THE PATRIOT ACT IS KILLING ME!

I'd like to share a story with you. Bear with me, this gets a little complicated.

I was born a couple of weeks ago...haha...Anyway, my parents knew they wanted a little girl named Ann and my last name would be Thompson. They had a little difficulty, I understand coming up with a first name they both liked. My dad suggested Julia, which sat well with my mom, I guess, because first thing I knew, I was Julia Ann Thompson. Ok. Was always called Ann. Barely knew there was a Julia attached.

We always lived in rather small towns, especially the one we moved to when I was in the sixth grade. There was a county school system there, and only about 5 of us girls in our class lived within the city limits....the rest were "county girls" and were bussed into town to school. Ok. I am still Ann Thompson. Fine.

Hooray. I am now sixteen and can take my driver's test....I passed! My brand new drivers license was issued to Julia Ann Thompson. Okay. Nobody would see that horrible picture, much less know my first name. No problem.

Rock on.....until about age 19 when I met and fell in love head over heals to a guy whose last name was, you got it, Kendrick. Got married, was introduced as Mrs. Kendrick, i.e. Ann Kendrick. More specifically, Ann T. Kendrick. My mother in law was very big on monograms, and I got lots of towels and linens and silver all monogrammed ATK. No problem. For over 18 years, as long as I was Mrs. Kendrick, I was Ann Kendrick to my friends. Bank records, insurance policies, etc, all in the name of Ann T(hompson) Kendrick.

Can you guess where this is going???

Divorce came about 1985 and I kept the Kendrick last name, as my children were 12 and 16 at the time, and I had been Mrs. Kendrick for about as long as I had been Ann Thompson. Who wants to go through all the paperwork to change names, right?

No problem.

Until last year. Along comes the Patriot act and my driver's license needs renewing. I heard about my peers who were having to have legal name changes in order to have social security card names and drivers license names match. Well, gee, mine didn't match....name change? EXPENSIVE! Find an attorney, go to court, or do it yourself, spend three trips to the county seat, appear before the judge, get name changed, still not cheap. OR I could just get social security card Ann T. Kendrick to match driver's license Julia Ann T. Kendrick. So I chickened, and took the easy way to the social security office. Name change there was simple, easy and speedy! Done Deal. No problem.

Riigghhhttt.

Every time I present driver's license for picture ID for anything, doctor's visits, insurance, opening an account, hooray....I am Julia. Who? Oh, me....yeah. I forgot.

So. Yesterday I sold some eyeglass chains to a local gift store. The owner kindly made the check out to Julia Ann's Jewelry, which was the card I had given to one of his associates when she had first looked at my product and ordered 12 of them made. Okay. To the bank I go. Surely they will just accept
"for deposit only" and my name into my personal account.

Nope. Not gonna do it. It was made out to a business and I had no matching business account by that name. Forget the LLC I had gotten from the state which also said JuliaAnn's Jewelry was under that LLC (which was all gotten under the direction of the assistant manager at the bank almost a year ago). Well. ARgued with the bank this morning for a couple of hours. Could go to the county courthouse and get a business license under the name JuliaAnns Jewelry, then come back to bank and open account in that name and they would cash the check. I hated to go back to the business owner (trying to make a good first impression, doncha know?) and ask for a rewrite of the check. So maybe I would go get the license. Called to find out how they took their funds and how much.....$191.oo!!!! SNIT! Hey, people. I'm currently, suddenly unemployed! Don't have that much lying around! GEEZ. Ok. Talked to the bank again, told them what the license would cost, asked if I could get one from our newly formed city instead, and the answer was yes, but if I could just get the owner to make the check out to JuliaAnnThompson Kendrick Jewelry, then I would be okay and not have to have a license. Well, okay. I'll go ask for a new check. Hang my head, apologize and say what the bank told me to say.

Embarrassing. But did it.

Back to the bank. The other assistant helped me this time (she didn't have to call the help desk to find out what to do), and happened to notice that my existing accounts were all in the name of Ann T. KEndrick... which wasn't correct! YIKES. Here we go again.

ALL my accounts had to be changed. Business, personal checking and savings! To Julia Ann Thompson Kendrick. What a hoot! So. Without having a city business license, or a county one, If someone wants to buy jewelry made by me, and I want to deposit a check they write.......it must be made out to:

Julia Ann Thompson Kendrick Jewelry.

Oh, government, how good art thou! How dare someone try to do an identity theft of that big mouth full!!

So. All of you who possibly face a renewal of your Georgia Driver's license soon, please make sure your name matches on your social security cards and license, or I'm telling ya, you're in for it, all the way round!

What a day! I am pooped!

Tassel on.....but not on the way to the bank!