SNAFU

Saturday we loaded two thirds of our belongings into a horse trailer and pick-up and sent them off to Haines, Oregon with Tim's mom. Tuesday the moving company came and loaded everything else to transport to DC. What's left is an apartment full of echoes.

First-time experiences, like our moving across the country, tend to produce SNAFUs which, at the time, can be funny at best or panic-inducing at worst. Here are just a couple of our own memory-making moving SNAFUs.

1) Being a control freak, and not having much control over much of this moving situation, I meticulously planned out my wardrobe for the week between sending everything off with the movers and flying out to DC. I hand-picked each outfit, down to the socks and underwear. I kept just the right number of items, and the perfect type of outfit for each day we have remaining in Eugene. Apparently, Tim had done the same, though probably not as meticulously. Unfortunately, we both left all of our undergarments in the dresser which is now on its way to DC in the moving truck. Replacing socks, underwear, and sport bra (for tennis with my family): $77.

2) For The Move, the company we contracted to transport our belongings across the country apparently hires out their jobs. A company called "Best West Movers" showed up to load our things and demanded that we pay 60% of our remaining balance plus packing costs to them in order for them to load the truck. This was not what we agreed to, but being in desperate need of their service and with no other recourse we wrote them a check. I was not pleased that we had been given the run-around, however, so I called the brokering agent the next day to explain what happened. The agent apologized profusely, saying that there must have been some mix-up and that the check we wrote would be torn up. Demanding justice from the moving company: $278 savings.

3) We arranged to borrow an air mattress for the week from one of Tim's coworkers. When setting up our temporary bed for the first time, however, we realized that it was actually two twin mattresses. On the plus side, they are really nice, comfortable mattresses (as comfortable as an air mattress can be), which is especially good considering my "sneezy-back" issue. Laughing every night at the crack between us: priceless.