Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Curious Incident of the Bear on Moving Day

Tomorrow, I will have a home. No more living out of suitcases and tote bins and commuting back to Jersey every weekend. Tomorrow, I (and all of my stuff) will officially be residing in Cambridge.

But moving sucks, yo. Even under the best of circumstances, it's a hassle and I can't really complain too much. I had a minor freakout with my moving company last Friday when I realized that nobody had called me to confirm if and when they'd be arriving on Monday. The company specifically said they'd call, but then didn't. The guys showed (more on that later), and the company FINALLY returned my panicked call TODAY. Yep, six days later. I called them earlier in the day today to see if I could confirm drop off tomorrow. I could not. I would "just have to wait" until the driver called me sometime in the future. Whatever. When the manager called me later in the day to return my Friday call with a half-hearted apology about "being sick" (apparently only one person in the office is capable of returning calls), I asked her about the drop off confirmation. She then asks me if they could just drop my stuff off tonight because that would be better. Huh? Um, no, I have a lease and I don't have keys yet and also, I don't think the good people in my new digs would appreciate the sound of movers dumping huge pieces of furniture down late at night. And then I got attitude. Ugh. I explained that I needed the stuff dropped on the sixth AS IT STATES IN MY CONTRACT and that it would have to be after 9:30 a.m. because I can't pick up the keys until 9. She told me okay. A few hours later, the driver calls and he wants to drop the stuff off at 8 a.m. because again, that would be better for him. Again, I explain that this doesn't work and get a bit huffy when he asks for a "better explanation" of why he needs to wait until after 9:30. I'm not in the moving business, but I figured "because I won't be there" and "I can't get into the apartment without a key" was a sufficient explanation.

I know I'm probably overreacting, but I'm paying these people a lot of money to move my stuff. I understand they have a lot of shipments, but c'mon.

That said, the two guys who did the pick up were wonderful. They wrapped everything so well, and rechecked all the boxes I had packed myself to make sure they were stable. It took them about 51/2 hours to do all this and they turned down all my offers of water, soda and food. Around hour 6, a policeman came by the house and asked us to go inside. I was supremely irritated and thought it was because of one of the cat-sweatshirt-wearing condo hawks was bitching about the truck being there too long. It was not. There was a bear loose in the neighborhood and police were tracking it. The guys waited inside for a while but decided to chance it, finish loading the truck and leave. I also loaded up my car with the remainder of my things and my tranquilized cats. On my near-final drive down Upper Way, I saw it. The bear. Sitting over by the mailboxes and then ambling down the street to climb a tree. It was a little baby, but still, so weird. Just a bizarre ending to a bizarre couple of weeks.

On other NJ topics, it's not a great week to be from the Garden State. I don't know if this happens in other states, but the whole government shutdown, in my opinion, makes us look like we have no freakin' clue what we're doing. Governor Corzine will supposedly be running an ad campaign that explains why we're shutting down some of the State's biggest money-making ventures to fix a budget crisis. Huh? I'm not good at math and/or budgeting, but I HOPE he explains how this makes sense. Sometimes the Democrats make it *really* hard to be a liberal.

Other news:
  • My job. Talked to a bunch of people and none of us know anything so right now, it's business as usual. I hope to remain employed. I really do. Employment = good. I kinda love one of my new coworkers and hope we get to continue working together.
  • 58 years and 1 day ago, the Bonster was born. Happy birthday, Mommy. This was my first 4th in a long time away from you, and I only wish you could have spent your birthday doing those things you love to do to annoy me: chattering incessantly, peppering us with a lot of "you should"s, describing all your diseases of the week, and reading out loud from the Zagat guide. :-)
  • Even though I was in transit, I did get to see some fireworks last Friday night with YG and the MG. Chicken strips, french fries, ice cream and fireworks -- does it get any better than that? It must be amazing to have kids. As an adult, I sometimes forget how fun the little stuff is and just get bogged down in the minutia and spend too much time wondering if I do enough or if I'm cool or what I look like or if people like me. Most of the time, I pretend I don't give a shit, but more often than I care to admit, I do. So to watch the MG dancing around by herself to the band and rolling around on the blanket, legs sprawled all over the place, caked in ice cream and dirt....it's refreshing. YG's friends and their kids were also there, and it was an overall fun evening.
  • How gross is that? Me waxing poetic about suburban bliss? If I keep it up, I'm a few years away from cat sweatshirts, denim shorts, Indian dreamcatchers in my windows and a house full of Thomas Kincaid, Painter of Light, prints.
  • Yesterday morning, one of my "Internet friends" went into labor. Still waiting anxiously to hear how she's doing/did. She's a lovely person, and I can't wait to hear all about it.
  • I journaled ferociously this weekend about how irritated I am with the Evil Cameltoe, and how I hate how she treats my friend. I know EC has a lot of problems and on good days, I feel very bad for her. On bad days, I just want to throttle her with her gross almost-mullet. I've been talking it out with a few people and have exchanged emails with a few others who have been in similar situations. Venting is good. Venting to the right people? Even better.
  • I want this. And this. Boobies. Heh.

And last but not least, photographic evidence of my new state of residence. This was a JOKE(before my mother has a heart attack). I remain committed to the Yankees and their 2006 craptasticness, and even wore my shirt out to go walking tonight. Upon picking up my Chinese take out, the waiter took one look at it and just simply said "Yankees suck." Sigh. I really live here.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Did you know that man sausage translates into Manwurst in German?

Thank you Babel Fish. That one had me laughing hysterically for about 10 minutes.

Monday, July 03, 2006

The Movers Are Here

My movers are here packing up my stuff. The cats are yelping away because I have them locked in the bathroom. My family is in Long Island, my friends are on vacation, and YG is in Germany for business. A bit lonely but am glad that nobody was around to witness the freaking out this weekend complete with consumption of way too much junk food and tears, but made better by a pedicure and a Yankee win last night.

It's all really happening. Yay!