Thursday, September 6, 2007

Victory!


Apologies for the lengthy hiatus, but the movers finally arrived and I have not had much free time ever since.

Of course the move in did not occur without major drama. The truckers finally phoned us to say that they were in Houston and would arrive the following morning. The next day (while Joe was at work, even though we had planned to move in to occur when he still had three weeks left of vacation) The driver called me to say he was downstairs and that his 18-wheeler would not be able to get into the apartment complex. He asked me to come downstairs.

I strapped Harlan onto my hip because otherwise he runs in the opposite direction of wherever we are going. We descended into the heat and humidity and walked all over the parking area while the driver pointed out problems with bringing his truck in. Either he would not be able to turn the truck around to go back out the entrance, or else the truck would hit electrical wires that covered the exit. Keep in mind that the driver had me walking all over the property to show me these pitfalls while Harlan and all 4500 pounds of him squirmed and squealed on my hip because he wanted to get down and run. OK, I said. No 18 wheeler. What next?

The driver told me he would have to go rent a U-haul and "find some guys" to help him move everything from the 18 wheeler on to the U-haul, and then up the steps into my apartment. I quickly called a friend of mine to find out where the local day laborers hang out. I told the driver and he thanked me because You can get those guys without paying them much.

I got in my car with Harlan and drove to the ATM to get money and then to the supermarket to get sandwiches, fruit salad, cokes and waters to give to the guys. There was no way I was going to contribute to exploiting some poor immigrants who were about to move all my crap twice in the heat.

Never mind that Moishe's guaranteed that our stuff would be delivered a month before it actually arrived and still expected me to pay for it. They had also promised me that their long distance truckers were theirs (they were not. They were contractors, which explains why their truck was not replaced when it broke down) and that the movers on the other end were also theirs (they were not. They were day laborers that I had to find for the truckers and had to pay so that they were not exploited by the truckers). Keep in mind that Moishe's is supposedly the moving company with the best reputation nationwide. Moishes's moving company. I threw that sentence in for google searchers to find this story. Long distance movers. There's another one for googlers.

So, the stuff is here, some is broken but most is not. Our queen sized mattress for some reason looks like a giant ass sat on it. We can not figure out what happened, but each side of the mattress is majorly indented and there is a thick, high, mound running vertically down the center of the thing. It's a bit unsettling.

Now for the fun part- unpacking all the goodies and decorating a whole new place. Little did I realize how much I disliked so many aspects of my last place. I must admit it's good to be home.


P.S. These photos are all of Harlan at his favorite new place on earth- the new Town Lake Park which has a giant area with a spiral in the center that shoots water and cool steam at various heights and intervals, and is surrounded by tiny pools for the toddlers to get down and splash around in. It's my new Ft. Greene Park. We go every afternoon after Harlan's nap and meet up with all the other neighborhood moms and their toddlers. I must admit, we ended up in a pretty awesome spot.


Tune in next time to hear about the $175 speeding ticket I got for going 29 in a school zone and to see the latest crafty decorating as well as my new Decole goodies and great places to get some of your own.

6 comments:

Angelina said...

I love the pictures of Harlan.

What an awful moving saga you've had to go through. Thank goodness it's finally over and you can actually start the business of settling in.

I wish we had that park right here, it sounds great!

I can't wait to see decorating photos.

{kimmymade} said...

Wow. Talk about paying it forward, huh? I was telling David that you must have some really fabulous Karma headed your way, like a winning lottery ticket or something. As for Moishe's, well, they're gonna run themselves out of business pretty fast if they keep that up. We certainly won't be hiring them now.

Wish Miss Hayden could be running through those awesome sprinklers with Harlan right now. He looks like he's having the time of his life!

I can not WAIT to see you load up your Etsy shop with lots of crafty goodness! I love your work :-)

Hugs + kisses to y'all.

Violette Crumble said...

I'm so glad the move is over for sure, and from here on out I'll be always moving myself by myself :)

The sprinkler park is pretty awesome, Hayden will enjoy it when you come visit. I don't know if I'll be doing much Etsy selling as I'm going to be stocking up mostly to sell at the Stitch Bazaar in November and then probably selling the rest retail. Etsy prices are just too low for me. Etsy sellers are willing to sell things that clearly took a couple of hours for ten bucks or less. No thanks!

Daryl said...

Having a way to keep up with you and Harlan is so cool .. Love the pix and cant wait to see your crafty decor .. photos of the new digs please!

You can call me Betty, or Bethany, or Beth ...Just don't call me late for dinner. said...

Harlan looks thrilled with your new locale. I hate movers. Hate them. Hate them. Yours sound like the WORST sort.
I love that you are so happy with your new place. That is such good news.

(Oh and the giant ass on the mattress? Very funny. I am trying to laugh sympathetically... because your description is pretty priceless.)

Anonymous said...

yikes, what a saga. i can't believe you're actually going to pay those crappy movers every penny you owe them. but then again, you're probably happy to just get your stuff and move on - to fun new parks and (hopefully) fun new moms. good luck with all the unpacking!