Changing addresses is a PITA!

[MineralMan]

Truly, it is the worst thing about moving.

I finally got my new driver's license with my new address, and thought that would be the last thing on my list. The state of Minnesota does not make it easy to change your DL address, either. You have to fill out a form online, then make an appointment to show your face to someone at a driver's license office. It all seems a bit much.

[Note: Political and government tie-in below, to keep the post alive.]

On the other hand, my voter registration was changed to my new address automatically, somehow. A couple of weeks after we moved, we got voter registration postcards at our new address. I thought that it would surely take us at least filling out a form or something. I was so curious that I called the MN Secretary of State's number and asked how that happened. Surprisingly, the person I talked to said, "Just a moment." Then she said, "Oh, I see that you filed a homestead claim for your new home. That triggered an automatic voter registration address change." Thanks!

All done with address changes? Not so fast. This morning, as I was taking one of my old man pills, I noticed that my supply was getting short. I'm on auto refill at my old pharmacy near my previous home, but I didn't really want to drive back there to the old supermarket pharmacy. So, I took my three old man pill bottles up to the pharmacy at my new supermarket, which is part of the same chain.

I told the person behind the counter what I wanted to do. He looked me up on the system's computer and said, "I see that the other pharmacy just refilled your prescription today. I'll call them and have them put the meds away and we'll refill them here and make this pharmacy your pharmacy. No problem. We'll text you when it's ready."

Now I must be done with all of the address changing, right? Doubtful. A year from now, I'm sure I'll still be changing addresses with some forgotten business or organization. It may never end, I fear...

[Wounded Bear]

1. You'd think people would be more reluctant to move, wouldn't you?

[MineralMan]

4. Hmm...you have something there.

However, it's always tempting to make a new start in a new place. Tempting enough to help you ignore the hassle of it all.

Our previous home has been on the market now for a couple of weeks. I expected it to sell almost instantly, but no such luck.

Apparently, my troublesome next door neighbor has not mown her lawn so, it's badly overgrown. She also has an old couch leaning up against her garage. It's bad enough that there is a shared driveway between the two houses. It's plenty wide, but when you add the messy yard and unsightly furniture on display, it seems to be putting off some of the potential buyers. Now, she might be doing those things out of some misplaced spite, but she was never a tidy nor thoughtful neighbor.

My realtor got the cold shoulder from her when she suggested that those issues be corrected. Oh well...We dropped the asking price a bit. Someone will buy it soon enough, I suppose. I will be glad.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. It's nothing

compared to changing your NAME, which is why I haven't. I am still running around with my late ex's name years after the divorce because it's such a PITA to change it. I would love to have my birth name back, or really a modification of it that includes my mother's name, but OMG, what a PITA!!!!

[MineralMan]

8. I have been married twice. Both times, my wives have simply not changed

their surnames. I have to say that I encouraged that, knowing what a pain a name change can be. It's a lot easier to just tell people, "Oh, she never changed her surname." Nothing I know of says that you have to.

[Jilly_in_VA]

12. I wish I hadn't

but I married the late ex a LONG time ago and things were different then. I actually knew someone back then who didn't and everyone was aghast. I didn't want to go through that. But you know what they say about hindsight.

[MineralMan]

13. My late mother never got it, somehow.

She always introduced both wives by adding my family name to her name. I suppose she disapproved of keeping one's birth name, but she never said anything about it. She just ignored it and went on as if they had changed their names. Fortunately, both wives thought that was hilarious and never minded.

I never thought it made any sense to change one's last name when you got married. Somehow, it always smacked of a patriarchal society to me. Marriage is a partnership, not an ownership relationship, I think. I know that keeping one's birthname is frowned upon by some, but who cares, really?

I never could see how it mattered.

[csziggy]

23. I am so glad I didn't change my name when I married, but it was still a PITA in 1977

First off, the accountant we used the first year took exception to me putting myself as head of household (I had the main income) so he switched our names - but didn't switch our social security numbers. Apparently on the form that he sent in to correct this, he put our names down as Husbandfirst Husbandlast, csziggyFirst csziggyLast HusbandLast.

