Let us begin our adventure

There's a lot to tell so perhaps it's best to just take it day by day.

Wednesday, November 16

Of course it's silly to think that I would be beginning this day fresh off a good night's sleep. First, I was throwing shit into boxes until about midnight - things that had to go with the movers - and I didn't sleep well anyway.

The movers arrived at 7:45 am and these guys didn't waste a bit of time. They started in on bringing boxes down to the truck and I left for a few minutes to walk to the private garage where we keep our car to get it out and drive it around to the front of the apartment building as I had our new telephone table in the car and I wanted the movers to put it on the truck. In the fifteen minutes it took me to do this, virtually all the cartons and all the sacks of clothing were on the truck.

In the meantime the guy we shall now forever refer to as the Kitchen Guy started in with dismantling the kitchen. I could hardly look at the guy tearing down my beautiful kitchen. It was like watching an autopsy.

After all the boxes were in the truck the rest of the guys started in with taking apart the three giant wall cabinets I have.

It felt a little weird to just sit by and let others work like crazy but that's what I did until the movers were finished putting everything in the truck. At that point the movers went upstairs to my MIL's apartment while she fed them an early lunch and during that time I was to get B dressed so he could get in his wheelchair. The plan was for him and my MIL to take the streetcar to the new place, I would take the car and meet the movers to let them in. Everything was running so smoothly.

And so you know that means a screwup is just around the bend.

B's in his wheelchair, I'm gathering up some things I wanted to take with me in the car and one of the moving guys came to the door to say the elevator wasn't working.

Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit.

I went off to see if I could see if it was stuck on a particular floor and I ran into my MIL on her cell phone telling the elevator company "You gotta get over here now. My son is moving today, he's in a wheelchair and his apartment is empty. You can see the problem, can't you?". Meantime the moving truck is departing and I have to leave as well to let the movers in the new place. No time to do anything but kiss B goodbye, wish him luck and pray that the Otis Elevator Company was taking some pity on us.

I arrived at the new place, let the movers in and they set up a lift to bring things up through my bedroom window.

Oh. Did I fail to mention that it was raining?

I stopped and called my MIL on her cell and found that not only did the elevator people arrive quickly but they fixed the problem in about five minutes. I would venture to guess someone had jammed something in the door track to keep it from closing - it's happened many times before. Anyway B and my MIL were just about to get on the streetcar and the movers had brought in his bed and had assembled it and that's when I realized that when they were grabbing boxes and bags while I was fetching the car from the garage they grabbed the trashbag that I'd put aside that held the clean linen for B's bed - and the old linen was left at the old apartment for my MIL to wash. The boxes and sacks of clothing were packed first so they were going to be the last things out of the truck after the kitchen and the furniture were removed. Poor B - freezing and rained on - had to sit and wait while my MIL went to the department store to get him new linens.

Finally we have the linens on the bed and B transferred to it and things are starting to get hectic soon to turn to chaotic. First the phone guy arrives - phone service turned on. Cable guy arrives to install the cable modem (the cable TV was supposedly turned on in the basement on the 7th) and he's suspicious that things aren't right. The cable socket doesn't look right but he puts on another piece for the modem and he suggests we check the TV. No TV. The cable socket is the old one from the previous cable company. Cable guy calls another cable guy who pokes around and finds that there is no hot cable line in our apartment. At some point when this apartment was completely renovated inside the cable was cut - and this guy doesn't know where.

Good news. He's willing to look for it. Bad news. If he can't find it and a new one has to be run in from the basement we could potentially be without TV and internet for four to six weeks.

Dude. Find that cable. I might could live a month without the internet but dammit, I ain't missing all the Christmas movies on TV!

Let me now set a scene for you. I have in my livingroom one guy assembling my new coffee table. I have two guys putting together my kitchen. I have two guys searching for and finding the cable for the TV and then drilling into the walls to make a new cable socket. I have two guys in one room assembling one wall cabinet, two more guys doing another cabinet, my MIL and another guy putting in my washer and an under sink cabinet in the bathroom and B's aunt running around taking coffee orders. Me? I'm contemplating flinging myself off the balcony in an effort to find five seconds of peace and quiet. No chance for that though because I was getting lots of "Frau G, could you come look at this? Do you want me to put this counter like this? How about if I put these cabinets in this arrangement? Do you want the bed on this wall or this wall?".

Proof that I am not a perfectionist: After a while the answer to those questions was either "Yeah, okay." or "Whatever you think is best!".

We'd lived in the new apartment for approximately two hours and I'm sure the neighbors were hating us. I had the cable guy drilling in the walls (did I fail to mention our walls are concrete slabs?), saws and drills going to put together the kitchen, electric screwdrivers everywhere and lots of loud men talking and laughing. I wanted to go to each of the neighbors and say "Don't judge us by this day! We're really very quiet people!".

By 6:30pm it was all over. The movers were gone and in a weird way I was sorry to see them go.

How did the day end? Wall cabinets and bed assembled and in place. Cable for TV and internet found, Christmas movies saved. Kitchen half finished - what floor cabinets that fit plus the appliances are in. The hanging cabinets will be installed on December 14 - the new corner cabinet that will be delivered on the 13th has to be hung first. Three of the floor cabinets that didn't fit are in my bedroom at the foot of my bed and you know it doesn't look as weird as it sounds. Only one floor kitchen cabinet was lost and it's now in my basement storage area and I'll use it there. And the cartons were finally brought in and made into a sort of Great Wall of China in my spare sitting room.

From the bottom of my heart I have to thank the moving crew - they were fabulous. Always laughing and happy and they made everything go as smoothly as they could. My MIL has requested that the same crew be used to move her in two weeks. I have to thank the cable guys for taking pity on us and not giving up until they got us working TV. And I really have to thank my wonderful MIL for all the back breaking help she's given us to get us moved.

We were finally left alone and I realized that we had one little problem. It was suppertime, I had no real food and even if I did I couldn't possibly find the plates and silverware. So being as I now live in the heart of downtown I put on my shoes and jacket and walked down the street to the Chinese carry-out.

Thank God for plastic forks.