As thankful as I am that something in this whole name-change process has been simple and painless, I'm also slightly disturbed at how easy it was to change my name on my credit cards. You'd think that they would ask me to verify in some way that I actually got married, but no. All they did was verify some security information on my account (and in one case not even that) and voila! I will be receiving new cards with my new name on them in 7-10 days.

The DPS office was only slightly more complicated in that I had to show them my actual marriage license to make the change. But, honestly, what else more would anyone need? Don't ask the Social Security office that question. Thanks to Jess I managed to make some sense of the jumbled mess that is the Social Security paperwork you have to wade through to apply for a card with your new name on it. To top it off, if I don't want to wait in line at the office (which I've heard I don't), I have to mail them my ORIGINAL documents (i.e. drivers license and marriage license) for verification and then trust that they will send them back to me, which they promise they will (yeah right).

On Jess's advice I will be mailing them my temporary paper license once I get my new license with my new name, along with our marriage license, so they can verify that my new last name really is Otis. Apparently the marriage license is used to verify my maiden name and not my married name, but they don't tell you that on the paperwork so there's no way for you to know that and how are you supposed to know that you should get your name changed on your license first so they can use your drivers license to verify your married name because for some unknown reason the license that proves you got married ISN'T ENOUGH TO PROVE YOU GOT MARRIED! Go figure.