greek mythology for my bedtime stories, not Raggedy Ann and other more mundane tales. But Dad chose a minor character for my name, one that rarely appears at all. I'm fine with rare, but this one was too rare. It was like a chain around my ankle, following me wherever I went. I couldn't blend with others because the name always set me apart. 

Although I like my given name, I don't enjoy using 
it. It's mispronounced and misspelled all the time. 
I stopped using it in late 1966 and have never looked back. 

So, when I entered Middle School in a new area of town where no-one knew me, I switched my name. My Home Room teacher, Mrs Brooks - whom I will hold in high respect for my lifetime - asked each of us what name we wanted to be known by and called in the class. I chose my middle name then, and I've never looked back. 

Mom felt that Paul and Pauline would be 
rather like a circus act. She was totally 
against that appearance, so switched to 
her middle name and used that name for 
the rest of her life. 

There is precedence in my family for that, but it was a lot easier in the days past. My mother was Pauline, my Dad was Paul. Mom felt when she married him that having the two names that similar sounded rather like a circus act, so she switched to her middle name, and was known as Eva for the remainder of her long life. So there was family precedence for what I'm trying to accomplish today. 

I'm really hoping today's court hearing will wrap 
things up, that the court will agree with me, and 
that the judge will rule in my favor. Of course, I 
probably won't know until I receive official 
documentation, but I'm hoping that will be soon. I 
need to get a new Driver's License and can't even 
do that until this is resolved. 

Of course, I can't present documents to the court in a remote session. If the judge decides he needs to have the paper trail, I'll have to schedule a second hearing, probably pay another ridiculous fee, and I'll need to arrange for the documents to be received by the Court for the second hearing. I'm really hoping it won't come to that. But there is a possibility that it will be remanded for a later hearing when documentation has been received.  So, I'm heading out to swim off some of my fears and frustration. I hope you have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was a Fun Cooking Day, Now Reality is Knocking Again

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen. My refrigerator looks much happier now - prepared meals and morning fruit are stacked on my side. I always enjoy a good day of cooking, and one of the best things about yesterday is the roast beef that I made. It turned out glorious - perfectly medium-rare, and my slicer still works well. I ended up with 30 slices of roast beef for sandwiches for about $16. A steal of a deal. 

The roast beef I had purchased on Wednesday cooked up 
wonderfully and I was able to slice it super thin, so even 
though it's a tough cut of meat, it's still very tasty and easy 
to eat. Lunch! LOL

We had been waiting for a reply from Travis regarding our next steps for our business liquidation, but frankly, I wasn't super happy with what we got back. We're supposed to schedule another phone meeting. I'm fine with a lot of that, but at some point I'm going to need more assistance and I'm hoping against hope that he'll be able to actually provide that. I'll also have to do some searching for firms we'll need to hire for publicity, mailings and website advertising. More things on my plate "sigh". 

It's so easy to start a business - a minimum of muss 
and fuss and a single piece of paper filed with the 
city you're operating in. Closing a business, on the other 
hand, is a nightmare of regulations, governments (city, 
state and local) and procedures. ARGH! 

I took a bit of time last night to contact a friend about a gift for another friend. Since at least one of these people reads my blog semi-regularly, I'm not going into specifics, but I do hope that Friend #1 can do what I'm asking (I'm perfectly willing to pay a good rate for the job), and that Friend #2 will be pleased with the result. I'll have to wait and see, but I have high hopes on this one. 

Next Thursday is looking like a train wreck already. I have my virtual court hearing scheduled for 11:50 am, and as soon as I'm finished with that, Claire and I will head to the MCI course I'm taking at my local health center. I'll have to tell them we might be slightly late, but we should be there on time, if everything clicks. I'll have to do the Zoom call from the shop, so I'll have to gather whatever paperwork I think might be relevant and take it to the shop with me. My documentation is shit - my birth certificate is almost a joke it's so bad. But, I do have my naturalization papers and other things that back me up as being who I'm claiming I am. If the Judge asks for something I forgot, however, it's not going to go well. 

It's been a while since I was last on Zoom, and both 
Claire and I will be in the same room for the hearing, since 
we need to leave for our MCI group as soon as it wraps up. 
I'm just hoping it will be cut and dried without any speed 
bumps. 

