Booking a moving company

Who knew moving would be so expensive? And that finding a moving company would be so difficult? Not this girl.

All the websites make getting a price quote appear as if it’s going to be so easy. “Get a free moving quote today!” they exclaim. So you enter all of the information about the address you’re leaving and the address where you’ll be arriving, only to find out that your move is not a “long distance” move (for whatever reason Los Angeles to San Diego is not considered a long distance move, I don’t know) and you need to get in touch with one of their local partners instead.

The local partners are not so prompt to call back. Which bothers me, until I find out why – no one wants to give a quote until they’ve had a chance to see your place and how much stuff is in it. Which means no one calls back because they are all out of the office doing in-home estimates. And, of course, they only want to give quotes during business hours, which doesn’t work so well for a person with a 9-6 Monday-Friday schedule like me.

Out of the 8 companies I contacted, I only heard back from 5:

-       Ace Relocation (partner of Atlas VanLines): refused my business because they said their prices weren’t competitive for one bedroom apartments. Uh, let me be the one to decide that!

-       Jensen Relocation (partner of Allied VanLines): scheduled an appointment, this is the company I ended up using. To their credit, they were amazing on moving day. Only took them an hour to pack my kitchen and put everything I own in their truck to drive to San Diego.

-       Mayflower: gave a phone estimate, WAY too expensive.

-       Starving Students: also gave a phone estimate, not as expensive as Mayflower but still too expensive

-       Rebel (partner of Allied VanLines): scheduled an appointment; I won’t be using this company because they were not as accommodating as Jensen.

Neither United VanLines, NorthAmerican, nor American VanLines got back to me. Weird, why wouldn’t they want a new customer? Especially since going 110 miles to San Diego is not considered long distance. Oh well, not a big deal. The real winner is me, living back in San Diego again! J

Opposite Day – The Embodiment of Helpful – A Change of Scenery

I am moving to San Diego tomorrow, hooray! This change of scenery will be incredibly helpful for me and my sanity – no crazy incomprehensible traffic, no crappy rundown apartments… now that I think about it, I might not have a blog anymore once I move down to San Diego. So many less things for me to complain about! J

Stacked parking

In the land of too many cars and not enough parking spaces exists an adaptation called stacked parking. For those of you unfamiliar with this, stacked parking turns one parking spot into two (or more) by parking a second car directly behind the first. Which “seems like a great idea!” you say, as it has effectively doubled the number of parking spots from before.

However, stacked parking is incredibly inconvenient for both drivers. The person parked in front is at the mercy of the person parked in back, forced to wait until they are ready to move or having to ask them to move their car. The person parked in back has to go and move their car every time the person in front needs to go somewhere, even if they were not planning to go outside. And the worst is when you’re the person parked in front, and the person parked in back is not around, and you have to switch the cars by yourself.

When do I get my Go-Go-Gadget car with its Go-Go-Gadget Wheels and Go-Go-Gadget chopper blades? Come on engineers, we were supposed to have flying cars (see, The Jetsons) a long time ago.

People who crowd the elevator trying to get in while you are trying to get out

I imagine this has happened to you before – you’re riding in an elevator toward your desired floor, button lit up. As the elevator slows and the bell dings, the doors start to slide open. But before you can exit the elevator, you are practically trampled by the person/group of people who want to get in. Stuck standing and staring like a deer caught in headlights, you can’t get out of the elevator and they can’t move in. This awkward tango continues until the person/group of people outside the elevator step back or slide to the side. Why, you ask yourself, can’t they just wait one second for you to get out of the elevator?

It’s particularly bad on floors above the ground floor. As if the people waiting to get in the elevator expect people to get off the elevator on the ground floor, but not the floors above it. They’re always so startled to find someone coming toward them out of the elevator. Stop racing to get in, and the people in the elevator could exit with room to spare, avoiding the embarrassing “who’s going to move first” staredown.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not exclusive to elevators… it also happens on buses and subway trains, pretty much anywhere some people are trying to get out through the same door at the same time other people are trying to get in. Patience, people outside the door. The elevator/bus/subway train is not going to leave without you. And if it does, try using your legs! You could probably use the exercise the stairs/walk provides anyway.

