I hate moving!

Day 19 – April 30

After work I rushed to my temporary apartment and retrieved my carry on size rolling suitcase and a backpack and headed to my new apartment on the train. I arrived a bit early, so I checked for a wireless connection in the lobby of my building and did not find any wireless networks that I could connect to. :(

I met with my apartment locator agent and my landlord and got into the apartment. We went thru the paperwork and he gave me some instructions. When I arrived I have to tell you the apartment was a mess. He had been painting, there were tools all over the place and it was not clean. Very disappointing! He said that a cleaning crew had come through the kitchen and the bathrooms, but I think there was enough use after they went through that it didn’t look anywhere near clean. The carpets look like they haven’t been vacuumed in quite some time and the worst part was that it smelled really bad of stale smoke. Everyone that I talked to at work said that their apartment included sheets, towels, pillows and blankets in their “furnished” apartments. Mine does not have any of the above. I had packed one pillow, one blanket and purchased the set of sheets. However, the sheets I bought fit in the larger bedroom and there are no curtains in that room because they are at the cleaners and it will be nearly a week before I actually get curtains in my bedroom. I should note that one entire wall is windows, so it’s not exactly a liveable bedroom until I get curtains. So, my first night was spent in the smaller bedroom using the sheets that didn’t fit the bed properly and I had no blanket, so I used my one towel for warmth. I ended up with a migraine and did not sleep much in the end. I really hope to get some cleaning products and start scouring the place! I was so hopeful to have hangers once I got into the apartment and there are none, so I’ll have to go find some after I clean out the drawers and wardrobe. In all fairness to the landlord, the previous tenants were bad. They left a bunch of stuff and he had to clear out the apartment. They said they didn’t smoke and that there were 2 of them signing the lease. There were actually 3 of them living in the apartment and they all smoked and it was not a positive situation. I think he essentially evicted them. I did find out that there were over 40 people interested in this apartment and the primary reason that I got it was because I had a company backing me and that I used a relocation agent. I guess it makes me more credible than just someone off the street. Hopefully I’ll work on getting settled over the next few days.

Day 20 – May 1
This morning started out with complete craziness. On my train ride to work this morning, I got a call from the landlord of my temporary apartment telling me that I was essentially getting kicked out and someone else was moving in immediately. I had the temporary apartment reserved through May 2 and I told her that I wanted to check out on the evening of May 1 and that I had arranged for transportation for my move at 6pm and I would give her the keys then. Not quite sure how she missed the boat so bad on that one, but she said it was an emergency and that they had someone else moving in and she offered to drive me and my luggage to my new apartment. I had a meeting at work this morning so, I left at lunch and someone else had already moved into my temporary apartment on top of my stuff. AAGGGHH. Not cool. Then, the landlady drives a small BMW. Her truck was full of junk, so we had to unload it and to make matters worse, my big suitcase had to be squashed to even get just one suitcase into the trunk. A girl from work went with me because I said there was no way I could lift my massive suitcase on my own. We tag teamed it and got both suitcases in the car (one in the backseat). Then the landlady said oh, we have to take the cleaning girl back downtown too. HMMM. With the suitcase in the back there was barely room for one and now we had to squeeze 2 people in there!!!! The girl from work is tiny, so she and the cleaning girl mashed themselves in there. I felt sooo bad! Then we drove 30 min in lunchtime traffic to get to the new place and unloaded. I must say that I am really helpful that the girl from work came with me because the landlady didn’t even lift a finger. She just watched. This is definitely not the way that I planned this move! We caught the train and headed back to work. I still have to move the boxes from my office to my apartment after work tonight. My stuff is scattered, I can’t find any thing. Please friends and family remind me if I ever say that I want to move that I really really shouldn’t move!!!