Many gazillion moons ago - or two weeks ago if you use a more traditional calendar - I participated in the Suzanne Brockmann readers gathering known as "Storming into Atlanta". It was held in Atlanta since the timing put it a few days before RWA. I have no intention of trying to recap the whole experience, other than to say it was fabulous. But I am going to share some moments that stick out for me.
But first some notes and disclaimers. This was my first "Suze" event. I do not actively read or post on the SB bulletin board so I went in knowing no one. I had met internetically one person and we agreed to be roommates. I was aware that there would be other authors there, but other than Ed Gaffney (who happens to be married to Suze) I had somehow missed hearing of any of them (except in Suze's acknowledgements). And I had not yet bought or read either of Ed's books. So, Suze was the only author there I had read. (I have since corrected this).
So, registration began at two, and my flight go me into Atlanta around one thirty, so I was at the hotel a bit after two. Our room wasn't ready yet so, I went off to register and was apparently the first non-volunteer there. So, while I was registering this nice woman comes up and says, "Hi, I'm the author!". And I shook her hand. Meanwhile my internal dialogue was something along the lines of, "Oh my god! She looks different from her picture. I'm not ready for this! I'm not prepared yet. I have questions. Or maybe I shouldn't. Oh my gosh my mind just went totally blank. ---" (Yes, it was Suze - in the flesh).
So there was - as we came to call it - the yellow sheet game. (Also known as a getting to know you game.) I sat down to fill it out. Many of the volunteers and others in the suite were tearing tickets for the raffles into sets of ten. (I mention this because apparently there was much discussion over what the best denominations to divide them into was.) And as I sit down I'm checking out name tags. The tags had our names, our locale, a job title and a category. The title was not the job I do when not at author events. It was in my case Troubleshooters Linguist. (Cool! How did they know I took linguistics in college. Or that I keep learning new languages. Not that I'm fluent in much of anything other than English.) Some people were FBI. Others were Navy. That determined the meal you got to share with the authors. Then the tag had the category - I was a team member. Volunteers were sharpshooters. And VIPs - authors, speakers, and relatives were commanders. All very cool.
So, as I'm checking out tags and chit chatting while I fill out my sheet, I notice that the nice woman I'm speaking to, seated across from me, her tag says Lee Brockmann. Oh - it's Suze's mom! And, it turns out most of the lovely volunteers I sat and chatted with had been in Suze's acknowledgements.
A couple of us did at one point pull out "Apples to Apples" and even though I was the only one who had ever played, we ended pretty evenly. (Although Beki beat us all). Later that evening - after checking in and all that - I met Eric! Hey - I remembered him from the acknowledgments too. (Hey, I do read these things, and besides he's in more than one.) And Tom-the-Navy-SEAL was there too. But he had quite a crowd around him so I didn't meet him until later.
So, for those of you who may not be familiar with the story, Suze was writing category romances. She wanted to do something with characters that would naturally last over several books. A trilogy or something. So she was trying to come up with how that would work. Well, her friend Eric went to the dentist. And there, while waiting, he read a Newsweek article about Navy SEALs. They profiled one SEAL in particular, Tom Rancich. Eric called Suze after the appointment and told her to go read this article - that he had found her hook. And so, the Tall, Dark and Dangerous Team Ten group was born. (And yeah, it ended up going a little bit farther than a trilogy too.)
The other authors were Catherine Mann, Alesia Holliday, and Virginia Kantra. There were a number of panels with the authors. And Eric. (We'll count Tom as an author, he isn't published yet. But he's working on something.) We discovered that authors tend to be control freaks. Eric played host as each author came up so we could do Two Truths and a Lie with them. Everyone had filled out three sets, and Eric was picking the best. The authors got a bit snippy since they had created themes within each row, and he was messing up the theme. (Editor issues, anyone?)
Alesia's first book, E-mail to the Front (out of print, but I hear fabulous things so go hunt it down, or email her publisher), was about dealing with her Navy husband being in Iraq - their first wartime separation. During one Q&A, the subject turned to how 24/7 news had changed being at home in wartime. And Alesia talked about seeing that a ship had gone down about where her husband Judd was supposed to be. And that for several hours, she didn't know if it was his ship. And then she got the call that it was not, and that she remembers every moment of that phone call. Well, there were a few tears. Hers and others. Possibly even mine. So then there were a couple of jokes about how do you follow that!
