Moving Day - The Final Mission

The Wake Up
Surprisingly, I was feeling fine in the morning. I was a little tired, but hey that's what happens when you get to bed at 3:30. I was running behind the schedule that I was hoping to adhere to. The weather had called for rain in the morning except for between the hours of 9 and 10. I woke up at 9 and we still had to pick up the truck.

Phase I - Roy's stuff
We headed to the Budget Rent-a-Truck on 117th and headed back to the apartment to start load #1, Roy's stuff. This was expected to be the smaller of the two loads. Little by little we filled the car. The first leg of the move was easy, bringing the stuff down the stairs. Because there is rarely any parking, we had to double park the truck. In the beginning, we were bringing down loads at the same time.

One time when we were heading towards the truck, I saw a cop writing a ticket. Since he was pretty close to our truck. I tried to plead our case. He gave us some hope, saying to check the ticket to make sure he marked everything. He couldn't tear up the ticket since he had started writing it. Bummer!

I was dreading carrying the stuff up the stairs four flights of stairs. I came close to getting sick because of the heat and the energy I was expending. I was slowly gaining injuries, cuts, and bruises. Roy looked like he was about to pass out and had already soaked through his first shirt. We were continually taking more and more breaks, but we knew that we were running behind schedule, so we couldn't take a long break. I looked at the clock in the truck and it showed 1:30. I was panicking because I couldn't believe it was taking that long for this part of the move. We only had to drive 3 streets and we only filled the capacity of a 10' truck halfway. Roy happened to check his phone and it showed about an hour earlier thank God.

Phase II - My stuff
The saving grace of this section was that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, we had the help of an elevator at my new place, so no walking up stairs as long as everything fit in the elevator. The downside was that I had much more stuff. Roy was not bringing his bed, dresser, nor any living room furniture. We took turns going up and down the stairs, which is what made us take longer. It wasn't getting an cooler either. In fact the humidity must have been 100%. We could have used a slight downpour to help cool us down.

I think we started around 2 and we finally finished around 5. We had some setbacks. My kitchen table had to be taken apart and I didn't have my tools in the UES. Luckily, Roy had a Korean connection with the corner bodega, so he got the hookup. I still had to pack the food in the fridge also, so that took a little bit. But, alas, we were finished. Unlike Roy's load, this was didn't leave much space...so even though we had the elevator, it would still take a while.

The good news was that we had a break because the drive would take at least 20 minutes, if not longer because of traffic. Jess provided the dinner before we left and she headed with us to Brooklyn. It took us longer than 20, actually 40 minutes or so. But we were able to park the truck (not double park) right in the front. Because it was about 6, I had to deal with the work traffic heading up the elevator so we had to time the use of the elevator perfectly to make sure that we left as early as possible. I thought we would be cutting it close by being able to bring the truck back to the UES by 10.

This leg of the trip is where we worked the hardest. Jess even lended a hand and we were able to finish by 7:30 and head back to Manhattan. I would have to deal with this mess later and was not looking forward to it and it definitely wasn't going to happen this night. We dropped off Jess at the apartment and Roy and I went to drop off the truck. Before that we had to fill up the tank. That was a chore within itself. When we arrived to the Truck rental, he told us the tank was not full. I heard the nozzle clicking when Roy was filling it up, but we had to go back because it would have cost us $25 plus whatever gas had needed to be added. Luckily, there was a gas station right by the truck rental and sure enough, the truck needed another 2 gallons, but we made sure it was full this time. Now we were done.

We headed on the bus and headed back to 88th street and that were Roy and I ended our day. He walked over to his new place and I took a cab back to Brooklyn. I couldn't deal with the subway after such a long day. My biceps and forearms were killing me. I had a huge cut on left elbow on the vessel side, bruises up and down my forehand, it looked like I was suicidal. I went through a war today, but I made home alive.

I tried to do some stuff in the new place, but I was beat. Paul had just called and he headed over. Thank God. I needed a shower and I didn't have the energy to put up my shower curtain. After my shower, I had a drink to finish the day and headed back downstairs. I tried to put together my bed frame, but my brain didn't seem to want to work. I gave up and headed to bed in my warm, messy apartment.