No Photos, Please

I'm alive!  It's been one hell of a month.  I'm going to just skip ahead to the weekend, let y'all know how the move went, and just go forward from there.  How's that?

Thursday night, Eric and I met up at the leasing office to do our walk through and sign the lease.  We were cutting it quite short, getting there a half an hour before it closed for the night.  The manager of the community stayed long after they closed to make sure we had time to go over everything properly.  He was so friendly and helpful, especially considering it was the end of the day for him.  He even gave us one of our keys so we could start moving in early!  Eric and I talked about doing something nice for him and the agent that "sold" us the apartment.  Ideas?  Starbucks gift certificates won't work since they don't like coffee.  :(

So moving day came early, and to make it brief, here's a summary of all of the things that went wrong (please keep in mind that our apartment is on the fourth floor):

• The elevator broke while we were unloading the truck filled with stuff from Eric's house
• Eric's super-nice dining room table fell out of the back of my SUV while they were trying to drive it slowly up the parking deck, scratching it all to hell and nearly killing Eric in the process
• Aadil twisted his ankle
• The glass of a painting that is very dear to Eric broke into a million billion pieces
• A thunderstorm rolled in right as we were loading the truck at my house
• Said thunderstorm caused a power outage to our apartment complex, causing the gates to remain shut, and locking us out
• Once we were able to get in to the complex the elevator, which had since been fixed, was inoperable due to said poweroutage
• The thunderstorm caused the rain to fall sideways, onto the balcony, where Eric had put the painting, who's glass was now broken, allowing rain to fall onto the actual canvass
• At one point, I looked down from the balcony to see Eric and a friend stacking several pieces of furniture on top of each other to carry up the stairs; I said "I really hope they don't drop all of that" and literally 5 seconds later, my nightstand was in several pieces
• Did I mention Eric had an essay due in his online course, which requires internet to send, which we did not have due to the power outage?
• Upon returning the truck, finding a hotspot and turning in his essay, Eric came back to the apartment and promptly locked his keys in his car - with the lights still on
• To top off the night, the backpack he was carrying broke as soon as he stepped inside
• And bonus crazy: a large tree branch fell in my (old) backyard, onto the roof of the shed, and causing the tree itself to weaken and threaten the safety of the house during the next storm.

That's all of the things I can think of.  On a positive note, both Comcast, and the guy delivering our washer and dryer, came before the elevator broke and the power went out; we had excellent customer service from  Comcast (shocking); even though the power was out for over 3 hours, Publix stayed open due to their generators powering the registers, and we were able to buy candles and (more) beer; miraculously, the painting doesn't seem to have run or been permanently damaged; AND, J-dog got a clean bill of health, a bath and furmination, and I got a reasonable quote to remove his pesky dew claws - he's ripped them out twice. :( 

So the move did not go as I had planned or expected.  I was hoping to have everything in the apartment by 2:00 p.m., and I think we finished unloading around 8:00.  I was hoping to have unpacked the kitchen and cooked everyone a huge pasta dinner as thanks, and we ended up ordering more pizza.  But I have to say, Eric and I are so incredibly blessed to have the friends and family that we do, who persevered through injury, rain, and power outages to help us.  So thank you Aadil, Nate, Patrick, and Aleksander.  I'm shocked you all stuck around for as long as you did.  And thanks also to Kristy, for coming over afterwards and bringing your sparkling personality to brighten the mood, like you so often do.

ETA:

I think all of mine and Eric's luck must have been redistributed, and I'm okay with that.