Trying to be...
2004-04-26 - 9:52 a.m.
as for me....this is what the weekend plans were SUPPOSED to be:
leisurely day on Saturday.
Sunday morning, pick up UHaul in Danbury. Load in 2 pieces of furniture that would be at my parents house in Danbury (1 dresser for the baby, and a glider/rocking chair from my sister).
Pick up my brother in law around noon, go to Nana's (she is moving from a 2 BR to a 1BR in her same building). Pick up couch, coffee table and lamp.
Drive to Queens (1.5 hours), boys in UHaul, me following in car. Boys unload truck, we return rental truck in Queens, drop my brother in law off in Manhattan, and then are done for the day. Sounds complicated, but totally do-able, right?
well....let's say that it was fucked from the get go.
UHaul, despite making a "reservation" cannot guarantee you a truck until 7pm the night before. Many phone calls back and forth, with horrendous customer service. We finally get the word, at 6:45pm on Saturday, that we can pick up the truck in Danbury at noon on Sunday, but they couldn't tell us where we were returning.
that's right, couldn't TELL US where we were returning. No address, no phone number, no nothing. So we are back and forth on the phone w/both the local and national UHaul, and everyone is giving us bitchy ass attitude.
Meanwhile, my grandmother calls at 7:05 and is all nasty that my parents are out of town this weekend (planned before she chose a move date, and mind you, her building does the ENTIRE move for her, she doesn't have to do a thing) and that she's been working so hard all day and why haven't we called her yet she was worried sick about us, and sigh, she's been all by herself all day. (we did not have plans to see her on Saturday, at all).
At 7:10 I call my sister to finalize plans w/my brother in law. She gets snippy with me and says she thought we were picking him up "late on Sunday, like 4pm". I said "I sent you both 3 emails this week saying noon, how come neither of you told me that wasn't good for you?" (because she doesn't respond to emails, ever!).
She gets all snippy about how we are ruining her weekend, and I reminded her that her husband was the one who chose this date and time originally (after he agreed to help, we said "you pick the day that works best for you, we'll work around you!". She gets all flustered and nasty and says "I have to talk to him about this, I'll call you back!" and hangs up.
Meanwhile, the glider, which was supposed to be in Danbury (because it was hers, and she drives past my parents house to get to her house, which is 30 minutes away in the boonies, so I asked her to drop it off earlier in the week) is at her house in the sticks.
So now, not only do we have to pick brother-in-law up on Sunday (not a problem) we have to do it in the rental truck (on tiny, hilly back roads) that we get charged $.70 per mile for. We had, of course, anticipated picking him up in our car. So now we have an extra hour of travel time round trip, plus an additional $30 in rental cost for the mileage.
by 11:30 that evening, it was clear she was just not goign to call back re: what time we could ultimately come and get him.
It gets better....
as late at 11:30 am on Sunday, UHaul still couldn't tell us where we were returning the truck and were still being assholes on the phone and getting nasty with David. We ended up canceling with them, and going with Budget rental. The catch? have to pick up AND return to Danbury (which is 1 1/2 hrs from our apartment in Queens).
So we ended up picking up the van, getting my brother in law at 2pm (because we are suckers, and compromised to make my fucking sister happy like we always do). The van handled like shit on those tiny, hilly roads, and yes, we had all the extra miles.
We get to my grandmothers, and on the first trip out to the van (I promise, I wasn't moving stuff, I was only holding doors for the boys) she locked herself out of her apartment and got totally flustered (did I mention she's 93?).
We get back in finally, the boys load up and leave, and we realize they left behind the lamp. We never wanted the lamp in the first place, but my grandmother was all insistant. Now she's freaking out about the lamp and wants me to get them to come back...when I say that won't work, she wants me to carry it out to our car to drive back in to the City (it weighs a ton), etc.
I finally get her to mellow out, and we sit and visit while the boys do their thing on their own. I have nothign else to do but wait for my husband to return to Danbury w/the rental so we can then drive BACK to Queens again. Meaning, he will have been on the road, ALL DAY!
3 hours later I get a call from my husband, literally on the verge of tears. He got lost trying to get on I-95 (somehow got on going south, went to turn around, got lost in the south bronx). He is in a really horribly neighborhood in the South Bronx, at sunset, in a rental van he's not comfortable driving, and he's got a HORRIBLE sense of direction. I run outside to our car to get an atlas, and am trying to figure out where he is so I can direct him to safety, or at least a major road.
He is freaking out on the phone, afraid to turn around (because the neighborhood he just passed was even worse than what he was currently in). I finally figure out where he is, and start to get him oriented, and the cell phone battery dies.
So now my husband is lost in the South Bronx, I could tell he was totally panicked, and I have no way to get in touch with him. I only can hope he understood the directions I just gave him, so he can find his way home. In our 8 years together, I have never heard such a panicked tone in his voice. ever.
My grandmother calls at this moment to "check in on the boys" and I tell her I can't talk. My parents walk in the house, from Boston, and my dad proceeds to give me directions to give to my husband. I get frustrated and say "Dad, his battery died....I can't give him directions right now. I can't even get a hold of him if I wanted to!"
eventually, he called back (got some battery juice back) and was on track. He got back to Danbury around 7:30, and we returned the truck, went out to dinner (got him a BIG BIG BIG cocktail) and then drove back to Queens.
Our apartment was in shambles when we arrived (they had broken an overhead lamp getting the couch in the door). We still had to unpack and get organized, then we collapsed into bed.
Yeah, so that was my weekend.....
