Moving Tales

In tribute to the director of Batman Begins (good superhero movie) and Momento (indie film about short-term memory loss which is narrated backwards), the story of Friday the 17th of May in reverse will be told. [No Yoda pun intended.]

Consider yourself cheating if you read from bottom up.

SATURDAY

• 10:00 am: Squirt pops out of the heating vent! Exclamations of shock and awe -- and frustration at her ever increasing list of "tricks." Three kitties? Check.
• 9:58 am: Walk into bedroom where 3 fuzzies were supposed to be corraled while cleaning took place in the living room. Only see 2 out of 3 kitties in the EMPTY room: walls and carpet are bare. Where's fuzz # 3??
• 2:15 am: Air America radio webcast freezes. Davinder is already asleep. Apartment is unnaturally quiet.
• 2:00 am: Nietzsche continues to sniff & rub up against same spot on the wall for the umpteenth time. [Note to self: research C-OCD, i.e., Cat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder]
• 1:50 am: Crawled into inflate-y bed covered with two king-sized comforters while being circled by three still anxious-looking fuzzies.
• 1:30 am: Returned to empty, spookey, dirty apartment with no furniture, lamps or boxes but plenty of dust bunnies and wireless internet access for laptop.
• 1:00 am: Picked up McDonalds at 71st and Broadway.
• 12:30 am: Miss exit for Lincoln Tunnel even though we've made the trip from Metuchen to NYC a hundred times.
• 12:03 am: Leave moving truck in the dust at NJ Turnpike entrance booth -- they don't have EZ pass which helps inflate their travel time ($95/hour).
• 12:00 am: Notice two boxes left on the sidewalk. Garage already locked. We have no key. Put 'em in the back of the Subaru (which has come in very handy the last few weeks)
  

FRIDAY

• 11:50pm: Yeah!! We're moved ... into the garage of a house we don't own yet.
• 11:45pm: Unpacking takes only 45 minutes. Surprisingly, movers can move fast when they have a reason to.
• 10:45pm: Charged for 1 1/2 hours of unpacking and $230 for boxes (for framed pictures which we didn't wrap because of promise of free bubble wrap).
• 10:30pm: 90 minutes of travel time. Hmmm....
• 9:30pm: After going south for a few miles, all lanes of NJ Turnpike South are closed and traffic is diverted to exit. Chose to use non-EZPass toll booth to ask live person about detour route. The problem is we used EZPass when entering the Tpke so we have to produce the EZPass and car registration for the toll booth attendant to fill out some form -- who knew! Wait in front of toll booths while movers go through non-EZPass lane. [Lesson learned: If you have EZPass, don't try to lead a vehicle with no EZPass.]
• 9:01pm: We're off to NJ. Should be an uneventful 45-60 minute drive at this time of night (takes us about 40 minutes with no traffic). NJ Turnpike, here we come. Radio has no reports of traffic problems.
• 9:00 pm: Remaining lamps and framed prints packed into Subaru.
• 8:00 pm: Report from movers: truck is full.
• 7:34 pm: Nietzsche is returned to closet and door is taped closed to prevent further breakouts!
• 7:32 pm: Nietzsche manages to slide the closet door open -- with her paws and face -- and breaks free. [We can only imagine what went on inside the closet, but here's our guess: Nietzsche looks around and sees other two fuzzies, thinking, 'I don't know about you guys, but I'm not staying in here.']
• 7:30 pm: After twenty uneventful minutes of Scout and Squirt in the closet, Nietzsche is moved into the closet to join them.
• 7:10 pm: Scout and Squirt are moved from their carriers to the closet containing the litter box. It's been a while and maybe they need to go potty.
• 7:00 pm: Pace of move starts to slow down measurably. Movers smell like smoke -- Smoke Break TV?
• 5:00 pm: Lucinda takes a nap on bedroom carpet while movers shuffled furniture around her.
• 4:10 pm: Threatened with $1 per foot charge for bubble wrap, $40 for bed wrap, packing tape charges, etc., Davinder pulls out contract: only charge for boxes; bubble wrap, tape and furniture wrap are FREE. Do they believe us with copy of contract in hand? No. Calls are made. Items are confirmed. Success.
• 4:00 pm: Three hours late, moving truck arrives. Move out hours are strictly 9 to 5, but Davinder manages to convince the super to let us go past.
• 3:30 pm: Call moving truck driver and are told he's minutes away.
• 3:00 pm: Call moving truck driver and remind him that the building only allows use of elevator until 5pm.
• 2:00 pm: Call moving truck driver to check on status. "Yeah, we'll be there in about 40 minutes," he says.
• 1:30 pm: Davinder calls moving company to see what's up with the truck and gets drivers number. Calls driver; he's 1/2 hour away at the Brooklyn Bridge.
• 1:15 pm: Lucinda and Davinder lounging on couch with nothing to do, discussing meaning of life. They are ready for movers on time. Hmmm...
• 1:00 pm: Nietzsche is spotted under the bed. See her moving to the other side so we go to the other side and look under the bed but there's no Nietzsche. In the words of Kaiser Sozay from The Usual Suspects, "Poof. She's gone." (OK, maybe he said "Poof. He's gone" but close enough). Upon further inspection, Davinder sees a bulge from bottom of box spring. Trying to avoid being put in a carrier like Scout and Squirt, Nietzsche has crawled up INTO the box spring of the bed through a tear (perhaps a plan hatched many years ago by the fuzzies, akin to digging a hole in your jail cell and removing the dirt little-by-little in the play-yard through your pants pockets...but without the dirt and the fuzzies have no pants or pants pockets). After pushing the boxspring up on it's side, Nietzsche is forced to come out but puts up a small fight while both Davinder and Lucinda squeeze her into her carrier. Phew!
• 12:45pm: Time to round up the fuzzies and put them in their carriers for everyone's safety.
• 12:00 pm: Mover notifies us they're having a sub-contractor moving company handle our job to avoid delay.
• 11:30 am: Moving truck flips over on the way to pick up our stuff. No one is hurt. Truck is down for the count. "Not to worry," says mover. "We'll send another truck but with a slight delay."
• 10:05 am: Learn closing on house in Metuchen will be on Tuesday -- same day as 185 West End Avenue closing.
• 10:00 am: Learn that builders finally have certificate of occupancy: 3 days after turning in paperwork. Normal process takes four days although builders had scheduled closing for Wednesday, allowing only ONE DAY for paperwork processing. What were they thinking? Probably not much.