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VICTORY IS IN SIGHT
So you all saw how my Saturday went. Fortunately, that was followed by Sunday, so at least morale was up going into the work week and the final few days of my tenancy at the old apartment.
Yesterday, I went to work, but I took a half day on account of Comcast's extreme weekend fuckup etc. and came home to wait for the cable guy, who, although I had been assured he was running "extremely on time" and would likely arrive for the 2-5 window in the first half-hour of 2pm, didn't show up until about a quarter to four (and wasn't even the original guy; this one had picked up the appointment from the guy it was originally assigned to). He was here for about two hours, bless him, because of the difficulty of finding the signal box on the outside of the building and then the non-workage of the first DVR box he set up for me and then the failure of anyone back at Comcast to answer the phone even when he called the Sekrit Techie Line they can call. No shit, the poor guy was on hold for fifteen or twenty minutes, and finally I called the Ordinary Customer Line and got a representative in about twenty seconds and said Yeah, I have a tech here who needs to speak to someone about a difficulty he's having with my installation, can I put him on the phone?
Side note: Verizon FiOS cannot get here too soon. The general grooviness of yesterday's tech notwithstanding, MoCo Comcast can bite me, and the instant FiOS is available I will drop them like a bad habit.
Anyway, cable guy left a little before 6pm, and I had to go down to the old place and pack up some Moar Stuff, but heading down through the city in rush hour struck me as the height of stupid, so I chatted with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dsudis (also in the middle of moving -- unite!) for a while and hit the road about 7:30. I brought back two boxes, a lamp, and all three garbage cans, and I could have brought more but I was so tired I didn't want to do Even More Schlepping from the apartment to the car; three trips was enough, yesterday. Got back here around, what, 10pm, and called the afternoon a success.
But here's the thing: there was still so much effing stuff at the old place. I knew on Saturday when we declared the truck Loaded that there was more stuff to be packed and generally readied and moved. But no matter how much stuff I put in the middle of the room, there always seemed to be Even More. The Chinese restaurant my parents always order from (this will make sense in a second, bear with me) packs the fried rice into the carton with some sort of magic compression tool; you can serve four people out of a quart-sized container, close it, eat a whole meal, and open the container again, and it will be full. Our house name for it is Expanding Rice, which in turn is also a shorthand for any physical thing (so, not "chaos", for example) that expands to fill the space available. (This is the sort of thing I should have mentioned inresonant8's family-lingo thread, clearly.) I mention it because it sure the hell seems like my remaining stuff, the detritus of my two years in that apartment, the stuff that wouldn't fit in boxes or didn't seem to need packing earlier, has been expanding like rice down there when I wasn't looking.
But today I think I finally conquered it. I went down straight after work and got there about 6:30. I can now say with confidence that everything I had fastened to the walls is unfastened; the cordless drill is still down there because I'll need to reattach the door-closing spring thing they installed (which I unscrewed one end of on Saturday so the door would stand open) before my last trip through that door. There is still a non-zero amount of stuff there, but most of it is cleaning supplies that I'll need tomorrow. The rest is two boxes I maybe could have brought tonight, but chose not to because see above re: schlepping, and a small handful of things that wouldn't fit in them (so I'll take another empty box back down tomorrow), and my toaster, and the kitchen trash can swing lid, and the cordless drill and related hand tools, and two vases containing bouquets I carried in my friends' weddings, which are always the last things to be transported because they're the most fragile and they normally go in a box (well insulated from the sides and from each other) on the front seat with the seatbelt fastened. You have things you're sentimental about too. Don't judge me.
What I hauled up tonight was: futon, two blankets, two pillows in shams, bathroom shelf thing, two under-sink racks, drying rack and draining board, shoe tray, couple of towels, the last two living room shelves, all the framed wall things bigger than 8x10 (which by virtue of their size didn't fit in boxes), two biggish bags of cassette tapes, the other lamp, a couple of floor mats that are just going to stay with the car I think, a clutch purse, my box fan, my poor knitting bag that had been sitting there lonely all this time, and a box with most of the contents of the refrigerator (remaining: one slice of old pizza and some Coke, which will be thrown away; a small bottle of water and about one glass' worth in the bottom of a bottle of wine, which will be drunk; most of a bottle of seltzer, which I will bring up tomorrow) and all the contents of the freezer.
What I brought up from the car when I got back up here: the box with the groceries. It's still 83 degrees outside, yo. I put that stuff right in the fridge or freezer as appropriate. What I left in the car: everything else. I'll bring it in tomorrow morning before I go down to the old place and prime the walls (stopping en route at the Home Depot to buy primer -- but listen, my latest Clever Plan is only to prime the deep colors, because they're going to paint between tenants anyway, obv., and their paint can handle the pale fawn and butter yellow just fine; I'll prime the grape and mango and blood-red, and call it a day, because despite the impression you might get from the length of this post, I am not crazy).
In short, for the first time since last Friday, I am now confident I will be out of the old apartment with all my possessions in my possession and the place in a state that will not lose me any of my security deposit, and -- except for the impromptu half-day yesterday -- no more time away from work than I'd originally planned.
Then I just have to get the new place looking like someone lives here.
Oh, extra fun bonus: when I got to the old place this evening, there was a letter under the door from the management company, alerting me to the fact that the cost of operating the building continues to rise, so as of September 1 my rent would increase by another 5.8%, the rat bastards, with the new monthly total being ... $8 less than I'm paying at the new place. I grant, as I always do, that the rent at the old place includes utilities and at the new place it does not; but aside from that, I'm going from a 550 sq ft studio to a 750 sq ft 2BR for an increase of less than $10/month + utilities, and am now fully fifteen miles closer to work. On balance, I think I win, kind of a lot.
