Signed, Sealed, Undelivered

The Spousal Unit finally signed.

She sent me an e-mail 2 days prior to the court mandated date*.  Of course, in that same e-mail was a renewed push for insurance.

Not trusting that she actually signed, given her prior history, I refused to allow myself to get excited by this news.  Rather, I told myself I wanted a paper copy of that decree—signed, certified, and recorded in the county records.

…so I waited…

The court-mandated date passed.  Given time for mail deliveries and administrivia, I did not expect to hear this soon (but was hopeful, nonetheless).

…and I waited…

Not wanting to assist my lawyer in buying her new Porsche, I did not ask her what was going on.  Instead, I looked for other information sources.  And the internet came through for me…

Our county court (and likely just about every one) has a web site of all court actions for public viewing**.  I checked under my name and—yep—there I am.

At first?  No record of the decree being recorded***.

A few days later?  A line had been added!  It said, “FINAL JUDGMENT & DECREE OF DIVORCE FILED AND GRANTED TO BOTH PARTIES”!  But, I still had no paper copy…nor was there a downloadable version on the web site.

Waiting a few days more—finally, a .pdf file.  I downloaded it and printed it immediately.  It had all the signatures (especially the judge’s!) and a stamp on the front saying it was recorded in the county records.

Still, as of today, no “official” mail copy of it…but I’m divorced.

Stuff left to do—asset splitting and selling the house—but…I’m divorced!

…I’m divorced…and out…

Wheeeee!!!!!!

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*Learned of this date while pinging my lawyer for information (at $$ each ping).  This just increased my ire.
**This will be a good source for checking up on future dating opportunities as well—I can track how many restraining orders have been thrown at potential dates.  I can see if they’ve been arraigned for spousal abuse.  I can even see if they’ve been arraigned for sexual perversions—that latter working both ways in that I can find someone with similar…or intriguing…interests… <grin>
***While not finding my decree, I did find an interesting tidbit where both of our lawyers were threatened with Contempt of Court by the judge because of the delays in getting the decree finalized in a timely manner.  <chuckle>

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Inaugural Observations

happy man, happy country (AP Photo)

Barack Obama.

He’s our new President.  Officially official.

The folks in the office took over one of the conference rooms and rigged the TV to play through the projector so that we could watch.  I’m sure there’ll be tons of blog posts about this day, but why should I let that stop me from doing so as well?  Many will reek of commentary and editorial, often leaning far right or far left.  This will be just some observations, with only minor editorial comment.

–  I think President Bush was looking awfully relieved to be giving up the office.

–  All the big guests were introduced by their full names, e.g., George Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton.  So why was President Obama introduced as Barack H. Obama?  His middle name is Hussein… let’s get over it people.

o   Ahhh, but he did take the oath of office using his full name.  Good!

–  The pastor giving the invocation was too damned long winded.

–  Aretha Franklin was introduced to sing a musical number.  I suggested to my office mates…and not to their pleasure… that it would be “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”.

–  She did sing “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee”.  As many famous singers do, she gave it her own twist on phrasing the words around the music.  However, what I heard when she started out?  “My Count…….try ‘tis of thee…”.  A rather unfortunate delay there, Aretha.

–  Loved the musical number with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.  Impressed they could keep the instruments in tune in that frigid cold wind.

–  I liked that President Obama stumbled a bit on the oath of office.  He’s a real person!  He’s human!

–  On the briefing screen through our work cheap-ass projector?  President Obama looks green.  Or maybe he was just a bit woozy from that kick ass throw down kegger party the night before.

–  I am proud that my fellow countrymen…and me… elected this man.  Me!  A lifelong moderate Republican.  And happy that I did vote for him.

–  I heard shades of “New Deal, 21st century version”

–  I’m guessing all my engineer and scientist friends must have been geek-a-rific thrilled that Obama mentioned a refocus on science and technology.  Yeah, it was just a mention.  But in political speeches, that’s all it takes to show an administration’s intent.

–  I especially pray that the plentiful idiots in this country will let this man have a chance to govern.  I’m not just talking about the hate groups who have and will continue to threaten his life.  I’m also talking about the political twits who will want to either block him from doing his job or try to impose their own political will, slowing down the process.  Let. The. Man. Lead.

–  I am very heartened for this country’s future!

And now, President Obama?  Off to work.  You certainly have a shitload of it ahead of you.

Addenda:  …and I just saw the CNN web site where it says that Obama inspires Ashton Kucher and Demi Moore… I couldn’t give less than a rat’s ass about them.  Obama is here to inspire a nation, not the self-indulgent prima dons and donnas who think they speak for the people.  Inspire the people themselves, Obama!  (okay, I guess I did get into a bit of editorializing there… this just pisses me off that overpaid and pretentious actors have such sway on our thinking).

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