Moved out the day before yesterday, traveled 3 hours south with all my belongings, moved in yesterday, and tomorrow I'm heading 3 hours up north.

Pure madness. It has been, so far, the most eventful moving experience ever. Before the move we knew I had a 24 hour void - I have to move out by noon on the 31st and can't move in till 1st at noon. So, the initial plan was that on move out day, D will pick me up at 9.30am, we'd go pick up the cargo van at 10am, load everything and move out by 1pm. Depending on time/space/mood, we might drop by Ikea on the way south to purchase a couch. We should arrive before 8pm ish at this hotel we booked, located downtown within walking distance to the clubbing area and restaurant areas so we can get dinner/drinks, and D and R can go clubbing. The next day, we move in at noon.

So I stayed up all night to get everything as packed up as possible. Morning came, D came to pick me up with Starbucks coffee. We got to the van rental place, told them we were there to pick up the van. "We don't have any cargo van." "What do you mean you don't have any? We booked one." "Ahrr.. let me check the system... oh, you know, sometimes ppl don't return vehicle on time.... I'm sorry, we don't have any... and no, none of our locations in Edmonton has a van for today."

Any swear words would be an under-representation/statement of how we felt at that time. We drove to another 2 car rental companies, called another. Everyone told us the same thing - it was a long weekend, everyone was moving, the city was short on rental vans/trucks. We ended up at Uhaul, initially getting excited at the sight of 10 trucks sitting at the parking lot. We walked into the office and saw the longest line up ever. While standing in line we frantically searched for other options online through R's iphone, but it was a sunday so other than a few major companies, the rests were closed. D went to talk to a lady at the parking lot just to scout out our chances... somehow she happened to be the store manager. She told him we should come back at 1pm, because there were cancellations but they were too busy and can't deal with new reservations until the morning crowd was over. With hope and still standing in line, I called 1-800-go-uhaul thinking that I might score a reservation (since there were cancellations) through the online system. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I was told even if there were cancellations, they had a waiting list, and those ppl would get the cancelled trucks. I told D about the uplifting news. He went to check with the manager on the chance of us actually getting a truck if we came back at 1pm. The moment she heard we were actually moving out of the city, she told us we should forget about it, they only deal with in town rentals, and if you take the trucks out of town we will be charged per kilometers.

At this point it was about 11.45am. We had a shit load of boxes, an apartment to vacate, a hotel reservation, and no moving vehicle. I called the Resident Assistant and told him there was no way I can move out by noon. Call me if anyone needs to move in immediately.

We know D's minivan won't be big enough to fit everything. So I called up the person who somehow, always help to solve my problems - K. She was back in town for the long weekend from Calgary. She has a Subaru hatch back. Maybe with 2 vehicles we can fit everything in, though we will have to leave R behind. She had 30 minutes before she had to go to a movie, so she came right away to access the situation. Tight, was our conclusion. Nonetheless, with the time constrain we loaded her car with as many boxes as possible and off she went to see Harry Potter. Looking at the remaining things we realized it would still be hard to fit all the awkward pieces of furniture in D's minivan. So we headed back to Uhaul, thinking we'd just pay whatever we need to get the in-town vans, if they have any. I told D to turn on his charm. He said he can put on a tank top. "Please do", I said/laughed, "I'm sorry we have to pimp you out a little, but these are desperate times and we need all the help we can get." So he did. We decided I would work the stressed-out-helpless-asian-girl at the brink of breaking down role if necessary. (Looking back, we definitely handled the stress quite well... coz make no mistakes, we were quite stressed out at that point and I have no idea why we were still able to joke around). He found the manager, talked to her, she said she has one truck available, but she has to call her boss to get approvals for bringing the truck out of town.

We waited for another 30 minutes while she sort things out over the phone... They were so fully booked that she can't make new reservations till the weekend was over. So she worked around it by making the reservation for after the weekend, and then changing it to the current day. At 2pm we finally have a Uhaul truck that seats 3! I was so overwhelmed I almost teared up because:
1. We did it! 4 hours later we finally found a damn truck! (We are invincible!)
2. I really had to pee.
3. I've had no sleep the night before so I was really tired.

So we stopped by Ikea now that we have tonnes of space. K happened to be at the cinema next to Ikea, so I texted her to call us when she's done so we can transfer stuff to the Uhaul.
We were also hungry so we ate at Ikea. It was 3.30pm when we finish eating. We proceed to couch testing. I was tired and very suggestible so D and R were pretty much the ones making all the decisions at this point. We ended up buying a couch, 2 pillows, 2 coffee tables, and a shower curtain. 700 dollars was spent. Karen showed up right after and we moved everything. We left Ikea around 6pm to go back to my apartment for the rest of my stuff.

We took off at 8pm. Had dinner at Mcdonald's midway. Got to Calgary at 11.30pm. Checked in. Showered, had some drinks. Slept. Woke up the next day at 10.20pm. Showered. Check out at 11am. Had breakfast across the street. Signed lease and everything at 12.30pm. Start unloading around 1pm. Finish unloading around 2pm. Ordered pizza delivery and started putting together the couch - the boys were adamant about helping me with that before they leave. Cable guy stopped by and chatted with us while he set up internet/tv and we put things together. Pizza arrived around 2.50pm. Cable guy left. Finish eating around 3.30pm. I went to set up my bed while the boys work on the coffee tables. Finished those around 4.30pm. Just when they were leaving K arrived so we all met up again. We said good byes to the boys, and Karen and I hung out, had tequila and Indian food for dinner. She went home at 11pm... and I went to bed at.. I can't remember.

That is the story of how I got moved to Calgary. Moral of the story? 1. Good friends are important, 2. Hot friends are important if you need to move and have no truck, 3. I must have been a saint in my previous life to deserve these ppl around me.

I am sure it would have been quite different if I were by myself. For that, I am grateful. And I love them eternally. Well, not really eternally, but you know what I mean.