Regarding the proof-of-residency requirement for Real ID, if you rent a room in a house/apt and don't have utilities in your name, be sure you have a lease or create one. If your home is in a trust, you might need notarized trust documents as a beneficiary or a will. All this takes time to organize.

Another issue for women is residency proof required. In many households, utilities/rental/, or mortgage payments are in the husband's name, so the woman has no proof of residency. And, with autopay, you don't receive paper bills. Some will not accept an online printed copy--applies to men, too.

That's an issue for many married or formerly married women as well. My utilities bills are on autopay; I'll change a utility to paper billing for a while.

If required for voting, many women will be disenfranchised. I hope you have a passport to use for travel in the meantime.

This new Real ID is difficult for women--costly and time-consuming. Had I known how much trouble it would be, I would not have changed my birth name and simply used my husband's name socially. I'm three years into the process and still working on it. I fly on a passport.

If you've changed your name, applying for a Real ID can take months, as you'll need to order official certificates with a seal for birth, marriage, divorce, or name change, and each one costs money. Passports may be denied if the photo page is wavy, bent, or creased, as can happen while traveling.

FYI, if you've ever changed your name through marriage or divorce, you must provide official documents with a seal back to & including your birth certificate for a Real ID. Example: birth certificate, marriage #1, divorce/name reversion, marriage #2, etc. Or travel on a passport.

I love grazing on my patio 😊

My first one took years because I had no deadline until I sold it. The second one took the next longest. After that, writing took less and less time, although it’s easy to get bogged down in research.

Hi Anders! I always wake up to people who say they just missed my sale, so I always extend it for a day after for everyone who was busy traveling or cooking for their family 😊 Hope you’ve had a great summer!

Or, Wedding ring, barely worn.

I’m a novelist, and when I include fairly recent historical treatment of women and laws regarding credit, workplace, divorce, etc, in books, many readers (20-40) ask if that was really true. They all need a women’s history class now.

My mother wept when she was granted her first credit card—10 years after my father died. And she was working.

Why I married so young.