Alesia, Tom, and Catherine (Cathy), along with Catherine's husband Rob took part in a panel about military life. While I won't name names, let's just say there were tears again, at one point, along with some lovely pronouncements about the honor of having a husband who did such great stuff, and due to the seating, the mike was getting passed from female to male, so the running joke for the guys trying to follow something emotional was to say, "So I was killing this guy..." Alesia said people said to her - especially after she wrote Email to the Front that since her dad had been in the service she knew what she was getting into. Except that, as she said, having a dad who goes away is very different from having a husband who goes away. But certainly she knew enough that she originally wouldn't date Judd, but he was persuasive and hot. Apparently. (Judd had planned to come to the event, but ended up getting shipped out. Which led to a few, "too scared to even show up" comments from other panelists.)
We had a discussion about The Wedding Dress by Virginia Ellis. I enjoyed the book but it isn't in my keep pile. It's a lovely story about three sisters in the post-Civil War South, trying to get by. The middle sister, who narrates the story, decides that the youngest - who is about seventeen and the only sister who didn't get married before the war - should have her chance at marriage and happiness. So, using a bit of what I call the Potomac Mills attitude (due to some ads that ran a lot in the nineties) they decide to start sewing a wedding dress. Despite the fact that they barely have money for food, aren't sure how they are going to hang onto the land, and they haven't seen a single man since before the war. It's the "get the dress, the occasion will come" attitude.
But it was very interesting having a fairly large discussion. It was also really interesting hearing the authors discuss it with their appreciation for some of the crafting of the story. Not to spoil too much of the story, but at one point the horse dies. It is early spring, so the dead horse clearly can't sit in the barn. So an elaborate scheme involving ropes and people and a hole and a donkey is put together to get the horse into an appropriate grave. Cathy said she thought that was a little sentimental of them, because she would have eaten the horse. (Much laughter followed that).
There were, of course, discussions about writing. And of writing a series - since particularly Cathy and Suze have ongoing series. (As do Alesia and Ed.) Cathy talked about (spoiler alert for the Wingman Warrior series) how she had a character named Lance. She had named Lance after Lancelot - who she always thought was a weenie (I agree) - and he was a big playboy, cheating on his girl on his temporary duty (TDY) assignments. So, her plan had always been to kill him off after a few books. And people are writing her, asking when she'll do Lance's story. Cathy also said that Rob - when he read where Lance died - told her he got the message.
Suze said it was wonderful that so many people loved her characters as much as she did. But that we all needed to remember that, in the end they were hers. That people would write her and ask her to promise this. Promise that this wasn't really true. That she was going to later reveal that this didn't happen. Or how could she have done this? And while she got it that it was amazing to have readers who are so caught up in these stories and these characters. But that she couldn't make choices based on that. And that she planned things pretty far out, so we just had to trust her. (Or not.)
There was the Cammies and Sequins party where both Cathy and Suze sang. And they all participated - including volunteer/reader/fan Laura - in Eric's "Famous Skit" - an abridgment of all of Suze's Troubleshooters series. (It was amazing).
Eric read from Alesia's to be released next year paranormal book, Atlantis Rising. Tom read from his book - a work in progress. Suze read from Into the Storm (in stores August 15th). Cathy read from Blaze of Glory - part of her new series. (In stores now - buy it it's great!) Virginia read. (Don't remember which one, but I just read Close-Up - in stores - it's great).
There were signings galore. (They let everyone bring backlist, in addition to having new ones available for purchase.) There were raffles. (I won a copy of Identity Unknown - with the man-titty cover). There was a silent auction. One person gets to be in one of Suze's books. (I'm not jealous. Really. Not at all.) I won a basket of Alesia stuff - including Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) versions of three of her books. Which have now all been signed. Squee!
And there was the Reader's Guide which we all go copies of. And - there were extras (and Border's has now requested them, so they will be available, as well as being on the web now). I mentioned to Suze that I had gotten my manager hooked on the series and would like to give her one. Not only did I get one for her, But Suze signed it, to my manager from me and Suzanne Brockmann. So cool!
Oh, and in addition to getting Ed to sign my new copy of Premeditated Murder, he's on my yellow sheet since his favorite show is "Veronica Mars". He and Suze got hooked when the DVDs came out, but by the time they finished them the second season had already started, so they are anxiously awaiting those. (Coming soon!).
