Vernacular

An apartment without tables is not much of a place to live, so Coyne and I decided it was time to buy some furniture and household goods. We were off to Ikea with Kristin, who worked with Coyne at World Vision this summer, and who would prove very useful in helping us get everything done. We wandered through the maze of the Ikea showroom, searching for coffee tables, gawking at couches we couldn't afford, and watching kids run around and climb on all the furniture. We found a great "Lack" coffee table with a shelf almost right away, and headed down to the bottom to pick that up and browse for utensils, cups, and other fancy kitchen extras like pots and pans.

That wasn't all I was hoping to pick up at Ikea though. Like my friend Andy, my brother, and just about everyone else I know, I have a "Malm" dresser from Ikea. Mine has a bit of a problem though. You see when I was assembling it about two years ago, one of the horizontal slats going between the drawers on the front was… weakened. After opening the rather full drawer below it one too many times one side had broken and would hang off if I didn't hold it in place when I rolled open that drawer. Ikea has an "As-Is" section where they have damaged furniture and parts you can buy on the cheap if you need to replace something. If you are lucky enough to find the specific part you need, in the right color that is. I optimistically walked in and started on my quest for a new piece of Malm. After just a few minutes I was lucky enough to find the exact part I needed for 20 cents and I walked over to the self checkout with a very satisfied look on my face. We made a few more stops and came home to assemble our new purchases, play some Rock Band, and fall asleep on our living room floor watching season 4 of Lost. We still need a couch, and the internet gets here Wednesday.

Jesse and I woke up early Sunday morning to rush off to Disneyland so we could be in line for the park opening. We didn't run into any traffic on the way there and there was no line for me to get my shiny new season pass. We stood in line and they opened the gates to a flood of tourists and families with very excited kids rushing in. Jesse and I headed off to Tomorrow Land to relive our favorite, recently rebuilt ride, Space Mountain. There was of course no line since the park had just opened and before we knew it we were zooming around in the dark and having a great time. From there we went to Start Tours which I have to admit is showing it's age a bit as a ride. We then ate like kings, having delicious pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast before venturing off to all the classics like the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the followed by Indiana Jones, which was amazing as always, and then Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. We conquered Thunder and Matterhorn Mountain and decided to head over to California adventure. After hopping on California Soarin', the Tower or Terror, and waiting in line for California Screamin', and one last ride Tower of Terror, we decided it was time to head back to real Disneyland, because California Adventure is rather boring and has little to offer. We grabbed some lunch at Pizza Port in Tomorrow Land where we went to see the technology to tomorrow, today. After walking around in the rotating building, we saw a Segway course and I had to give it a try. Yes, the Segway is the most nerdy and ridiculous mode of transportation ever devised by man, but I figured it would be really fun to try it out. I picked it up no problem and was going through the obstacle course as fast as I could. After all that excitement it was time to call it a day and take Jesse out to Ontario Airport for his flight home.

Monday morning came too soon for Coyne and I. We had to once again wake up early so we could head over to the offices of the apartment we were finally about to move into. The woman in the office had just gotten back from vacation so she was not able to really help us until David, the head manager who Coyne had previously met with, came in 30 minutes later. We decided to fill the time with a trip to Doughnut Man for breakfast which was fantastic. After meeting with David and filling out a little paperwork, we were given our keys and we began unloading the U-Haul which had to be emptied and returned by 2PM that afternoon. We made great time unloading and had no problems getting everything upstairs and into our new apartment. After we got the U-Haul turned in, we excitedly returned to our new apartment, filled with boxes and disassembled furniture, to finish moving in a bit. After moving everything around in the hot sun, we hopped in our respective showers and got cleaned up so we could head to the Apple Store in Pasadena with a friend who was about to buy a new MacBook. We came back, and since I was so tired from the weekend and getting up early several days in a row, I decided to assemble my bed so I could take a nap. That felt amazing and lasted a bit longer than I had planned. I woke up and started trying to get my room somewhat in order then called it good enough for the night at around 1a before heading to Jack in the Box for some dinner. Coyne had set up our 52" HDTV that evening so we broke it in by watching a movie and fell asleep on the floor.

Yesterday was Friday. Friday was filled with me packing, and loading everything I own into the U-Haul, and Coyne driving down to LA to try to get the remaining paperwork filled out, and pick up the keys to our apartment. It wasn't a terribly hot day out, but with all the stresses of moving, it was hard to get everything done, and when my mother offered to help me load up, I couldn't say no. Thanks mom. We got almost everything packed up and ready to go by that evening and I felt almost ready. My friends Jon Bryant, Jesse, and Tori took me out for a night at the California State Fair to get me excited about heading out and we had a fantastic night, everything was falling into place. Then I got a call from Coyne.

