The Fellowship of the Stuff

I knew today was going to be interesting when Matt and I arrived at the lot where we were slated to pick up our Zipcar pickup truck, which appeared to be completely blocked  in from the road by a swath of newly-laid roadwork.  I'm not sure if we got it out of there legitimately, but we made it out whole, which is ultimately more important.  We had the Ziptruck until five, and made good use of it.  We emptied out our storage unit in four trips, though I still have to sweep it and sign it out tomorrow morning (before IKEA). That all went smoothly.  The tricky parts came when we pursued our sundry Craigslist finds. We went to pick up a beautiful kitchen table in Brookline, which was more inconvenient than we had expected due to weird traffic patterns.  It took forever.  Then there was my antique dresser, which was a grunt to transport but looks lovely now.  While we were out, Emma and Philip had been fighting, which is never pretty.  I almost forgot to eat lunch, which is never good.  And at the last minute before Matt had to return the truck, Philip wanted to get this huge desk, which we successfully got in time, and then had no idea how to move upstairs.  It was too heavy and too long.  We spent two hours trying to move it. While Matt returned the truck and Philip tended to the toenail which was spurting blood, Atanu and I stood with the desk on the sidewalk trying to take it apart.  Fail.  Once we got the thing inside the building with the help of our friends, we tried to take it apart again.  Fail.  So we decided to just get it up the stairs in one piece.  Painful, hilarious fail.  There were Philip (toe intact), Lindsey, Matt, Manizeh, Atanu, and I all struggling with this behemoth for two hours (Emma wanted no part of this). We tried taking it apart again, and things began to break off.  Hm.  "Sorry I got a stupid desk," said Philip.  We left it next to the stairwell where we'll attempt to sell it to someone else.  At least he got a chair out of the deal.  A $75 chair.

Oh, and the cleaning company who was supposed to do our place?  They bailed.  Two guys from the management had to come in instead, and they did okay, but the shower room basically has to be completely redone because of the mildew situation, including an electrician installing a fan.  As for the guys coming to paint, they said, better not wait on them to start moving.

Progress was made, though.  All my stuff is in my room, which I've started cleaning myself with supplies purchased by Lindsey and Manizeh.  The dresser looks beautiful, and the only real furniture I will need to buy at IKEA is a bookshelf.  The IKEA trip is the next leg of the journey, and I anticipate to have to keep Emma and Philip separated by several showrooms.

So yes, long day.  It became apparent along the way that Matt is an awesome driver, Manizeh is an expert spatial puzzle solver, and I can't lift a can of beans.  I'm growing antsy to set everything up for real now.