Finally Back to Normal

For the last couple weeks we've been living an interesting life.  We were super anxious to get out of our temporary housing, and as luck would have it our apartment keys were given to us on the 29th of September instead of the 1st of October like we were planning.  Sunday after we got the keys we packed up and tried to move most of our stuff, so that I wouldn't be moving it on my own on Monday, or Marcus wouldn't have to take time off of work to help.  We got almost all of our stuff to the new place and then spent that night back in temporary housing with only the basics.  The next morning we packed up and left. 

We had honestly expected our sea shipment to be there by then, but it wasn't.  When Marcus talked to the person at Davis Polk working on it she said that it would be here by middle to end of the week.  No big deal.  We got to our place and some nice friends from the ward dropped off an air mattress to us.  We had one of our own (that we'd never actually used) and I thought with the two of them we'd be fine.  Our air mattress didn't have a pump.  Rather than go out and buy a new one, or trouble someone else for their air mattress I decided I would just blow it up.  It was a queen size mattress, and it took a LONG time to blow up!  I almost passed out a few times, but finally it got done.  I was actually pretty proud of it.  After the first night though I realized it was loosing air faster than the other mattress.  It wasn't completely flat, but it wasn't as full as it should have been.  I'd refill it a couple times a night, but finally by the end of the week we decided to borrow another friends mattress. 

Our stuff didn't come and didn't come.  Marcus asked about it again and the person at his firm then said it would be there on Tuesday at the absolute latest.  I thought, OK, I can do Tuesday.  Sitting in a completely empty apartment at night though, with no Internet and no furniture started to get to me.  The only thing to do was to sit on our hardwood floor and kill ants.  Our Internet was supposed to be hooked up.  We'd payed for the fiber optic, and came to find out that our buildings fiber optic box that they need access to in order to install it, is in the basement of our building.  But, it's actually used as a garage for a government building, and they wouldn't allow us access to it.  So after several days, and a kind neighbor lodging complaints on our behalf, we were told that it wasn't possible.  We had to have the DSL line put in instead, and we had to be put on a waiting list for the installer to come out, and it took another several days before it was finally settled.  Such a pain! 

After all this I was really starting to get frustrated.  Then we were told that our stuff actually wouldn't be here until Thursday.  It was a two day difference, and shouldn't have been a big deal, but everything else that had been happening, and the fact that Marcus had been constantly working pushed me over the edge and I was SO MAD!  I told Marcus I hated the lady at the office arranging it all.  And I pouted and was upset for a good day or two.

Everything finally came though.  Thursday the movers came and unpacked almost everything.  I didn't want boxes lying around, and since I hadn't packed us, I didn't know where anything was so I wanted them to unpack everything.  I told them just to take it out of the boxes and put it wherever.  I think that may have been a mistake.  I nearly had a breakdown Thursday night because there was so much clutter everywhere, but by Friday evening I had made significant progress, and now, we are finally feeling mostly normal.  We still need to decorate, but everything is unpacked, and all the boxes are gone, and that is a great feeling.  There was only one casualty during the move.  We bought a new bunk bed for the girls before we left, and it has a shelf of drawers that goes below the bed.  As they were unpacking it they called us in, and it was broken.  I thought the whole bed was ruined and almost started hyperventilating, but in the end the drawer had nothing to do with the rest of the bed and we were able to set it up without it.  They are having someone come to repair it. It should be fine.  I was amazed in New York by how quickly our packers worked.  I thought, wow these guys are much better than I ever was.  In the process of unpacking we found that was because they didn't actually pack much!!!  They left all the DVDs in our T.V. chest.  They left everything in the drawers, and the nightstand, and the desk.  It actually banged up quite a bit of our furniture and that combined with the broken bed made me think, what an idiot I was to have had all this furniture moved!!!  No wonder no one moves their stuff overseas!  I've already mostly forgotten it though.  We are mostly settled, and the pain of the move is already mostly forgotten.  Which means I'll probably make all of these mistakes again.  :)

Our sleeping arrangements for the first week and half in our new place.

 The empty apartment that we lived in for much longer than we intended to.

It wasn't actually as bad as it could have been, because I LOVE our neighborhood.  We are really in the heart of the city, and there is so much to do and see.  This is our street, and if you walk just to the top you get to the arch in the picture below.  The arch is right by the entrance to Retiro Park.  It is great.

 Avery making bubbles outside Retiro park.

  
The view from our window.  I usually leave this window open and right where those trees are there is a little restaurant with outdoor seating.  A lot of the time there will be an accordion player playing outside it for tips, and so I sit in my apartment being serenaded by accordion music.  It feels very European!  :)