So, stress upon stress for the upcoming week. I'm going to wrap this up and try and enjoy a busy Saturday and a Sunday raking leaves (ick!). Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

I Finally Have a Court Date for my Name Change Hearing

I finally have a court date for my official name change hearing and both of my witnesses can make the virtual visit on that date/time without any problem. What a relief. It isn't until November, but that's just fine. It will take about 1/2 hour, and 1/2 hour after that, Claire and I are due at the memory class I'm attending (I was welcome to have a friend or family member join me, so I asked Claire if she might be interested and she was happy to say "Yes"). So, things are starting to fall into place ... somewhat - LOL. 

My official name change hearing is a virtual hearing, which 
makes it convenient for everyone. My two witness have been 
notified of the date/time and said there would be no problem. 
I'll forward the sign-on information to them as soon as I've 
received it. 

I have been spending my days counting stock at the store so that Jim can update the inventory with accurate numbers. There are some bags I've come across that were originally packed by Meagan, one of my first employees when we were growing by leaps and bounds, and still a dear Facebook friend, although she lives far away from us now. At that time she was very young, living with her boyfriend in a nearby apartment in one of the many houses in our area that rent to students. Meghan was determined, she wanted to work for us, and she turned out to be a great employee and an even better friend. She was unique in that one side of her body couldn't tolerate contact with metals, where the other side had no problem. She designed some really interesting pieces mixing bone beads and metals as a result. She's quite artistic, so the designs were fabulous. She now has two kids, no current husband, and lives in the Pacific Northwest. 

We need a physical inventory of everything in the shop, so 
I've been going through the bins, one at a time, one bead at 
a time, counting and marking them down on a sheet that DH 
will update in the computer. It's a LOT of inventory. 

I spent yesterday's kitchen time making my next batch of "Ogre Juice" for the upcoming week. I've been having four alkagizers every week since I first took the WildFit coarse during the Covid shut-down. On those rare occasions when I'm not having my "Ogre Juice" (so named because it's very green in color), my body really notices the lack of nutrients and makes it quite clear to me that I need to get that back into my system. It's been years now, and although it's not gourmet, my body does insist upon my "Ogre Juice" four times a week to be happy and healthy. I'm quite sure that my healing from the infection caused by my cancer surgery went faster because of my daily alkagizers four times a week. 

I've been adding honey to my alkagizers lately, and that's 
been very tasty. I think I added clover honey to the batch 
I made yesterday. I'm already looking forward to my lunch 
break today - LOL. 

So, I'm off to the pool again today for my last swim of the week. I'm hoping I'll have my virtual programs back up and running by tomorrow's treadmill time, but found that listening to my book worked just fine too, so if I'm still having problems with the treadmill and the software company linking together, that'll be OK too. For today, just roll with the punches and be ready for anything - good or bad. You can handle it all, I have faith in you. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

One Task Semi-Accomplished - A Quick Drive to the County Courthouse

I found myself with a window of open time yesterday, and decided to drive to the County Courthouse and see about getting papers filed for my name change. For those who may not know, I'm trying to eliminate my given first name which I haven't used since I was twelve, so that there are only three names that I need to deal with - my preferred name, my last name and my married name. That's quite enough, thank you. I've never been fond of my given name, and I haven't voluntarily used it since I entered 7th grade. Getting rid of it seems much more sensible and will allow me to get a "Real ID" and the other myriad official ID things without difficulty. 

This two-story+ high marble statue called "Vision of Peace" is 
the centerpiece of the Ramsey County Court House. It's truly 
stunning. I was walking towards the entry from the car park, and 
was on the second floor passing it. It still was taller than my level. 
It's a great building - tons of stuff to see and perfect post-Depression 
era architecture with art-deco decor. 

It was a good thing I had been there so many times for Jury Duty more than a year ago, I knew just where I wanted to park, and knew the way through the skyways to get to the courthouse. I filled out the paperwork, gave them my credit card for the $350 fee (ouch!) and my case has now been assigned to Judge Leonardo Castro. I don't have a date yet, but it will be a Zoom call instead of in-person. I'll get in touch with my two "witnesses" later today and let them know what's happening. I wish I had a date - that would be even easier - but at least I'll be able to be scheduled onto the calendar. Baby steps. 

The actual court hearing will take about 30 minutes on Zoom. 
My two witnesses will also need to be available on Zoom. I'll 
speak to Chickie about whether her Mom is comfortable with 
that format. I'm sure my eldest niece is. If not, since it's a Zoom 
meeting, I can call upon other people who aren't local to 
be my witnesses. Sharon comes to mind. 