Tom gamely agreed to be the sole panel speaker for a discussion about life as a SEAL. He said one of the big things is that his life in the Navy, and as a SEAL has given him a lot of great stories, so some people tend to get a little annoyed. When he was studying for his MBA, his group all met and discussed their goals. He said, one by one they all talked about how they wanted their group to get the best grades, As weren't enough. A pluses for everyone. And then he said that he had been in a helicopter crash where one of his buddies didn't make it and he had broken his neck. So, for him, breathing was a great accomplishment. (He has recovered well from the accident.) And so, while he was there to learn he wasn't going to spend a lot off time worrying about whether it was an A or an A plus. And one by one, they all went back around saying, "Oh yeah. I didn't really meant it before."
I had a great time. I think everyone did. I got to meet all these wonderful people - authors, readers, and combinations thereof. And I now have more authors to read. (I would say in my TBR pile, except that I've finished all but two of the ones I came home with.) And it was completely worth missing a few days of apartment hunting (although when I left I didn't know I was trading that.)
Rants About New (and old) Things
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
A Moving Story
Note: This story is long. Really long. So I have a short version here. Or you could read the whole thing. Or you could skip it. (I won't know.)
In May, my roommate (from whom I was subletting) decided to move out of state. She gave the complex the required 60 days notice. I spoke with the residential manager about possibly transferring the lease and initially she said that would be no problem. A week later she called me back to say that oops, we couldn't do that. She was willing to let me stay but someone else's name would have to be on the lease. While we were having this conversation, she had already called my roommate to tell her someone was coming to look at the place. The end result of my conversation with her was that I was not willing to stay if my name couldn't be on the lease, so therefore I would have to move. I began looking.
I checked Craigslist and signed up for roommate search services. I wrote down names of places I passed. I looked at one apartment - a shared space - where the bedroom was so small that I wasn't sure my queen bed would fit, much less anything else. (The person who was staying had been there several years so the shared spaces were fully furnished as in without room for anything else).
I looked at another shared space where my stuff would all have to fit in the room - but this room was bigger. But the more I thought about it I got a weird vibe. Nothing totally bad, but just not right. And the homeowner had construction planned, which when finished would be nice, but not something I necessarily wanted to deal with while unpacking.
I looked at a townhouse where the bedroom was small, but I figured some of my books could go into common spaces. I decided to think about it over the holiday weekend (at was now July) and it got snapped up while I pondered.
So, I sent more emails. And did more web searches. And I found this great townhouse in Silver Spring. The bedroom was a good size, the roommates were quiet and away a lot. So, I filled out the application. The rental agents said the process would take three to five days.
At this point we were in mid-July. But I had a trip to Atlanta planned for the 22nd to the 26th, so I knew my time was tighter. I called movers. (Having made the mistake last time trying to get the place before I got movers and having everyone be booked up). And on day five, I called the agents back. To be told that the unit I was looking at didn't allow pets. Now of course, I knew there was a cat there. The ad had been listed as both cat and dog friendly. And of course there was the, "It took five days for you to tell me you won't process my application!". And now I am two days from going out of town.
But, the agents said, there's another place we have available that you could look at tonight. It was a one bedroom so more than the place I couldn't move into, so I asked for a ballpark on the utilities. I explained that my current building our electric went up to $200 in the summer, which greatly affected the amount of rent I was able to pay. They promised to check. I met the guy at the apartment that night. It was very nice. But then I discovered two things. There was another person who already had an application in on the place. And there was no air conditioning. (I was welcome to purchase window units should I desire, etc, etc).
Which reminds me of the craziness of all this. The place I just moved out of required a rental payment as security deposit. (As do many places these days, although seriously together we were paying over fifteen hundred dollars, I can't imagine what we would need to do to cause that amount of damage. I'm sure it has happened, but it can't be common.) But then, they have 45 days to give you back this money. By which point one assumes you have already ponied up rent, security deposit, pet deposit and moving costs. How are people supposed to afford this process? I understand why it works this way, but it's crazy.
So, back to my saga. So, I emailed more people. I called a guy with an efficiency and made arrangements to see it the next day. It was small. But I could afford it, it was in a great neighborhood, and he accepted cats. So, I called a couple more places and then called him back to say I wanted it. He called back and asked if I could give him the rent and deposit that day. (I had let him know I was heading out of town the next day.) I told him I could give him the deposit, but the rest I wouldn't be able to give him until next week. He said he's call back. I got a message that night to not worry, we would work things out when I returned.
