On Saturday, May 7th, we got a call from the driver of the moving truck who was going to be moving our stuff (we had, about a month earlier, settled on using Broadway Express thanks in no small part to the forums at MovingScam.com). According to the driver, our moving date had been changed to two days earlier than we expected and there was nothing we could do to try to resolve the issue until Monday, May 9th, the day before the driver wanted to pick up our stuff. Needless to say we freaked out a tad. We went over all the possible scenarios and decided, if need be, to just U-Haul the stuff from NM to NJ. It turned out it was just a miscommunication between the driver and dispatch. We did end up with a different driver but back on the original day (May 12th). Deb had some great help and got everything loaded in less than the space we thought we would need in just about 2 hours. Yay teamwork.
I caught a flight to Albuquerque on mid Saturday morning, May 14th. Got into Albuquerque at about 4:30pm. Rented a car. I was amazed that a car with only 4450 miles on it could have such an intense smoke smell — the previous renter must have been a severe chain smoker. I thought about switching but decided for the very small amount of time I would be in the car it wouldn’t be too big a deal. It was oddly reminesant of the first NJ apartment I was in (but the smell in the car was actually worse). The car was a Mitsubishi Galant. It seemed to be a nice car, easy to drive, lots of space (overall), but, the headroom seemed to be a little tight. I am about 6 feet tall – if you are shorter than me you might really like this car, if you are taller than me I would guess you would hate it. Anyway…
We threw a “we’re leaving Albuquerque” party in our mostly empty house on Saturday night. People started arriving about 6pm. It was a great mix of Deb’s friends and work associates and my friends and work assocates. Lots of great people and lots of time to talk, remember, etc. I think a good time was had by all, good food, lots of fun. Almost everybody we invited was able to make it, which was really great. After the party Deb stayed up pretty late finishing the last bit of packing our carry on and check-in suitcases (the tail end of her stuff, clothes, etc.)
We got up kind of early to drug the cats and head to the airport. While you could tell the cats didn’t like being in their travel carriers (and you could tell they were drugged) they were generally awake just very relaxed — meowed a little bit, but, generally tolerated the whole “fly across the country” thing pretty well. We got them settled into the new apartment and they seem to be taking to it well.
Until next time…