Moving Tales Part II

My parents arrived on Saturday to help me pack up the rest of my apartment. Which did happen, after 6PM.  It got packed, even though I was incredibly overwhelmed by the whole process (and really packing boxes in a studio is not a fun experience). We were finished by about 11, and they went to a hotel for the night.

Sunday morning brought perfect moving weather (unlike the torrential downpours of Saturday) and coffee from my parents. The person I hired to help move me arrived on time. And we loaded up the truck and my parents’ car and drove over to the storage place. I chose the closest storage place, which has a very sketchy freight elevator. After we loaded our first trip unto the elevator I braced for the trip up. We went up a few feet (it’s a manual elevator). And something started clanging. I was told to figure out what was ticking out the back of the cage, and discovered some sort of metal instrument and moved it. The person running the elevator tried to start it back up. It went up a little bit and stopped. He couldn’t get it to start again. This worried him far more than it worried my parents and moving helper (and me). We just sat there and hung out, but the guy wanted to get out. He called another employee on his cell and asked him to check out the basement: turning the power on and off, checking the water level in the basement, moving things around. Nothing worked. The guy got more and more anxious and started mumbling about calling the fire department. I was just worried about the time. I wanted to get moving (literally) but didn’t mind the break, and the elevator was big enough that it was pretty airy. Finally, he was able to open the 2nd floor doors the slightest bit and then all the way. Luckily a step ladder was in the elevator. We then climbed out onto the second floor and took the stairs down. I’ve never climbed out of an elevator before…just seen it done on TV.

By the time we loaded up the second (and last) bunch-of-stuff, the elevator was working again. whew! However, the employee decided (and was correct) that I had more stuff than space. So, I had to go find a new storage unit and move the other carts of my possessions down to a different floor.

Thankfully, even with all the stress and angst of moving AGAIN, it went pretty smoothly. Thanks to my parents and the awesome moving helper I hired.

I’ll be moving back into Hyde Park (somewhere) in the fall.  I cannot wait to live somewhere for longer than a year.