After trying to get a hold of the office all day, and having been told that they would be there on Friday, nobody was there when he showed up, nobody picked up the phone, and we will not be able to get into our apartment until 8a on monday morning when the office opens. Now I have family friends in the area, and Coyne does as well, so it isn't so much a problem of where we will sleep, but a question of what to do with all of out stuff, carefully packed into the U-Haul and our cars.

Jesse and I made the drive down today. Supplied with walkie talkies, and a tragically expensive amout of fuel in the U-Haul, we were unstoppable on the road. Jesse led the way in the truck, I drafted behind to save fuel, and if we needed to pass a slow car of a semi, then I pulled out and blocked for Jesse to get over. We made an amazing team. Shake and bake. We made great time down to SoCal, and the Focus proudly made it the entire journey of more than 420 miles without filling up once.

When I reserved my U-Haul, I figured that when I went to pick up the truck, the people running the place would know more than me about renting from U-Haul. Clearly I was mistaken.

Weeks ago, I reserved a 14 foot U-Haul truck so I could move down to Pasadena. I have been getting everything in order for this and have been going absolutely nuts trying to figure everything out that needed to be done. I knew that life would get in the way and prevent obstacles, but I never expected this.

I got a call the day before my U-Haul was supposed to be ready to pick up and I get all the information I need about where to go to get my truck. I had called ahead to make sure everything was ready, and the girl on the other end of the phone sounded like she had just woken up, but said I was all set to head over. I excitedly head across town, passing plenty of perfectly close U-Haul stores on the way, heading to go get MY U-Haul. I get there and walk in to the sight of an empty U-Haul office, with the exception of a girl behind the counter, and what I believe was her father. I awkwardly stood there, waiting for my presence on the other side of the counter to be acknowledged, when the phone rings. Now I can understand that the phone needs to be answered, but there were two people on the other side of that counter, and last time I checked, it doesn't take two people to answer the phone. Clearly I was correct, because the gentleman on the other end of the counter stood there doing absolutely nothing until the girl got off the phone.

I am finally helped, I tell them I am here picking up, and they spend the next twenty-five minutes of my life trying to figure out how to rent me a U-Haul. There was a lot of staring at the computer and pamphlets, there was a lot of trying to call their supervisor who was not picking up the phone, and there was a lot of me waiting. After about the first ten minutes of so, I decided that this was ridiculous and I turned to my iPhone and Qik, a great service that allowed me to share my misery with the world by streaming live video from my phone.

Not only did it take a long time, not only did they seem confused, but they legitimately forgot to have me sign half the papers I needed to sign, and someone had to come all the way out to Roseville in a truck to meet me and finish the process because technically, I was driving a stolen U-Haul according to their system. U-Haul tried to make me happy and fix the situation by knocking a whopping $10 off of my $160 bill. Gee thanks, next time can I pay you an extra $10 to NOT be miserable?

Video of the Incident

Well it has been a busy summer. I was never sure it was going to happen, but tried to confidently move forward with moving, and getting on with the next part of my life. This week I have been packing up, going through the apartment and trying to figure out what is mine, what belongs to my brother, or my other roommate Andy, and what has been left by others as they have moved out. I am preparing to move to Pasadena, CA to go to Art Center College of Design where I will be studying Graphic Design and I couldn't be more excited.

Despite the excitement about a new place, new people and a new school, there is one thing that you can't avoid: packing is an absolute nightmare, unless you know how to do it properly. You need to keep everything organized, protected, and you need to have the right tools for the job. I want to recognize some of the unsung heroes of moving.

1. Cable Ties - Without these, cables end up in one box-shaped (or bag-shaped depending on how you pack them) tangle. I have a lot of cables to bring and set up between my computer, my entertainment system, and my gaming systems, not to mention chargers, iPod cables, and everything else you could imagine. If you don't keep these organized, you will spend many wasted hours searching and untangling the only cable that works for what you need.
   
   
2. Pallet Wrap - Have you ever picked up a nightstand or a file cabinet, only to have the drawers slide open, pouring the contents everywhere? I have, and if you haven't, you are better than me. Well wrapping those dressers, desktop organizers, and nightstands up with what is basically thick saran wrap will save you a lot of packing up the contents of drawers, and a lot of stress too.
   
   
3. Your Friends - They don't want to help you move. They just don't. The ones helping you out just couldn't come up with an excuse to get out of it. YOU don't want to move, so why would THEY? Buy them a pizza, and maybe a flight home. (Thanks Jesse!)
   
   
4. Boxes - I know this is a little obvious, but if it weren't for boxes, moving would take a lot longer, and would be even more of a nightmare, so let's here it for boxes.