Moving Weekend

It was my goal to get as much of the work or purging and packing done before Richard's arrival in Charlotte, so that he wouldn't have to work quite as hard. We would be moving via commercial airline rather than driving, so no furniture would be going with us. I posted pictures on Facebook, which Richard thought was tacky but was effective because my sweetheart of a principal decided to buy my recliner and a fellow teacher agreed to buy both beds. This left only 3 major pieces of furniture to deal with: a dining table and 4 chairs, a very large couch, and a fireplace/TV stand. I found a company that was willing to pick up and consign our used furniture, but they wouldn't take the couch. I ended up giving it away to a friend who was willing to pick it up. By the time I picked Richard up at the airport late Friday night, all the furniture was gone. We had to sleep on the floor, which is quite unpleasant when you're over 50, but we suffered through it. On Saturday, we went to the leasing office of Alli's new apartment to get her key so we could begin moving her things into her new place. She would have a roommate that she hadn't even met, and who hadn't responded to Alli's email letting her know when she would be moving in. As we suspected, the leasing manager hadn't let the office employee know about Alli's move, so she hadn't done her "walk through" and didn't even have a key to the apartment. We went to lunch to allow time for them to figure everything out, including letting the roommate know that we were coming. Thankfully, after a nice lunch at Panera, they had informed Alli's new roommate, gotten a copy of the key, and gave us the green light to begin moving her into her new place.

Naturally, it was a hot day -- 96 degrees. There are lots of steep steps up to Alli's apartment, and we made many trips up and down them, loading all her "stuff" into her bedroom. Thankfully, the place is furnished. We bought Alli a pretty new comforter for her new space and made yet another trip to Goodwill with her old one. Since I couldn't take anything heavy with me, I gave all my pots and pans, my big mixer, blender, toaster, plates, glasses, and silverware to Alli. She and her roommate share the kitchen, and since her roommate had no idea that Alli would be moving in that weekend, there was no room for any of that stuff. We stored it on the built-in shelves in her bedroom, hoping that after she got to know her roommate, she could carve out some space for Alli's stuff. Alli took our 14 year old cat, Sara, with her. I was worried about Sara adjusting to her new digs, but she did great, excitedly sniffing everything right away.

We finished Alli's move around 8pm, then went back to our almost empty apartment to get rid of all the other odds and ends that remained, and cleaned all but the room we would be sleeping in (on the floor again). We finished around 11pm and tried to get some sleep. We woke up around 6am on Sunday, dropped off yet another load of stuff at Goodwill, and met the family, our son Wes, his fabulous girlfriend Meredith, and Alli for breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Uptown. This is the day we would be leaving, but it was also Alli's 21st birthday!  A mixture of excitement and sadness was in the air.

We had to wait until our apartment's leasing office opened at noon to drop off our keys and garage door opener. After that, we went to lunch with Wes, and he followed us to the airport. Because we were flying first class, we were allowed 3 checked bags at 75 pounds each, We only had 5, but they were extremely heavy. We drove the rental to the concierge outside the departures area at CLT, gave him a huge tip because of the weight of our bags, and drove back around the airport to return the rental. I didn't mention this earlier, but the first rent car I had was a Hyundai Elantra. After driving it for a week, a rock hit the windshield. It didn't show up at first, but over the course of the following 3 days, a crack spread across the driver's field of vision. I went back to the rental company to report the damage. They apologized, but said all they had to replace it with was a Town and Country minivan. What a Godsend that van was during the move! The seats all folded flat, into the floor of the van, making it more of a cargo van. We returned the van, went through security, and waited at our gate for departure, which was scheduled for 4pm, with a boarding time of 3:20pm. As we sat and waited, they kept moving the departure time up, first to 4:30pm, then to 5:20pm, then to...I quit watching because it kept being delayed and each time they would delay it, they would change our departure gate, so we were all over the place!  We found out that all the delays had been due to a mechanical failure, that was now fixed. Our plane was on its way from NYC. After those passengers unloaded, we finally boarded around 7:40pm. Yay! Off to my dream city at last! We taxied to the holding area, then the pilot announced that there was a delay because of weather in NYC. ATC instructed him to sit for 35 minutes to see if the weather let up. It didn't, so we were taken back to the gate and unloaded! Nnnnoooooooo.....The airline never made a formal announcement about the flight being cancelled, and the line was full of every single passenger who had gotten off our flight, so instead of waiting in line, we got dinner. By the time we got back to the gate, the line was shorter. The airline gave us a complimentary stay at Ramada. We were instructed to retrieve our bags (oh crap!), go to loading zone C, and look for a Ramada van that would take us to the hotel for the night. We got all 5 of the freaking heavy bags and went to zone C. After about 10 minutes, we did in fact see a Ramada van drive by. It was empty and it kept going! Thanks, man! When another one came 20 minutes later, we knew we had better be quick since there would not be much room in the van for all of our bags. I put on my NY attitude, rushed forward, and got the first of our 5 bags on board. I figured that if I already had one bag on, and I was on, they would have to put the other bags on too. My plan worked. I believe all of us who needed to go to Ramada were able to get on, thankfully. We got a little sleep, work up at 4am, and got back on the van at 4:30am for the ride back to the airport. We were with our groupies (the other displaced passengers from last night's cancelled flight).

We finally arrived in NY's LaGuardia airport at 9am on Monday (yesterday). Richard got the okay from his boss to work from home since we had such a rough start. We took a cab from the airport to our new apartment. Richard has lived here for a few weeks, but he left it rather "bachelor-y" (ie. un-decorated), which is nice because now I can personalize it. It was funny to see the very large stack of moving boxes next to the front door, knowing that I was the one who had packed and mailed all of them. After unpacking boxes, the place still looks neat and tidy, and surprisingly uncluttered. Richard has rental furniture here for now: a sleeper sofa, a TV and TV stand, a side table, and 2 lamps. He had taken only one of our towels from Charlotte, so we would need to go shopping for a bath mat and towels immediately. Because it was raining, we took a cab to Macy's. Oh -- my-- God! When we moved to Charlotte, I was so impressed with the Nordstrom at Southpark Mall, but this Macy's is like that ON ACID! (not that I know what that's like) The store is 9 floors high, and each floor is an entire city block long! There are several Starbucks and restaurants in the STORE!! This is awesome! We ate dinner at a salad place in Macy's, then bought a subway pass for me and we got on the subway to go home. It was very crowded and we both had to stand. When we got off at our stop, it was so crowded with people going every which way that I was afraid I would lose Richard and become lost. I was freaking out a little. I tried to hold onto the back of his shirt, but it was difficult. The subway only goes partway to our apartment. The last 4 blocks must be traveled on foot or by the M42 bus, which simply makes trips up and down 42nd street, dropping off and picking up passengers. This, I can handle. It would be difficult to get lost when taking a bus that stays on the same street the whole time! Richard and I had to stand, but a woman tapped me, said she was getting off at the next stop, and insisted that I take her seat when she got up. She smiled at me as she left, reiterating what Richard had told me shortly after moving here. that everyone he has met here has been extremely kind. What a nice way to end my first day in NYC!