Dust in the Wind (or Cardboard in Brooklyn)

So Erin and I walk up the steps to our new apartment taking bets on whether or not our stuff was delivered. We resign ourselves to the idea we’ll be on the air mattress again. It’s 11:00pm when we walk in the door to be greeted by: OUR STUFF!!!

I’m not really the type to sleep when there’s a job to do, so I quickly set to work unpacking what I could. The movers did not put together all the stuff that they had taken apart, despite the fact they were obligated to. It seems they took their tip, drank our Gatorade, and left. Around 2am, Erin tells me it’s time to stop. We head into the bedroom and Erin plops down on the bed. We start to move it and here a pop. All four bed leg screws have been bent and the bed is now unstable. I can’t take them out of their plates because the screws are slightly stripped and completely bent. Erin and I take about 30 minutes unscrewing the plates from the frame, assuming we’ll just rest the frame on the floor and deal with it in the morning. When we get the plates off and lay the frame down, the cross beam that runs up the center of the bed is about 2 inches lower than the rest of the frame, and the bed rocks back and forth. Once again, we throw the mattress on the floor, prop the frame on the wall, and go to bed.

The next day, Erin and I finished unpacking the boxes and I get the suspicion we’re missing things. Sure enough, we’re missing between one and three boxes. And of course every box of books makes it, but the one “important” box, is MIA. Contents of said box:
All knick knacks sitting around the apartment (decorative)
Coasters
A number of toiletries including my razor
All of our framed pictures
Bucknell Diplomas
Erin’s engagement ring certification
Aunt Doris’s hand-made quilt
And of course, Erin’s jewelry box…

After another phone call to the movers, I’m fairly certain we’ll never see that stuff again.

So here’s our Visa commercial:

Miles Traveled by land: 4880 miles
Cost of moving: $2500
Cost of lost/damaged objects: $2000
Miles traveled by air: 1800 miles
Times someone mentioned the similarity of our names: 31
Phone calls placed to the mover: 27
Days living on the kindness of family/friends: 20
Number of total pages of blog posting describing the trip: 14
Number of states: 10
Wedding sites visited: 7
Number of shark attacks: 0 (despite it being shark week on the discovery channel!)
Sharing this experience with the love of my life: Priceless

Tune in tomorrow for our new friend.