Moving and shaking
The chronicles of moving your shitty shit to a new place.
So I lived in Sierra Vista for almost 6 years on the dot. I moved there on November 4, 2005, and I left November 2, 2011. I lived in a decent 500 sqft apartment. Nothing special, nothing to host parties with, nothing to make the ladies drop their panties, but it worked for me. Especially the last 4 years that I was averaging 100 days overseas alone, not to mention all my other personal travels. I was never home, so why have a nicer place.
Now I wouldn’t say Im a pack rat, I just have a hard time throwing things away, Im never going to end up on hoarders or anything, but a lot of shit accumulates over the years. Papers, documents, bills, cards, trinkets, shit from your pocket and the end of the day. You name it, it was on a couch, counter, desk, table, drawer, bag, cabinet or wherever else shit can find a place for itself and make a homestead. A good 90% of it I was able to make a command decision and just chuck it away. The last 10% was hard, I really had to think…..do I need this, do I want this, how strong are these memories, does the memory exist someplace, like maybe in digital format? So 50% of that 10% came with me, not because I was able to clear it because my poor little hybrid ran out of room. More on that later.
So I put out a request for moving quote online, received about 400 calls from potential suitors, oh to be loved. Most of them were about the same, some were lower than others, a couple were egregiously higher than others, like thousands more. I chose one that seemed to be like the others, just a little bit lower. Bought some boxes from Uhaul and proceeded to pack my shit. I packed most of my stuff up by Tuesday evening as I was leaving Wednesday morning. Received a call stating movers wouldn’t be there until late Wednesday. They showed up Wednesday at noon a little earlier than planned and that’s when the fun started.
The foreman comes in and says what is this, this isn’t on the inventory list. Motioning to my boxes, on here I have 15 medium boxes. Okay? Well, this is more than that. Well its less than 15, yeah but they are bigger. Okay? So what does that mean, you aren’t going to take them. Well, what it means is that your price is going to go up a lot. Like a lot a lot! Why? Well take these wardrobe boxes, each one is considered 5 medium boxes. So your three wardrobe boxes already equal your 15 medium. And now you have like 6 X large boxes and some of them aren’t filled to capacity, if I put them in the truck on top of each other, they could collapse because lack of support. Well if I fill them up, they will be even more heavy! Rolls eyes at me. The guy was a very mean tactless Israeli. And he hadn’t showered in a while or at least didn’t where deodorant. Much like my foreign friends.
So as my stuff had to go, I was kind of between a rock and a hard place. This guy was about to leave if I didn’t pay the extra. I said well my credit card is on file, just take it, and Ill talk with sales later. NO, you have to pay me 60% of all of this today. Do you want to call your mom or dad about this? Umm, no I think to myself. I did shave that day, but I don’t need their consultation. Do you need to call your company, whos paying for this? I am. Okay good because Im not going to explain myself to multiple people. WOW. So I write an email to the sales guy explaining the situation. He writes back saying he will check into it once he gets to see the inventory list.
So I sign about 32 documents and off my stuff goes. He asks if I was told when I would get my things. I said 2-10 days, he laughs, and says yeah more like 10-14 days. Okay, looking dumbfounded as to why this guy would be so happy with himself.
Being cleaning up all the knick knacks they wouldn’t take, throwing away even more and more stuff. Then start to clean. I hope I will never let cleaning get that out of date. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Finally had to go because I had to drive to Albuquerque that day. Which is about 6 hours away from where I live. Plus, I had to go outprocess from the apartment. That really didn’t entail too much. Basically pay two month’s rent as a penalty, get the hell out of there, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I packed up my car to the best of my ability. Filled every crevasse of the Honda Civic Hybrid and threw away all of the stuff that didn’t fit. Man I did not like throwing away stuff that I liked, wanted, needed, and wasn’t broken. Oh well, I guess most of you will say that I should stop being cheap and I can afford to replace it. Still!!!!
Began the drive to Albuquerque, took a shortcut at Deming, got onto I25. Filled up for gas in Socorro, got food in Truth or Consequences, stopped at the Hard Rock Café in Isleta, made it to the Hampton Inn about 1130 that night. Stayed up to 1 doing things for the next part of the trip and talking to friends. Got up in the morning, had some bacon and yogurt, (good protein and bad protein), and got on the road. Made it quickly through Albuquerque and Sante Fe and then there was absolutely nothing for about 3 hours. Nothing nothing nothing, new mexico is the worst state in the union. I got to Raton pass and that is a very dangerous place to be. Its very high up in the mountains, about 7000 feet. It had just snowed the day before and my car was like, pues, what the fuck. This is too cold and too much of an incline. Needless to say, all batteries were exhausted. Made it into Colorado and there was jack until you hit Pueblo and Colorado Springs. They were very nice to drive through. Made it past Castle Rock, was not selected for a job there. Made it through Denver, where traffic sucked major arse. Then made it to Berkley East Boulder, CO and I have been all smiles since. I don’t care for hippies, in fact they are the worst thing on earth. Do you want, be what you want, but cant you shower or wear deodorant?!?!? That should be a rule applied to all, ALL!!
I got here with the stuff in my car and froze my ass off that night. I had a sheet, blanket, comforter, under armour and could not get warm. It was 85 when I left AZ and It was 35 when I got here. Lovely.
Fast forward 1 month and my stuff arrives, never use 1st choice moving from phoenix. They are terrible. Had a broken lamp and a broken fan. They they tried to deliver my stuff on Thanksgiving so I had to wait another week after that. They grossly ball parked my total cubic footage, took longer than they were allowed. Made no attempts at a an apology or a recession of monies. So I filed my Better Business Bureau. Not like it will make a difference, but it made me smile.
And that is the story of me moving and shaking out of 520, out of 85635, out of Sierra Vista, out of Cochise, out of Arizona.
Until then,
Jacob
