DON'T MOVE...prisoner
i feel so, so bad for one of my friends. over the weekend, an old friend from undergrad e-mailed me. remember the moving-company horror stories i shared about my sister using Mayflower? well, late delivery, a broken tv, or a coffee table with no legs pales in comparison to my friend's experience: she was itching to hightail it out of dreary cleveland, ohio, a city she came to call "the mistake on the lake". she longed to move cross-country to join her boyfriend in calif. to start a new chapter of her life out there. so she recently flew out to So. Cal., and now lives in dana point (near irvine, i think?). she hired North American Van Lines to move her belongings and ship her car. but smooth sailing it was not.
horror #1 = north american van lines sub-contracted a company called "Hillbilly Auto Transport", which lived up to its name. when her car arrived on the west coast, the delivery guy said there had been a "slight problem". turns out, the car above hers on the carrier truck--a junky shitbox '69 dodge coronet--leaked battery acid all over hers, rendering it corroded beyond all recognition. she's almost certain the insurance company will total it. but that's not all...
horror #2: north american van lines was due to deliver her stuff on sat. but after numerous calls to track down the driver, she received the message that there had been a "slight problem with the shipment". turns out the "slight problem" was that the truck had caught fire en route to california. all her possessions were turned to ashes: clothes & linens, books & cd's, kitchen stuff, and worst of all, personal treasures like photos, college yearbooks, diplomas, and various souvenirs & mementos. how horrible is that? to say she's devastated is a gross understatement.
i only wish i knew what to do/say. let her know i'm thinking about her? maybe send some type of care package? it's the type of loss for which one can never truly be compensated. but one line in her e-mail did make me put saturday's snark in perspective: she said despite the material losses, what matters is that she has her health and intact relationships with those around her. i guess that's true, and you especially realize it at times like that.
still, it doesn't change the fact that my friend has no underwear or socks. the lesson learned? DON'T MOVE! failing that, D-I-Y with a u-haul. finally, if a professional mover is your only option, you sure as hell better assume you'll never again see anything that goes onto the truck. mail/ship any belongings of importance, and take anything truly valuable in a suitcase onto the car/plane with you. once you hire a mover, you're at their mercy.
on a lighter note: guess who saw the harry potter movie? yay! excellent movie. double yay for my bladder: i didn't have to get up in the middle of the movie! prisoner of azkaban definitely did not disappoint. go see it.
