The Moving Drama

During the last week of May, I was busy moving to my new apartment. Six months ago, I had never thought of moving out from my old apartment. The hassle of moving was particularly discouraging. But in the past couple of months, my current new roommate Anna Geyer found a 2-bedroom apartment that is better than my previous 4-bedroom apartment. Plus, I would rather live with a roommate whom I know than 3 new stranger roommates with whom I have to get acquainted. Furthermore, the new kitchen is bigger and more manageable.

On Wednesday, May 27, I rented a Zipcar (a Ford Escape to be exact) so that I could move my stuff in boxes to my new apartment. My colleague Feng Shi kindly agreed to help. My reservation was from Wednesday noon through Thursday noon. Everything was expected to go as planned: I was going to get the SUV at noon, grab a quick and cheap lunch at McDonald’s, pick up Feng, and begin moving boxes and small items.

However, at fifteen past noon, right after I placed my order at McDonald’s, I received a phone call from another colleague of mine. He needed help moving. Being nice, I offered to assist him after having moved my boxes. So I suggested helping him at 19:00 since I expected to be done with my moving by then. He said that would not be possible since he had to move out by then. Being very accommodating for the second time, I suggested 13:00. I thought of just giving him the help he needed first before moving my stuff. I did not like the idea of having to put my moving aside to attend to him in between. Not only my proposal was declined, he further demanded being helped at 13:30. At this point, I thought to myself — Is he not the one who is asking a favor? I have to say that I was not at all familiar with the notion of negotiating whilst needing a favor.

Being a good Samaritan, I decided to derail from my plan and help him. Since he mentioned that 19:00 would not have worked, I gave him the benefit of doubt. I presumed that he had a plan earlier and somehow it got screwed, and that he had to evacuate the building before dusk. I suppressed my frustration. At 14:00, I received a phone call from another friend who moved into my neighborhood before Anna and I did — she said that she was expecting us since noon and saw no one. A few days ago, I asked her to help Feng and I unload my stuff during my moving. I thought that she was going to be in her apartment and I could just let her know when I arrive with boxes. However, that was not the case. She actually made a trip from campus to the neighborhood just to help me out.

I asked a favor from her and I had made her waiting for me for 2 hours. Feeling tremendously bad, I apologized to her again and again. I was being late for fulfilling a demand that derailed me from my original plan.

Don’t you hate it when you plans got screwed for being kind, and that disrupts other parties as well?

It was certainly not a good start.

In the evening, when all of my stuff had been moved and unloaded, I unpacked some of my essentials. It was my first sleep over in my new apartment. I only had a handful of big furniture left in my old apartment — a bookcase, a L-shaped desk, a bed frame, and a mattress — which were taken care of on the subsequent morning when Anna and I rented a U-Haul truck. Though my bedroom was not completely set up, I was not going to complain. I had my air bed with me and a fantastic Internet connection.

Internet Speed Test

Later, I learned that the colleague whom I helped did not have any moving plans until the morning of his moving day. Apparently the thought of planning his moving on the very day of moving did not bother him at all. Plus, Wednesday was not his last day to move out. It was the Saturday of the week. But he had to move out by 16:00 (I think) because he was going to leave the town on the next morning. The housing office would have been closed by 19:00. I was totally speechless. At the same time, I think it was a blessing that I gave him the benefit of doubt on Wednesday. Otherwise I would have been infuriated.