Red left turn arrows (Courtesy of Alyssa Hooper Law), and major intersections without green arrows

Another traffic-themed topic, from another native Angeleno no less:

“I have an unhelpful topic - red left turn arrows. The green is useful, it gets people through the left, but it should go yellow, then fade back into the normal green light. I don't understand why I have to sit at the RED left arrow when there is no oncoming traffic. I can gauge my safety of turning left the same way I gauge my safety when I'm at a signal light with no left arrows!”

Speak it sister!

And speaking of intersections with no left arrows, why are they allowed to exist?! I suppose it’s understandable for a one lane by one lane intersection, or maybe even a two by two, but here in LA there are major intersections (Barrington and Pico comes to mind because it’s right by my apartment, but there are intersections that are way bigger than that) that are allowed to exist without green arrows because… the city can’t afford to convert the traffic lights? Who knows. All I do know is, the current “solution” to this problem is 2-4 cars run the red light because they are tired of waiting through cycle after cycle of light changes. Which then messes up the people who want to turn left on the perpendicular street… the needless frustration is endless. I swear, if a mayoral candidate were to run on the platform of bringing green yield arrows to all major (and many minor) intersections, they would totally win. Well, they would have my vote at least, and Alyssa’s too.

Localized heating units

Now that it’s starting to get chilly (by which I mean a brisk 66 degrees), I turn my heater on in the evenings to avoid frostbite and other dangers/irritants of being cold. However, this heater is a local heater, and it is in my living room. Which is not so much a problem for the living room; it gets nice and toasty. However, it is a problem for every other room in my house, particularly the bedroom and the bathroom. Even with my down comforter, socks, flannel pants, a shirt, and a sweatshirt with a hood, I can’t sleep because I am so cold. I opt for a space heater in this case, but in the back of my mind I say a little prayer that I don’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning or in a fire overnight. And getting into the shower in my bathroom is not much better… the bathroom “window” is comprised of thin slats, the kind of windows you might expect in a cabin at summer camp. Which means no matter how hard I twist the knob to close the “window,” cold winds blow into my shower and give me goose-bumps. Not so nice when it comes to leg shaving. I am SO over the apartment owners in this town, who have not upgraded their apartment units to standard utilities and appliances such as central heating, central air, and dishwashers. I’ll even compromise a little, and not ask for an in-unit washer/dryer! Just please, don’t make me wear my “sleeping bags for feet” – The North Face slippers that keep feet warm in temperatures down to negative 40 degrees. I know the Westside is the best side and all, but come on, this is ridiculous.

Apparently, high school teachers

Again, at a loss for what to write about, I visited my dear friend Google.com for some inspiration. This time I just typed in “unhelpful,” and the auto-fill completed my entry with “high school teacher.” The first TWENTY-SEVEN entries relate to an item on buzzfeed.com: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/17-examples-of-unhelpful-high-school-teacher

I wasn’t very impressed with the first five examples, which made me want to defend teachers’ honor (they have to do a lot of work on their own time, they have to be “on” everyday, etc.). But then I got to number six and started to recognize some of my past teachers… thanks for nothing, high school teachers. ;)

My personal favorites are (in no particular order except numerical):

6 – “You must bring your textbook every day” àEnd up using book twice (although this happened to me way more in college than high school)

8 – Bitches about late work àtakes two weeks to grade on-time homework (I do remember this being annoying, although I don’t know why… okay yes, I was and still am a super nerd who really likes gold stars… they’re so shiny!)

9 – “Good thing you asked, I’ll get to that in a minute” àNever answers question (This one you can hardly blame them for, everyone loses their train of thought sometime)

11 – Makes a mistake à”I was just testing you” (Ooh, this one is so annoying! For anyone who remembers Ms Benjamin’s 10^th grade policy of challenging faulty test answers and how I DOMINATED her, throw it up!)

16 – Ask a legitimate question à”I don’t know, you tell me.” (Ugh, I asked YOU, just say “I don’t know” for goodness’ sake!)

What are some of your favorites?