Yesterday, I went to work, but I took a half day on account of Comcast's extreme weekend fuckup etc. and came home to wait for the cable guy, who, although I had been assured he was running "extremely on time" and would likely arrive for the 2-5 window in the first half-hour of 2pm, didn't show up until about a quarter to four (and wasn't even the original guy; this one had picked up the appointment from the guy it was originally assigned to). He was here for about two hours, bless him, because of the difficulty of finding the signal box on the outside of the building and then the non-workage of the first DVR box he set up for me and then the failure of anyone back at Comcast to answer the phone even when he called the Sekrit Techie Line they can call. No shit, the poor guy was on hold for fifteen or twenty minutes, and finally I called the Ordinary Customer Line and got a representative in about twenty seconds and said Yeah, I have a tech here who needs to speak to someone about a difficulty he's having with my installation, can I put him on the phone?
Side note: Verizon FiOS cannot get here too soon. The general grooviness of yesterday's tech notwithstanding, MoCo Comcast can bite me, and the instant FiOS is available I will drop them like a bad habit.
Anyway, cable guy left a little before 6pm, and I had to go down to the old place and pack up some Moar Stuff, but heading down through the city in rush hour struck me as the height of stupid, so I chatted with
dsudis (also in the middle of moving -- unite!) for a while and hit the road about 7:30. I brought back two boxes, a lamp, and all three garbage cans, and I could have brought more but I was so tired I didn't want to do Even More Schlepping from the apartment to the car; three trips was enough, yesterday. Got back here around, what, 10pm, and called the afternoon a success.But here's the thing: there was still so much effing stuff at the old place. I knew on Saturday when we declared the truck Loaded that there was more stuff to be packed and generally readied and moved. But no matter how much stuff I put in the middle of the room, there always seemed to be Even More. The Chinese restaurant my parents always order from (this will make sense in a second, bear with me) packs the fried rice into the carton with some sort of magic compression tool; you can serve four people out of a quart-sized container, close it, eat a whole meal, and open the container again, and it will be full. Our house name for it is Expanding Rice, which in turn is also a shorthand for any physical thing (so, not "chaos", for example) that expands to fill the space available. (This is the sort of thing I should have mentioned in
resonant8's family-lingo thread, clearly.) I mention it because it sure the hell seems like my remaining stuff, the detritus of my two years in that apartment, the stuff that wouldn't fit in boxes or didn't seem to need packing earlier, has been expanding like rice down there when I wasn't looking.But today I think I finally conquered it. I went down straight after work and got there about 6:30. I can now say with confidence that everything I had fastened to the walls is unfastened; the cordless drill is still down there because I'll need to reattach the door-closing spring thing they installed (which I unscrewed one end of on Saturday so the door would stand open) before my last trip through that door. There is still a non-zero amount of stuff there, but most of it is cleaning supplies that I'll need tomorrow. The rest is two boxes I maybe could have brought tonight, but chose not to because see above re: schlepping, and a small handful of things that wouldn't fit in them (so I'll take another empty box back down tomorrow), and my toaster, and the kitchen trash can swing lid, and the cordless drill and related hand tools, and two vases containing bouquets I carried in my friends' weddings, which are always the last things to be transported because they're the most fragile and they normally go in a box (well insulated from the sides and from each other) on the front seat with the seatbelt fastened. You have things you're sentimental about too. Don't judge me.
What I hauled up tonight was: futon, two blankets, two pillows in shams, bathroom shelf thing, two under-sink racks, drying rack and draining board, shoe tray, couple of towels, the last two living room shelves, all the framed wall things bigger than 8x10 (which by virtue of their size didn't fit in boxes), two biggish bags of cassette tapes, the other lamp, a couple of floor mats that are just going to stay with the car I think, a clutch purse, my box fan, my poor knitting bag that had been sitting there lonely all this time, and a box with most of the contents of the refrigerator (remaining: one slice of old pizza and some Coke, which will be thrown away; a small bottle of water and about one glass' worth in the bottom of a bottle of wine, which will be drunk; most of a bottle of seltzer, which I will bring up tomorrow) and all the contents of the freezer.
What I brought up from the car when I got back up here: the box with the groceries. It's still 83 degrees outside, yo. I put that stuff right in the fridge or freezer as appropriate. What I left in the car: everything else. I'll bring it in tomorrow morning before I go down to the old place and prime the walls (stopping en route at the Home Depot to buy primer -- but listen, my latest Clever Plan is only to prime the deep colors, because they're going to paint between tenants anyway, obv., and their paint can handle the pale fawn and butter yellow just fine; I'll prime the grape and mango and blood-red, and call it a day, because despite the impression you might get from the length of this post, I am not crazy).
In short, for the first time since last Friday, I am now confident I will be out of the old apartment with all my possessions in my possession and the place in a state that will not lose me any of my security deposit, and -- except for the impromptu half-day yesterday -- no more time away from work than I'd originally planned.
Then I just have to get the new place looking like someone lives here.
Oh, extra fun bonus: when I got to the old place this evening, there was a letter under the door from the management company, alerting me to the fact that the cost of operating the building continues to rise, so as of September 1 my rent would increase by another 5.8%, the rat bastards, with the new monthly total being ... $8 less than I'm paying at the new place. I grant, as I always do, that the rent at the old place includes utilities and at the new place it does not; but aside from that, I'm going from a 550 sq ft studio to a 750 sq ft 2BR for an increase of less than $10/month + utilities, and am now fully fifteen miles closer to work. On balance, I think I win, kind of a lot.