For those of you who aren't familiar with Manhattan we basically moved from the blue section near the "H" to the brown section at the very top, just above the "WH"
I know it has been a while since I have left any updates here on our blog. There are many reasons for this, the main reason being that we just moved into our FABULOUS new place and we couldn't get Time Warner Cable to come until today. I am no longer alone on the island of no internet... I am finally reconnected with others of my own species!
Where to begin? Let's start with the move. For those of you that remember the alarm and couch fiasco of our first move, I will preface this summary by explaining that this move tops our first. Where to begin...
It all seemed to be going well. The boxes were packed on time, the kitchen was already painted. I woke up on moving day, last Saturday, thinking that this was going to be a smooth move.
That was my first mistake.
We got all of the boxes and everything loaded into the truck with minimal problems. Just as we loaded the last of the items in the truck, Kevin inadvertently locked the keys in the cab of the Uhaul. Whoops! Andrea and I were so concerned that we took a cab with Emma to the new apartment so that we could ensure that we would not get in the way as the guys remedied the situation. :o)
The locksmith wanted 120 dollars so Kevin, being the fiscally brillant husband of mine that he is (which I love because I am the bargain shopper of the century- which is just a nice way of saying I am cheap), declined and decided to search out another option. On the way back he saw a garage and asked the guys working there if they could open up a locked door. It took two very Scarface looking guys with Italian accents almost 45 minutes to open the door. $30 later we were on our way. It was only once we arrived at our new apartment that Kevin and I realized that we both thought the other person was going to grab Emma's litterbox and turn in the keys on our way out. Neither of us did either of those things, so we decided we would go back after we unloaded the truck at our new apartment.
When we got to our new place, we opened the door to the truck, all of the boxes had fallen over. It was a bit of a mess. The boxes I had gotten from work were meant to hold styrofoam lunch trays so it wasn't the best idea that I had packed books and heavy items in them. Due to this poor packing, the boxes basically smashed when other boxes were placed on top of them. This led to a leaning tower effect and many boxes falling over in the truck. To our surprise, nothing broke! I had packed all of the fragile things in our fancy U-Haul boxes and they are much sturdier.
The unloading of the truck began and it seemed never-ending. We took the boxes from the truck and put them in the basement so we could get the truck unloaded as fast as possible and back to the rental place on time. Although there was always someone outside with the truck, a very sneaky traffic cop managed to hide in a position where he could not be detected by our searching eyes and we got a $115 ticket for being parked in a bike lane. I would like to know how anyone is expected to move in this city without getting a ticket.
We eventually got the boxes unloaded and proceeded to attempt to calm ourselves down from our anger over the ticket. Paul and Andrea were super-sweet and ordered pizza for sustanence during this heavy work. Kevin was able to grab a slice before heading off to turn in our keys at the old place, pick up the litter box, and then return the truck.
While Kevin was gone the rest of us began moving the boxes from the basement, into the elevator, and up to our fifth floor apartment. Some wonderful helpers began to show up and the process became quite fast. About halfway through this leg of the move I decided to call Kevin and ask how things were going. When he answered he said, "Things just went from bad to worse. I just hit someone!" Click. There is not enough space on this blog to capture all of the things that went through my head and that moment. I tried calling back with no answer. We all tried to continue the move without worrying but there was definitely a cloud over our heads wondering what had happened and how bad it was. Fortunately I was mildly distracted by a beautiful baby named Julia whose dad was helping us move. There was no better person to lighten the mood than that very happy baby.
Finally Paul got a hold of Kevin and learned what had happened. Here it is in a nutshell.
Kevin pulled into the cul-de-sac at our old apartment and stopped in front of the building. When he got out of the truck to talk to our doorman he saw a very angry mob of black men running toward him and surrounding him. He was extremely confused until he looked over and saw the bumper of a brand new Nissan truck lying on the street. Apparently Kevin didn't turn wide enough with the truck and the side of it caught the bumper of the Nissan and ripped it off. The man who owned the truck and his friends were pretty peeved and the man demanded Kevin get into his car to get the damage paid for. So, there Kevin was, in a random man's car, who he had hit, being yelled at all the way to the South Bronx where he paid $500 to replace the bumper. Needless to say, Kevin did not take the man's offer for a ride back to Harlem. He opted to walk back instead.
So Kevin got back to Harlem, turned in the keys, got the truck and returned it. At the U-haul rental he learned that all of this was for a 10 mile move. That's New York for you!
To top it off Kevin spent the next hour with a smelly cat litter box in the subway station waiting for a train up to our new place. In the end, I am just glad my husband wasn't killed by an angry mob in Harlem.
After all of that, we love our new place and feel much more at home in our new neighborhood.
Our old apartment on moving day
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