I'm feeling rather uninspired for my daily post today, however, and will cut it short here. You don't need paragraphs about normality, and I'm looking at a desk full of paperwork that has to be dealt with. *sigh* I hope all of you have a truly fabulous weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Salud and Thanks

All of the positive thoughts, good wishes and luck must have worked because the City Council approved my case and I actually had a rather pleasant time. I have always enjoyed the law and it was very interesting to me to sit in chambers and listen to the six or so cases that were heard ahead of me. Most of us were there for the basic same thing - abatement of charges, zoning changes, and updates on previously assigned dates for upkeep and repairs. It was fun listening to the head of the Council. She was point-on in her assessments and I felt she was quite competent both legally and within the confines of the cases that were scheduled to come before her.

St Paul City Hall is a large, multi-storied building in art-deco style.

There are several chambers used by the Council. I wasn't in

this specific one, but mine was similar in appearance.

One of the best things was that a friend of mine was unexpectedly there. Leanna Shaff, the head of the Fire Inspections Department was a member of the Council. Leanna and I had gotten to know each other when she did fire inspections for my shop many years ago. We clicked right away. She's a straight shooter, as the term goes, and she doesn't mince words. But she also understands that people do the best that they can do. It was really nice to see her again and at the end of the hearing she acknowledged me by name and said how nice it was to see me again. In turn I told her that she should phone me and we'd get together for coffee. I hope she takes me up on it.

I like honest people and Leanna has always been straight with me.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

I also hit stride on my NaNo this morning. I was cruising through the words, unlike yesterday when it felt like pulling teeth to get the words down. The secondary characters who cropped up a few days ago are turning into really interesting characters and good guides for my main historical character. I'm in the beginning of the Rockies now and heading deeper into the mountains tomorrow. I've got 34,000+ words down now and I'm nowhere close to being finished so I know I'll be writing more than 50,000, although I can be a little kinder with my personal schedule once I have reached my initial goal. I'll do the Desktop Meme tomorrow...

Court and Contracts

Tomorrow I have to go to court and plead my case in front of the City Council. This is NOT the way that I wanted to spend my Tuesday afternoon. It became necessary because of hoops, bells and whistles that the city has instituted to fight abandoned houses that just become tawdry run-down properties and often can lead to lowered property values and increased crime. However, that's not our house. Our house is dearly loved and we've been working on renovating and fixing it up to put onto the market in the summer of 2013.

When I moved up to Minnesota in the late 1970's (yes, I'm that old *sigh*), my DH and I moved into his grandmother's home. She was a feisty German woman who, along with her husband, had moved to Minnesota in the late 19-teens. They purchased this little house from the carpenter who had built it and who had lived in it for two years while he built another home for himself. It's a beautiful house - very small but sturdy. It is a typical arts and crafts house, 1-1/2 stories high with a full, unfinished basement of poured concrete walls. It has outstanding hand-finished woodwork - hardwood floors, solid doors, wide moldings, and built-ins all over the place.

The city has decided that since we have not lived in the house for many years, nor had tenants that we were renting it to, it is a vacant house. This means that we have to pay an additional $1100 tax to the city for the property. But, more than that, it means that to be able to put it on the market in 2013 (which is our intention) we now would have to have a series of inspectors come through and certify that the house is properly cared for, totally up to code, etc. I understand where the city is coming from, but we went through this earlier and were assigned a class 1 status meaning we just needed to keep the property up and all would be well. But, someone new came into the Fire Inspections department, determined to impress her new employers, and my file was one that was pulled. So, because of her push, we've been dropped to class 2 status and that's not good. Tomorrow I get to state my case in front of the City Council and try to convince them to allow us to resume our class 1 status. If that happens, I'll have that house ready to go on the market in the summer and it will be sold before the end of 2013. It's a dog and pony show.

I've also been reviewing my contract for my short story "Dragon Seeks a Wife". I already had them change the few things that were actually germane to the document, and so I will sign it (with the certain knowledge that I will NOT be getting rich on this story - LOL). But there are typos, dropped punctuation, etc. that also exists in the contract, even though this is a second run-through. So I'll also tell them about those even though they won't have to change the contract to reflect those changes. But it would be really, really nice if they did change it one more time...just saying...