The Big Move!!!

This is the big moving day. Friends Jes, Dallas, Jen, Doug, Rupert, Robert and Tamar joined me at my place at 10am. We headed out around 10:30 and drove in two cars to the Uhaul place that I was picking up my 20 foot truck. When I got to the place they had all of two Uhauls. The older lady came out and explained to me that they are new at renting Uhauls and that I might have better luck if I went to the larger facility down the street. But this was the only place who had a 20 foot truck so I told her I would like to rent it from her. This was her first time and she was extremely nervous. The trailer I went into to fill out the paperwork smelt like urine. And I noticed several cats climbing the furniture and one that looked as though it was going to claw my face off. There was also a little dog who's hair was half fallen out and looked extremely sickly trying to rub itself against my leg. After a half hour to forty five minutes and with some help on the phone she managed to get me checked out. Her daughter showed up and she and I did the visual inspection of the truck and I was on my way.

We got to the storage unit and started removing all the toy bins from storage #1. There were way more then I had expected and I miss judged how much stuff I still had so this 20 footer truck wasn't going to be big enough and we would have to come back and pick up the few remaining things. I was extremely disappointed in myself and very frustrated. I snapped at a few people and felt horrible afterwards. Every one was volunteering their time on a Sunday to help me and I had no right getting bitchy over things.

So we loaded up what we could and headed back to my apartment. Luckily there is a large red curb just next to my apartment so I parked the truck there and we started to unload boxes, but the first thing we needed to get in was the refrigerator as we knew boxes and furniture would take up the pathway I had made to the kitchen. I knew it was going to be tough to get it up all the flights of stairs but I had no idea how tough it would really be. We did the first set fairly easy. One step at a time and we twisted at the top and managed to get it into the front door of the complex. I knew it wasn't going up the front set of stairs as it's way to narrow so we headed to the back of the complex where there is a set of two flights of stairs but it's more of an open hallway. After three hours of scratching the fridge, the railing, the walls and taking the doors off we made it half way up the stairway and were stuck. There was no way we would be able to make the turn and head up the next set of stairs.

I was tired and frustrated but I had to make the call that we were not going to get this fridge up in my apartment. Dallas, Tamar and Robert had to leave for a D&D meeting and were already late so we had to now try and get it back down off the stairs without doing any more damage to anything.. we were unsuccessful. We did manage to get it back down to the truck but now we were 3 guys short and very few things were taken up during the three hours of us trying to get the fridge in.

Things just kind of went from bad to worse. We had not eaten all day because when I tried to order pizza when we first got to my place I couldn't find any place to deliver.

Again I miss calculated where everything was going to go in my apartment and my guest room was filled with only a third of the boxes that I thought would fit all of them. We were lining up the hallway outside my apartment with bins and boxes.

Will joined in on the moving but had a bad back so he couldn't really help with the big stuff.. also the two remaining guys Doug and Rupert also had various health issues so Jes, Jen and I did the majority of bringing things up to my apartment.

I had planned to drop off the uhaul by 5pm today but it was 4:30pm now, and since I couldn't get my fridge up into my apartment it had to be taken back to storage. I initially was going to do the second trip at a later date.. maybe a week or so but since I had to take the fridge back I figured we might as well pick up the last of the stuff so I didn't have to rent a uhaul again at a later date. During this time Doug had gone out and picked up some wings and pizza (Thanks Doug).. so we ate and just kind of sat around on my floor and relaxed for a half hour.

After dinner Jes, Jen and I drove the uhaul back to storage, dropped off the fridge and loaded up the remaining stuff into the truck... that's it.. this storage unit is empty!!! We got out of the storage unit facility just in time as they close and lock the gate at 7pm.

Once back at my apartment the boys returned and the few things we had we just took them into the garage area and placed them in my second parking spot as there was no way this stuff was going up into my now packed apartment.

Afterwards Robert, Will & Rupert took off and Jes, Jen, Dallas, Tamar and Doug went over to Jen's for a drink. I was joining them but first I had to find some street parking for this huge uhaul truck. Luckily it didn't take me long to find a spot. I went to make sure the back was locked when I realized that I left the "rented" dolly attached to the fridge which is now up in Santa Clarita..and I can't return the uhaul without the dolly...  this was the perfect way to end one of the worse moves I have ever had.

While I walked back to Jen's place I called my buddy Erik as I needed to hear a friendly voice and that did the job. When I got to Jen's she made me a rum and coke and we all sat around and chatted with each other... It was a great way to decompress. I also got a belated Christmas present from my buddy Will... it's an R2D2 knitted beanie cap.. I LOVE IT!!! That defiantly lifted my spirits. I left around 11pm and I headed back home to crash for the night.

I want to thank Dallas, Robert, Tamar, Will, Rupert and Doug for helping me today. But I especially want to thank Jen and Jes who rocked it the entire day.. you guys were amazing. I'm sorry this move was such a hot mess but thanks for sticking it out and thanks for putting up with a cranky Kenny.