That got the Social Security guys involved and they wrote wanting to know why I had not informed them of my name change. That took a year to resolve.

The IRS must hold grudges because they then audited us for four years, even though none of the audits showed any appreciable changes in our tax amount. In fact once or twice it turned out that we'd paid more than we owed!

That mess left such a bad taste that even now, over forty years later, I give anyone who assumes that I am Mrs. HusbandLast a really, really hard time.

Of course now for the Real ID stuff not changing my name made things so much easier. I don't have to take in a marriage license since my name never changed. Now, I just wish I could get people to spell my name correctly. It's only four letters long, it's not that fricking hard!

[bluewater]

3. Moving is #3 on the Top 5 stressors in life

Everyone experiences stress, but many don’t know how to manage it. When major life stressors come up, it’s important to handle them properly to avoid getting hurt. The top five most stressful life events include:



Death of a loved one
Divorce
Moving
Major illness or injury
Job loss

Best wishes on your move.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, the move came not long after the death of both of my parents.

However, I seem to have rolled with the punches pretty well. I'm not sure why that is, but I've never been overly troubled with stressful situations. I have a very strong "shrug it off and move on" reflex, I guess.

Both my parents' deaths and the move increased the complexity of my life, for sure, but I tend to just deal with one thing at a time and can prioritize which things to deal with fairly easily. I was kept so busy with acting as the executor of my parents' estate and as trustee of the family trust they set up many years ago that I didn't really have a lot of time to do anything else. Staying busy helps keep your mind off things, it seems. Since my parents were 96 years old, I had been preparing for their loss for a long time.

[bluewater]

10. Losing a parent is always hard

It's always an existential moment. Losing both close together must be even more difficult.

Take care of yourself and best wishes to you and your family.

[MineralMan]

14. Thank you. Both things are in the past at this point.

Time just keeps on moving and so must we. Grief comes to us all, as does trouble. Can't be helped.

[Rorey]

5. If you think that's bad, try changing your name

I had my name changed when I got a divorce, and it was truly a royal pita to get it changed everywhere. The worst was with Social Security.

Now, two years later, I still find that I missed somewhere. I ordered something on the Target app the other day, and when I went to pick the items up, the target rep asked for my ID. Of course she couldn't find the order. Then I remembered that I ordered it on the app, and she scanned that code. There it was, under my yucky former last name.

[BuddhaGirl]

6. I concur with other posters

Changing your name is way harder than changing addresses. I kept my ex's last name for longer than I wanted because of the hoops I would have to jump through.

I changed addresses many times and never had much trouble.

[jpak]

9. My bad, but i thought this was about middle eastern flat bread

Now I'm hungry

[Sogo]

11. It's not?

[MineralMan]

15. When you are handed a PITA, just add some lamb and beef with some tzatziki sauce and

enjoy your gyro. That's my philosophy.

[jpak]

19. Yay !

Hope for the best

[marie999]

21. Now you have me missing Ankara, walking down the street

and getting a sandwich from a vendor wrapped in an old newspaper. The sandwich, not the vendor, is wrapped in an old newspaper.

[ironflange]

16. I feel your pain, MMan

We've just gone through a move, and boxes are still everywhere. We sold in May to take advantage of the hot market but our new place kept being delayed so we spent four months in a crappy AirBNB. We're in the (beautiful) new townhouse now and love it, but boy, you're right, we're plenty stressed. BTW, the new stove still hasn't been delivered and there's no old one, but I have a bbq, microwave, and hot plate to cook on. Better no stove than no fridge, I guess.

[MineralMan]

17. Things should start settling down now for you.

Enjoy your new digs!

[ironflange]

18. Thanks

We love it here, but there's plenty left to go through.

[Xoan]

20. OMG ...

why do you get up in the morning?

[Treefrog]

22. Ive moved a lot in my life.

Ive really never had a problem with it.

NC lets you change your addy online.

That sounds like a real pain to have to go through all that.