Thanks! So far it has been normal seeming to me.
I have not yet made a good effort to fix iMessage and strangely it worked for a few hours after making this update (I can always receive them, but cannot send them...) All of the sudden I noticed the names were no longer red and it was working like normal. Today it is broken as it was before.
I'm trying to determine if it was coincidental that iMessage worked momentarily or if the update had something to do with it, and if so, what exactly may have happened.
If I get any more info I'll tell you guys (I'm reading through the iMessage guide to see if I accidentally addressed any of those while updating.)