So, I went to Atlanta. (More on that later. Promise). Sunday night I get a call - they gave the place to someone else. Bird in the hand they said. He mentions he has a friend with a one bedroom available, but its for three hundred more a month - well out of my price range.
So, I call and leave another message for someone I had called earlier - reaffirming my interest. She called back and said the place was still available and they would not make any decisions before I looked at the place. So, we talked Thursday and arranged to meet that evening. I also spoke with her roommate (the one who was staying) briefly. I also respond to another ad for a studio in DC. They are showing that afternoon. So, I go there. I walk in minutes after the start time of the showing and am the fourth person there and about the only one not already filling out an application (with fee, of course).
I head to the shared space. I was told they were in the third unit. I got there - a bit later than planned due to traffic - and the units are numbered 101, 102, etc. So, okay I knock on 103. A gentleman with a Doberman answers. I tell him who I am looking for. I have the wrong unit. He comes back to tell me they are on the third floor - the left unit. I knock there. No answer. I call and leave a message saying I am here, but I am going to head out. I never got a call back.
So, now it's Friday. I had left messages at a few places. Emailed a few more people. Called the rental agent for the studio I had looked at - asking her what their timeframe was for processing applications. Called some more apartments. Now I'm starting to hear from places that they'll have something available August 3rd, or eighth or eleventh. But of course I need to be out before then. (Our apartment had been rented for the fifteenth, I had already been told by the resident manager they wanted to try to do the walk through before I moved out so they could get going with the repainting, etc.)
I go to a building in DC - there are many people there. They have only a few people in their leasing office, which I actually like. It's a big enough building that it makes sense they have people just for new rentals, but I start to worry when they have too many. I lived one place where they had twice as many leasing agents as rental staff, and of course the leasing agents all were there late and on weekends. So, it was very convenient to rent a place - and almost impossible to get assistance once you were a resident.
So, three of us look at a number of places - all studios. Two of us decide to put in applications on the spot. I hand over my $150 (application fee plus earnest money that will be applied to my first rent if I become a tenant). And I head off to another another few places. One says they can get me in, but I would need $1650 (rent, deposit, pet deposit, extra pet rent) in cashier's checks since I want to move in quickly. Another doesn't have anything ready for the next few days. And another is just too freaking far away. I call the movers to change the time from Sunday to Monday. I call work to let them know I won't be in Monday.
I hear back from an email that I can see a place today. I ask what time. I don't get an answer until Sunday - in which I still don't get a time I can see the place.
I hear back on another email and get sent the email for the person who can show me around (this is a shared space). She's available Saturday. I respond requesting a time. I get a response Sunday that they had to call repair people who are to arrive Monday, so then or Wednesday I could come by.
Monday I go back to the building to check on the status of my application, stressing that really I'm supposed to move out today, so - while I know I'm asking a lot - I am crunched. (I did have friends who offered to put me up if I couldn't get things going in time.) She has to call to verify employment and rental history still, but will call me that afternoon. I hear back,and am told that she doesn't think it will happen today, but she'll try. They still don't have verification of employment.
So, I go to see the residential manager, and ask if I can stay one more day. She agrees. (Yay!) I call the movers, and they agree to re-reschedule for tomorrow.
I go into work Tuesday, update everyone on my not moved yet status. I call and get the forms faxed to me which my wonderful manager fills out to prove I am employed. I head off to meet the movers. I call to make sure they have everything at the building. My person is at lunch. Have I mentioned that at this point the DC metro area is under a heat advisory. The air quality is orange (much like the terrorist color coding, red is the worst, orange is second worst). The heat index has us at 109 degrees. Yippee!
I call the building again - while the movers are moving, and I am throwing away junk. (Not the good junk, that I'd already donated. This is the bad junk). I call the building again. The person I had been dealing with had to go home. I explain the scenario to the person who is there, who has three people sitting in front of her to move in. The movers sense something is up - I explain the situation. They suggest I call the office and arrange for possibly keeping the stuff overnight - which is agreed to easily. (Yay!).
