Planning, luck and the kindness of strangers
At 2:40 PM on Thursday, I find out that Fedex overnighted my packages from Dallas. Instead of arriving in New York on Friday or Saturday (I’d asked for the 3rd day delivery option), they are going to be delivered at the latest in another 20 minutes. I rush home in a cab, or try to get there as fast as the traffic will allow me. On the cab, I call my ex-roomie in Dallas and between my sputtering and his, we figure out that the ‘standard overnight’ option may have been checked by the woman who picked up my stuff in Dallas.
As we turn from Park towards 1st Avenue, I mentally prepare myself to confront the sight of eight U-Haul boxes unloaded on the pavement outside my apartment, or the sight of no boxes at all (because delivery van had come and left as I wasn’t at home) At this point I can’t decide which will be worse, so I focus my energies on willing the cabbie to find a faster route home.
I get home to see my boxes stacked neatly below the stairs, next to the mail boxes. The saving grace is that they are inside the apartment, instead of on the pavement. One or two look slightly the worse for wear, but none of them appears seriously damaged. It is I who look devastated. By this time, I have considered what Fedex might charge me for overnighting packages I was in no dying hurry to receive. But that figures as item #29 on my list of items to worry about. Items 1 through 8 are how I’m going to haul these heavy boxes up two flights of stairs all by myself. Items 9 through 28 are the medical complaints I will have if I did manage items 1-8 by myself.
I go up. Call the ex-roomie again. He’s at work and promises to ‘look into it all’ in the evening when he gets home. I go back downstairs and pick the lightest box (and btw, they all feel that way downstairs) and lug it up somehow. The second lightest box is too heavy. I unpack it and bring the stuff up in two batches. By this time, am all out of breath and too afraid to notice the aches in weird places.
I call my office mate and tell her that am taking the rest of the day off. I’m on the verge of tears by now and she offers to come over after work and help me. I tell her that there’s no way the two of us could possibly move all that stuff. She ups her offer to include her husband and brother, so we can all move the stuff, even if piecemeal. I promise to call her back at 5 PM if am still unable to figure something out myself.
I get off the phone and burst into tears. I thought I’d panicked on the way over. I was wrong. This is what a real panic attack feels like. My whole life flashes before my eyes and it feels like every choice I’ve ever made in life has come back to bite me in the ass. All my talk of “independence” was just so much talk, wasn’t it? How would I ever make it on my own if I can’t manage something as routine as moving to a new city?
At that time, it somehow felt imperative that those six remaining boxes reach my apartment as soon as possible. I am convinced that if it came to pass that they had to remain downstairs overnight, it would be the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me. My primary concern was not about their safety (safety was the second concern). The thing I am worried about is that I would be an unmitigated failure at the life I had so desperately wanted to live.
I am sure that taking up my office mate’s offer of help would be an admission of defeat. Come what may, I had to figure this one out on my own. So I think about what my parents would have done if they’d been in my situation. Dad would’ve never been in a situation like mine. Or even if he were, he’d have managed to charm some kid on the road or the iron-pannravan or someone to come and help. But if nothing had worked out, Mom and Dad would’ve lugged the stuff, even if all they had to do it using 2 small yellow pai’s each.
I try to be objective about it. All I have is one Ikea ugly-big-plastic-bag-that-cuts-your-fingers-with-a-vengeance. It would take me countless rounds to get the contents from six boxes. And where would I put the stuff once I unpacked it? If I dump the stuff all over the apartment, where would I put the furniture once it arrived later in the month (or so I hope)? I need the stuff to remain in the boxes and the boxes to get upstairs. So the answer is simple. I couldn’t do this on my own. I simply accept it, without feeling guilty or ashamed about it. I need help and have no idea where to get some. My last ditch resort is to call Louie, the doorman from my friend’s apartment. Louie’d helped carry my suitcases when I got to my apartment last week. He might know some kids who might be willing to help.
But I remember seeing a flyer for $15-an-hour-movers on the road the previous day. So I lock up and go downstairs again. I wander around looking up every tree and upright object on the pavement. There is nothing today. On the walk back home, I notice a moving truck parked across the street from my building. At first it looks like there was no one in it. But I walk around, just to make sure
Lo and behold – movers. Men with the strength and expertise to do precisely the things that stumped me. The third guy I speak with (and by this time my story’s gotten crisper with each re-telling. I mention ‘across the street’, ‘six boxes’, ‘two flights of stairs’ and make no mention whatsoever of Fedex or of my hopes and dreams of single life in New York) acts. My knight in shining gets the first man I spoke with and the two of them slip out and carry my stuff upstairs in under 10 minutes. I have to chase after them to give them a tip. I’d have hugged my knight and offered him my first born if I didn’t have to hold the door open (the keys are upstairs).
When I see the boxes neatly lined up in my apartment, for the first time I start to feel that this city and I might yet hit it off. But after the relief-driven euphoria wears off, I realize how very close I was to the world falling about my ears. I have been planning (or at least thinking about this move) for weeks. I even did my research, however rudimentary it may have been. Got quotes from 2 movers and from Fedex and UPS. My choice of Fedex was based on factors that included cost, expected pick up and delivery dates, ease of pick up and door to door delivery. When the move finally happened, I had zero control over it, and all of my “factors” were shot to hell.
It was bad luck that the delivery ended up being expedited…bad luck that I didn’t find out about it at 2 (the delivery happened at 2:46)…good luck I didn’t get home at 4 (movers across the road would have left by then)…good luck that nice Brit mover was willing to help. So, planning’s a load of crap. Or did I get lucky because that couple down the road had planned their move today?
Trying to draw lessons from a stressful experience immediately after the experience is rarely a good idea. I decide to make myself a nice cuppa chai. Remember I’d run out of milk. As I cross 87th street to get to the local Food Emporium, I hear a hissing sound behind me. I turn back and see an Asian man whose bicycle tire has started to spontaneously deflate. The man gets off his cycle, and fiddles with the tire. The hissing continues. I wonder what he’d planned for the day…
Comments (5 comments)
As i was reading this, i felt frustrated that i wasnt there to help. I cant see people cry (I am working on it) even if some cry “gator tears”. Moving is always a pain and its even bigger as you mentioned if it is another city or state. I am moving city not state at the end of this month. wanna help out? i make a great cuppa chai
Jeet / September 19th, 2006, 11:41 am / #
[...] நியு யார்க்… நல்ல நியு யார்க்… வீடு விட்டு வீடு பாய்ந்த கதை. [...]
கில்லி - Gilli » Planning, luck and the kindness of strangers / September 19th, 2006, 2:34 pm / #
Jeet: Awwww. Thanks for the offer of help. Good luck with your own move!
கில்லி: Thanks for the ref.
DoZ / September 20th, 2006, 10:45 am / #
Thank you, SFGary!
DoZ / September 26th, 2006, 9:01 am / #
ohh..i do know the complexities that arise out of moving all by yourself.. last week, i had to help a friend of mien move his couch to his new house and it turned out to eb a major engineering problem.. all my basics of engineerign were put to test and finally we got it through… it was a great feelign though later..
good luck in setling in nyc
B / October 4th, 2006, 12:16 am / #
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