or visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mTa1psoAps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mTa1psoAps
After a whirlwind week of finding an amazing location, then negotiating on an incredible place, then signing the lease, (all separate trips), while temporarily living 80 miles away- it was time to move in. We were almost at the deadline of having to have our stuff out by Sept 15th and this was the only weekend we had to move since our request to extend our move through one more weekend had been denied.
Moving day was just another day of waking up at 6am. We packed our suitcase that we had been living out of for two weeks in Freehold New Jersey, packed up Bob, and headed back to Hoboken for what we hoped would be the last time. We dropped off Bob in the backyard, the only thing left standing, and rushed to Jersey City to pick up the U-Haul by 8am. The first crisis of the day was that they were out of 24-foot U-Hauls and only had a 17-footer. I had moved to Manhattan almost four years ago with just four suitcases, so it was appalling in the first place that we absolutely required that 24-foot truck. It was also appalling that the manager didn’t seem to care that what we had specifically reserved was now not available, and seemed content in offering us their crappy $50 off “service guarantee”. I was not happy to advise him that $50 would not cover the movers we had waiting at our apartment, nor the pro-rated rent we were paying to have the apartment available.. TODAY. He wasn’t happy either as he advised me he would no longer be dealing with me and only spoke to Travis. Either way, we were stuck with a 17-foot truck and an apartment full of furniture.
We met three of Trav’s friends that had blindly offered to help us, prior to seeing our apartment full of boxes and furniture. The nightmare began. The couch and most of the other furniture had to be moved out through the front window. The heavy three-piece couch, all seats containing recliners, broke into an additional piece during the last push. Knowing that everything wouldn’t fit in the U-Haul, we decided to place everything outside, on the sidewalk, so we could have a full view of all furniture and meticulously place items one by one into the u-haul.
It was only after everything we owned was on display on the sidewalk when instantaneously the sun disappeared and the rain started to fall. You have to be kidding me! Irene's last laugh? We rushed to cover everything with U-haul blankets as it became a guessing game as we blindly put the puzzle together and placed soggy items into the truck.
It was the weekend of 9/11 and after a valid terrorist threat in the city, everyone was on high alert. We just happened to live across the street from a Jewish Synagogue that was being highly guarded by a short cop with a large attitude. Having sat in his cushy cop car all morning, watching us move, he watched me pull my car up behind the U-haul so I could drop off a 40-lb bag of dog food I had just picked up at a local specialty store before heading out forever. He waited until I had the 40lb bag over my shoulder and was walking to load it into the U-haul to call over his loud speaker, too lazy to even get out, that I wasn’t allowed to park there. Since when?? He had watched me load the car in the same spot all morning! I took my free hand to hold up the number two, signaling that I was only going to be two seconds and he nodded. In the time it took to drop the bag of food and rush back to the car, the little man was writing me a ticket. Gotta love Hoboken's finest. I argued with him that I had been moving all morning and had told him that I would only be parked there for two minutes, to which he had even nodded. Apparently he hadn't met his ticket quota for the day, or was miffed at his less-than high-profile assignment, so he wasn’t budging. I couldn’t believe it. It took everything I had to keep myself in check as I begged him to have a heart. He finally turned on his little shoes and went back to sitting in the air conditioning of his cruiser, without finishing the ticket. I drove my loaded car all the way around the corner to abide by his new rule. I seriously loathed this place. We couldn't leave soon enough.
While I was moving my car, my neighbor had pulled up in front of her apartment with her family. Because Park Avenue is a busy street and the cop was, of course, double-parked (rules don't apply to little men in uniforms) guarding the empty synagogue, and because people in Hoboken are always in a hurry, it only took a minute for some idiot to clip her back bumper in their haste to get around the cop and to their must-be important destination. Now the cop had an accident on his hands. It didn’t take a scientist to point out, which my neighbor didn’t hesitate to do, that the accident was the cop's fault for being in the middle of the road. Redemption at it’s finest. Arguments bursting out on the street at 3pm on a Saturday aren't a foreign sight in Hoboken so we brushed by the arguing parties as we continued to load our truck.
Lucky for us one of our movers just happened to bring his van. As expected with the U-haul packed to the gills, there were still boxes that needed to be packed somewhere. We loaded the van and chose what we were going to leave behind. At this point, we just wanted out of this place and didn’t care about any casualties. We could always buy new furniture.
Only leaving my desk and a few other items as dead soldiers, it was 3pm and we were finally loaded and ready to go. We still had an hour to travel (only 30 miles but over an hour with traffic). My car was full and only had room for me and Bob. Trav drove one of his friends in the U-Haul and Alex took another friend and the van that was also fully loaded.
The cigarette lighter in the U-haul didn’t work and the Tom Tom hadn’t been charged so I was elected to lead the caravan. This was a terrible idea. One thing I had always stuck to while living on this coast was that I refused to drive in Manhattan. It had taken me months to be able to drive in Hoboken. Anyone who chose to drive in the city had a death-by-taxi death wish. There was no way I was going to be responsible for the lives of 5 others, including my dog, and refused to lead the pack, forcing Alex who was driving the van, as if he hadn’t done enough.
As my car started, and the U-haul started, the van didn’t. You’ve got to be kidding me, the battery was dead. I pulled as close as I could without suffering the same fate as my neighbor on the busy street and with borrowed jumper cables tried to jump his van. It wasn’t working. We started to panic that maybe it was the starter or something more tragic. We couldn’t believe this was happening. One more minute in this place and I was surely going to die.
Just then, the cop was moving his car to close down Park Avenue. It had apparently become too much with cars double parked trying to jump a dead battery and an accident that he was still filing the report for. This gave us the perfect opportunity to pull the U-haul up and jump the van. My prayers were answered as the van’s engine finally came to life. By 4pm, we were on our way to Long Beach. Still, not without incident.
Alex was leading the crew, which we found later was a bad idea and I took back over as the leader. I was freaking out as the GPS led us straight to China Town. Again, it was 9/11 weekend so the truck was stopped and searched the second we arrived through the tunnel. When Travi opened the truck door, I was afraid everything would come tumbling out. This led us to lose Alex immediately as he was forced to keep going, without any GPS. I refused to lead so had Travis driving the large u-haul as he listened to me over his cell phone, scared to death, and screaming directions. We were searched twice more before reaching the Williamsburg bridge. What a nightmare. At this point Alex was nowhere to be seen and he wasn’t answering anyone’s calls. I can’t imagine how mad he was at what we had gotten him into. I thought for sure he had turned the van around and headed home to Queens.
We fought traffic for another hour only to arrive at our apartment in Long Beach. We had neglected to let the guys know we had chosen an apartment that was the second level of a beach house. The only way up to the top was a very narrow stairway- remember that couch? It took four more hours to unload the truck and van.
It was quite simply the worst day of 6 people’s lives. But it was finally over and we now lived in Long Beach. Let the games begin