I hear back - they do have all my paper and if I show up soon (money in hand) I can get everything signed and ready to go. However, you can't move furniture into the building after six. It is now four fifteen. The movers determine that there is not enough time for them to finish loading and get everything loaded in (understandable). So we stick with the prior plan of moving in tomorrow. I get to the office, sign documents (along with another gentleman who had also been working with the woman who had to go home early) and get my keys. Life is good.
I go back to my almost former place, clean up all the trash that you discover when you move your bed and clean out your closets. Load up the car and grab the cat. And head to the new place (Air mattress - I figured it would be less crazy for the cat to only deal with the car and a new place once this week.) Yay!
Wednesday. The movers call, since I have the keys now we could do this right away. I explain I am on my way to work and would like to be there for a few minutes before I turn around and leave. We agree on eleven, so I have time to make it back to the new place. (Predictably this means they do not arrive until noon). I talk to the parking guy who tells me he will get the movers all set up and it's all good. And yet, thirty minutes pass and the movers haven' made it back to the apartment. I am torn between not being there when they arrive and wanting to make sure there isn't a problem. I locate one of them, they parking guy told them their truck was too big. They asked for permission to parking on the street level parking (rather than underground) but are told that that entrance can't be blocked off for security and emergency exit reasons. The building guy suggests they leave the truck where it is on the street and just use there carts to carry stuff into the lot, down to the loading dock and then over to the elevators. Have I mentioned that today the heat index is 114 degrees with code red air quality?
The movers call their office and the office will send another guy to help. They tell me to go back and wait in my place. (I got a lot of reading done). So, apparently another guy from the building came out and said the truck will fit so they tried again and it did. Oh. And the freight elevator hadn't been available but then it was and so I got the key. And stuff started appearing in my apartment. (My cat hid in the closet). So, at the end of the day I have a place full of boxes. I have a place! Now, I just have to unpack.
A Moving Story: The Short Version
Had to find new place. Looked, web searched, Craisglisted, called, emailed.
Found:
Too small
Construction + weird
Small but got snapped up
No pets (even though the ad said pets okay)
No air conditioning (are you kidding me?)
Small but okay but then they gave it to someone else while I was out of town
Four other people already applying
Got wrong apartment number + nobody home
Two places we can't set a time I can see
Apply for one
Several that won't be ready in time for me
And, I finally get the (second) one I officially apply for - after rescheduling the movers twice and having to move in (stuff-wise) a day after I move out in part due to communication issues and a leasing person having to leave the office early. But I am now safely ensconced. Just need to unpack.
In May, my roommate (from whom I was subletting) decided to move out of state. She gave the complex the required 60 days notice. I spoke with the residential manager about possibly transferring the lease and initially she said that would be no problem. A week later she called me back to say that oops, we couldn't do that. She was willing to let me stay but someone else's name would have to be on the lease. While we were having this conversation, she had already called my roommate to tell her someone was coming to look at the place. The end result of my conversation with her was that I was not willing to stay if my name couldn't be on the lease, so therefore I would have to move. I began looking.
I checked Craigslist and signed up for roommate search services. I wrote down names of places I passed. I looked at one apartment - a shared space - where the bedroom was so small that I wasn't sure my queen bed would fit, much less anything else. (The person who was staying had been there several years so the shared spaces were fully furnished as in without room for anything else).
I looked at another shared space where my stuff would all have to fit in the room - but this room was bigger. But the more I thought about it I got a weird vibe. Nothing totally bad, but just not right. And the homeowner had construction planned, which when finished would be nice, but not something I necessarily wanted to deal with while unpacking.
I looked at a townhouse where the bedroom was small, but I figured some of my books could go into common spaces. I decided to think about it over the holiday weekend (at was now July) and it got snapped up while I pondered.
So, I sent more emails. And did more web searches. And I found this great townhouse in Silver Spring. The bedroom was a good size, the roommates were quiet and away a lot. So, I filled out the application. The rental agents said the process would take three to five days.
At this point we were in mid-July. But I had a trip to Atlanta planned for the 22nd to the 26th, so I knew my time was tighter. I called movers. (Having made the mistake last time trying to get the place before I got movers and having everyone be booked up). And on day five, I called the agents back. To be told that the unit I was looking at didn't allow pets. Now of course, I knew there was a cat there. The ad had been listed as both cat and dog friendly. And of course there was the, "It took five days for you to tell me you won't process my application!". And now I am two days from going out of town.
