Moving Day!

In the seven years I've been in Chicago I've moved six times, not to mention the countless times I've helped friends move. It's never a 'fun' time, and more often then not it just plain sucks!

Yesterday I helped my little brother and his wife move into an apartment here in the city. Now, I was a little nervous things wouldn't go to smoothly, alright that was a blatant lie, I was terrified. He's the opposite of punctual, so I was expecting a late start. She's 'don't know my right from my left' challenged and was driving the Budget truck, so I was counting on several wrong turns and a handful of pedestrians to meet their doom beneath her tires. As it so happened they showed up on time, and actually maneuvered the monster truck with more control than I would have thought possible. (She still doesn't know her left from her right but, hey, it's kinda humorous... I guess.)

They opened up the back of the truck and I almost crapped my pants right there on the sidewalk! Who has that much stuff? They've only been married for a year! How do you acquire so much junk in 365 days that your older brother, a grown man of reasonably controllable bowels, nearly drops a deuce in his shorts at the mere sight of it all? It was going to be a long day.

Luckily they brought a dolly. I work with a dolly every day. I'm lifting boxes, shifting items, and transferring merchandise between stores. So, yesterday, I'm making the most out of every trip into the apartment; stacking boxes, lifting dressers, even taking the time to give my brother a little 'stock room extreme' dolly ride. We attacked the move with gusto and actually knocked it out in just under four hours or so, with relative ease. Unpacking still has to happen but I've served my purpose.

The only thing left to do is return the rental truck. Budget Rental! Harumph! Long story short we drive to the drop off point and they're closed with signs posted everywhere saying not to leave your truck there if you did not rent it there, even though their rental agreement said they could drop it off there. So we call customer service and they tell us to take it to another location which we find out from another renter has no room on their lot and is closing soon. Customer service sends us to a 24 hour Budget lot further west. They're full! We can't leave it there either. Meanwhile I have tech rehearsal for my show starting in less than an hour, I've been bouncing around Chicago in a truck with a directionally challenged driver, and we're all a little worn out from the day's move. Screw It! We dropped it off at the original destination and plan to write a strongly worded letter and complain for the inconvenience.

All in all, a pretty productive day. Besides the Budget debacle things went pretty smoothly, my brother and his wife can start unpacking and exploring the city, and I instantly have two more people to help me move next time. It could've been a lot worse.