First Night

Last night was my first night in my new place. I was debating whether to spend the night at the apartment I'm renting or go ahead and crash here. The problem with crashing here was that I had to unpack enough stuff to spend the night. But, I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did. Even though I woke up a number of times during the night, I woke up more refreshed than I have in a while.

To get me through the night, and the following morning, I went to the store and bought the necessary things, like toilet paper, soap, and peanut-butter. I was so overjoyed that they had Peter Pan peanut-butter than I bought three large jars. To some that might sound extreme, but for me, it's par for the course. Of course, when I got back to my place, I realized I would have to find my silverware! It is very tricky making a peanut-butter sandwich without a knife! So I unpacked until I had a glass for my milk, and a knife for the sandwich. I also unpacked my bedding, and did a quick load of laundry, since some of it smelled a bit musty after being in storage and transit.

I think it is going to take me a while to unpack and get rid of all these boxes... Speaking of the boxes!

So yesterday wasn't just the first night in my place, it was also move in day. I got here about 8:45, since the truck was supposed to arrive between 9 and 10. In front of the building they had put up signs warning that there was no parking for the day, between 7am and 5pm. Oops, there were not 1, not 2, but 3 cars in the designated area. So when the truck came, he double parked them in. Then the cops were called. I didn't realize there was so much drama going on until I went back down to see why it was taking so long to get the moving started.

While the cop and the movers were figuring out what to do, the washer/dryer delivery men showed up to install my washer and dryer. When he looked at the closet for the laundry, he asked me if I wanted them side by side or stacked. I said I didn't think they would fit side-by-side, and he said he didn't think they would fit stacked. Uh-oh, I thought. The guy on the phone had said they were 36 inches each, plus 1 inch for the stacking kit. The area for the laundry has a shelf on top for the water heater, but with 74 inches of clearance. So after a couple of measurements to be sure, they finally went ahead and assembled the equipment, and without much further ado, they had my laundry machines installed.

So, in the time it took the appliance delivery men to haul in the washer and dryer, assemble them, install all the hoses and what-not, one might think that the other delivery would be sorted out. I went outside to check on the progress, and there were still two cars (apparently one guy wised up and left) the cop, and the two delivery trucks. After much more waiting, the comedy relief showed up. A guy in a huge black SUV with big chrome rims decided that the nice parking spot in front of the yellow curb and the no parking sign was a good place to park. He got out of his car and the cop flash his lights and flipped his siren on for a beat. He told the guy he was already going to have the other two cars towed. The genius actually kept walking toward the curb, apparently he didn't believe the cop. But he did believe the sign that he'd parked directly in front of. Anyway, eventually a couple of tow trucks came and took the offending cars away.

Don't worry, they weren't my neighbors. Well, the cars weren't registered to anyone in my building. Apparently the cops do check and knock on doors, just in case the signs weren't sufficiently clear.

The unloading thus didn't start until nearly 11am. So I didn't get to work until 2pm. I was going to try to get at least six hours in, but by 6pm the day proved to be too much. Oh, if I fast forwarded through the actual moving in... Well, it's moving things in. A few items were missing (like my dresser which apparently broke apart when it was taken off the truck from California), one of my floor lamps was broken (the staff broke), ironically I opened the box that had the glass bowl (randomly, really) and it was broken as well! And the TV, media center had the top taken off, and the pieces that hold the top to the bottom are missing. So there will be a claim for this moving experience.

Anyway, now it's about time for night 2!

P.S. I am stealing wifi because the DSL won't be ready until next week. And I won't get satellite until next week either (which is just as well since I haven't set the TV up yet).