But, the agents said, there's another place we have available that you could look at tonight. It was a one bedroom so more than the place I couldn't move into, so I asked for a ballpark on the utilities. I explained that my current building our electric went up to $200 in the summer, which greatly affected the amount of rent I was able to pay. They promised to check. I met the guy at the apartment that night. It was very nice. But then I discovered two things. There was another person who already had an application in on the place. And there was no air conditioning. (I was welcome to purchase window units should I desire, etc, etc).
Which reminds me of the craziness of all this. The place I just moved out of required a rental payment as security deposit. (As do many places these days, although seriously together we were paying over fifteen hundred dollars, I can't imagine what we would need to do to cause that amount of damage. I'm sure it has happened, but it can't be common.) But then, they have 45 days to give you back this money. By which point one assumes you have already ponied up rent, security deposit, pet deposit and moving costs. How are people supposed to afford this process? I understand why it works this way, but it's crazy.
So, back to my saga. So, I emailed more people. I called a guy with an efficiency and made arrangements to see it the next day. It was small. But I could afford it, it was in a great neighborhood, and he accepted cats. So, I called a couple more places and then called him back to say I wanted it. He called back and asked if I could give him the rent and deposit that day. (I had let him know I was heading out of town the next day.) I told him I could give him the deposit, but the rest I wouldn't be able to give him until next week. He said he's call back. I got a message that night to not worry, we would work things out when I returned.
So, I went to Atlanta. (More on that later. Promise). Sunday night I get a call - they gave the place to someone else. Bird in the hand they said. He mentions he has a friend with a one bedroom available, but its for three hundred more a month - well out of my price range.
So, I call and leave another message for someone I had called earlier - reaffirming my interest. She called back and said the place was still available and they would not make any decisions before I looked at the place. So, we talked Thursday and arranged to meet that evening. I also spoke with her roommate (the one who was staying) briefly. I also respond to another ad for a studio in DC. They are showing that afternoon. So, I go there. I walk in minutes after the start time of the showing and am the fourth person there and about the only one not already filling out an application (with fee, of course).
I head to the shared space. I was told they were in the third unit. I got there - a bit later than planned due to traffic - and the units are numbered 101, 102, etc. So, okay I knock on 103. A gentleman with a Doberman answers. I tell him who I am looking for. I have the wrong unit. He comes back to tell me they are on the third floor - the left unit. I knock there. No answer. I call and leave a message saying I am here, but I am going to head out. I never got a call back.
So, now it's Friday. I had left messages at a few places. Emailed a few more people. Called the rental agent for the studio I had looked at - asking her what their timeframe was for processing applications. Called some more apartments. Now I'm starting to hear from places that they'll have something available August 3rd, or eighth or eleventh. But of course I need to be out before then. (Our apartment had been rented for the fifteenth, I had already been told by the resident manager they wanted to try to do the walk through before I moved out so they could get going with the repainting, etc.)
I go to a building in DC - there are many people there. They have only a few people in their leasing office, which I actually like. It's a big enough building that it makes sense they have people just for new rentals, but I start to worry when they have too many. I lived one place where they had twice as many leasing agents as rental staff, and of course the leasing agents all were there late and on weekends. So, it was very convenient to rent a place - and almost impossible to get assistance once you were a resident.
So, three of us look at a number of places - all studios. Two of us decide to put in applications on the spot. I hand over my $150 (application fee plus earnest money that will be applied to my first rent if I become a tenant). And I head off to another another few places. One says they can get me in, but I would need $1650 (rent, deposit, pet deposit, extra pet rent) in cashier's checks since I want to move in quickly. Another doesn't have anything ready for the next few days. And another is just too freaking far away. I call the movers to change the time from Sunday to Monday. I call work to let them know I won't be in Monday.
I hear back from an email that I can see a place today. I ask what time. I don't get an answer until Sunday - in which I still don't get a time I can see the place.
I hear back on another email and get sent the email for the person who can show me around (this is a shared space). She's available Saturday. I respond requesting a time. I get a response Sunday that they had to call repair people who are to arrive Monday, so then or Wednesday I could come by.
Monday I go back to the building to check on the status of my application, stressing that really I'm supposed to move out today, so - while I know I'm asking a lot - I am crunched. (I did have friends who offered to put me up if I couldn't get things going in time.) She has to call to verify employment and rental history still, but will call me that afternoon. I hear back,and am told that she doesn't think it will happen today, but she'll try. They still don't have verification of employment.
