Chapter Three - Moving Day (May 30)

The movers were supposed to arrive between 9 and 9:30 - pretty early. Dr. B was supposed to arrive at 9 to help me in packing some fragile things in the rental car, and she was going to be in charge of the plants. The movers would need about three hours to move me, which would give Dr. B plenty of time to go home and rest before she had to be on call in the morning. In fact, she planned on hanging out a little. The phone was going to be connected by 9 am in my name and all was set for three days of unpacking and more cleaning.

Naturally, nothing went as planned.

For starters, I found myself awake at 4 am. This means that I had about four hours of sleep, which meant for a bumpy afternoon. But again, I didn't really care. I'd be alone. I jumped out of bed and quickly dismantled it. This was pretty easy considering that my bed is a futon. Sure, the mattress is 200lbs, but it folds easily and the frame is collapsible. The dust bunnies that greeted me were enough to turn my stomach. They were the size of small elephants! I swept and vacuumed that area, and then decided to attack behind the dressers. I'll spare you details of the mess I found there.

Then I got all dressed and called AT&T to find out if my telephone had been connected. They said it had. Then I ran to Duncan Donuts for bagels and coffee for Dr. B and me. I guess I looked frazzled, because they also gave me some free donuts. Even after I protested about how I didn't want them, they thrust a bag with four of them at me. I picked up some things at the cleaners and began packing the rental myself. It took me about 10 trips, but hey, it was worth it to be done before everyone arrived.

As it turned out, this wouldn't be a problem. First the movers called, they would be "a little late". Then Dr. B called, she was not feeling well and would be late herself. 20 minutes after the first call, the movers called again to ask what kind of stuff I had to move - I gave them an accounting of all of my things, and they responded with, "well, we'll be about an hour late then". I didn't get the correlation, but didn't care.

At 10.30 or so, Dr. B and the movers show up - somehow they showed up at the same time. The moving guys inform me that they've had a "rough night" and would appreciate it if I had some cold drinks for them. I had no ice, as I'd already defrosted the freezer, and airhead that I am, I never thought of getting the movers any supplies. Dr. B ran off to get some Gatorade and some more cash for me - instead of the three guys the company's boss had promised me, four had come. I guess they were late because they went to pick up the fourth guy.

As far as I was concerned, as sick as Dr. B was, she wasn't going to help with anything else. I wanted her to go home and rest, but she wouldn't hear of it. She wouldn't let me get her any tea either.

Within 10 minutes, these guys were sweating profusely, and they hadn't even started moving my things yet. They were out at the truck getting it ready and it was 50 degrees outside. This didn't look good. I showed them where all the boxes marked "Fragile" were, and instructed them to be very careful with particular piece of furniture - an antique I'd inherited from my grandmother.

The way the guys went about moving my things made me very nervous, and I found myself reminding them to treat the fragile things gently. Unfortunately, they scratched the sides of all of my wooden furniture with their dolly, scratched the antique up pretty badly and broke one of my tables, and attempted to fix it with masking tape. This is a bonded, licensed company with no comments from the BBB in the past three years. Sure, the guys were quick - they had me moved out and moved in in under three hours. But they whined the whole time about how much stuff I had and how heavy everything was, and how hung over they were. Oh, and one 64 oz Gatorade for each guy wasn't enough, because they were very thirsty and asked for more. I showed them how to work the faucet. Who told them to come to work hung over?

They also didn't follow directions very well when asking me what room certain pieces of furniture went in - but that is probably my fault. I was very dazed and overwhelmed about everything. Ten minutes after they left, Dr. B and I unpacked our cars, and then voila! All that was left for me to do was unpack fifty gazillion boxes. Dr. B went home to rest after being my hero.

I went to phone in my damage report with the moving company when I found that the phone was still connected under the NFO's name and number. I promptly called AT&T and complained, and they promised to have me up and working by the end of the day.