So, I go to see the residential manager, and ask if I can stay one more day. She agrees. (Yay!) I call the movers, and they agree to re-reschedule for tomorrow.
I go into work Tuesday, update everyone on my not moved yet status. I call and get the forms faxed to me which my wonderful manager fills out to prove I am employed. I head off to meet the movers. I call to make sure they have everything at the building. My person is at lunch. Have I mentioned that at this point the DC metro area is under a heat advisory. The air quality is orange (much like the terrorist color coding, red is the worst, orange is second worst). The heat index has us at 109 degrees. Yippee!
I call the building again - while the movers are moving, and I am throwing away junk. (Not the good junk, that I'd already donated. This is the bad junk). I call the building again. The person I had been dealing with had to go home. I explain the scenario to the person who is there, who has three people sitting in front of her to move in. The movers sense something is up - I explain the situation. They suggest I call the office and arrange for possibly keeping the stuff overnight - which is agreed to easily. (Yay!).
I hear back - they do have all my paper and if I show up soon (money in hand) I can get everything signed and ready to go. However, you can't move furniture into the building after six. It is now four fifteen. The movers determine that there is not enough time for them to finish loading and get everything loaded in (understandable). So we stick with the prior plan of moving in tomorrow. I get to the office, sign documents (along with another gentleman who had also been working with the woman who had to go home early) and get my keys. Life is good.
I go back to my almost former place, clean up all the trash that you discover when you move your bed and clean out your closets. Load up the car and grab the cat. And head to the new place (Air mattress - I figured it would be less crazy for the cat to only deal with the car and a new place once this week.) Yay!
Wednesday. The movers call, since I have the keys now we could do this right away. I explain I am on my way to work and would like to be there for a few minutes before I turn around and leave. We agree on eleven, so I have time to make it back to the new place. (Predictably this means they do not arrive until noon). I talk to the parking guy who tells me he will get the movers all set up and it's all good. And yet, thirty minutes pass and the movers haven' made it back to the apartment. I am torn between not being there when they arrive and wanting to make sure there isn't a problem. I locate one of them, they parking guy told them their truck was too big. They asked for permission to parking on the street level parking (rather than underground) but are told that that entrance can't be blocked off for security and emergency exit reasons. The building guy suggests they leave the truck where it is on the street and just use there carts to carry stuff into the lot, down to the loading dock and then over to the elevators. Have I mentioned that today the heat index is 114 degrees with code red air quality?
The movers call their office and the office will send another guy to help. They tell me to go back and wait in my place. (I got a lot of reading done). So, apparently another guy from the building came out and said the truck will fit so they tried again and it did. Oh. And the freight elevator hadn't been available but then it was and so I got the key. And stuff started appearing in my apartment. (My cat hid in the closet). So, at the end of the day I have a place full of boxes. I have a place! Now, I just have to unpack.
A Moving Story: The Short Version
Had to find new place. Looked, web searched, Craisglisted, called, emailed.
Found:
Too small
Construction + weird
Small but got snapped up
No pets (even though the ad said pets okay)
No air conditioning (are you kidding me?)
Small but okay but then they gave it to someone else while I was out of town
Four other people already applying
Got wrong apartment number + nobody home
Two places we can't set a time I can see
Apply for one
Several that won't be ready in time for me
And, I finally get the (second) one I officially apply for - after rescheduling the movers twice and having to move in (stuff-wise) a day after I move out in part due to communication issues and a leasing person having to leave the office early. But I am now safely ensconced. Just need to unpack.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Books: Another Cool Site
I have recently found (with the help of a Bookslut) Field-Tested Books. They do not review books, they instead discuss the place where they read the book(s) in question and possibly the melding of the topic and place. It includes contributions from Wendy McClure and Whitney Pastorek, but so far I have a special fondness for Christina Talcott's contribution, since it involves the Little Falls Library, which played a part in my childhood also.
I know
I promise stuff. I whet your appetite with future tales of books and authors and moving. And then - silence. And even this entry is really me telling you I can't think yet. The heat, the stress (moving wise) have melted my brain. I was actually glad to head into work today because it meant I had to think about something else. At least part of the time. So, I have forgotten. But - not yet.
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