The Blurgh

Gretch and I were conspicuously absent from posting last week because my cousin Andrew, who had been living in DC, has moved to Pittsburgh.  He graduated from American University the year before and had been working as a temp, but then he got a great finance job in Pittsburgh and he decided to make the move.  Being the good family members that we are, we offered to help with the move in any way we could.  Little did we know what we were getting into…

Moving to a different state amplifies the suckiness of moving by at least ten, but when moving from a DISTRICT, or, as my cousin likes to say, an occupied territory, it reaches a new level altogether.  Example 1: did you know that you’re not allowed to drive a moving truck within a mile of the white house?  We didn’t, but the Secret Service was well aware.

Gretch and I have moved several times in Pittsburgh, and we know a couple truck rental places that have always treated us well, so we offered to rent the truck up here so that it would count as an in-town rental.  My cousin decided against it because he’s getting reimbursed and wants it to be in his name, so Gretch and I borrowed my parents’ van and drove down.  We arrived last Saturday night, and went to bed as early as we could so that we’d be at least a bit rested for what we knew would be a crappy day.

We all woke up early and went to pick up the truck.  Two hours later, we were still waiting at the truck place because they had lost his reservation.  Even though we got there when they first opened, they were out of the trucks he had originally reserved, so he could either take a smaller one or one that could have fit three of his apartments into.  By the time we got back to his apartment in a frighteningly small truck, it was 11 AM, and we needed to haul ass loading the truck if we had any chance of getting to Pittsburgh before dark.  Andrew had a couple friends over to help, but he was on the 7th floor of one of the ubiquitous cookie-cutter apartment buildings in DC, and we spent half the time just waiting for the freight elevator.  It was a good thing we brought my parents’ van, because by the time we were done it was stuffed to the brim and there was a mattress strapped to the roof.

By 3 o’clock, we were finally on the road, but on our way out of town we got lost and ended up on Pennsylvania Avenue about a block from the White House.  After discussing our national origins and purpose in life with the Secret Service for an hour, we finally got out of the District and on the way back home.  We arrived in Pittsburgh at 9 PM.

Thank god unloading a truck takes about a quarter of the time that loading does, but still, it was one loooooong day.  The rest of the week we’ve been showing Andrew around town and helping him get unpacked, along with working and schoolwork.  It’s been nice, but utterly exhausting, and it’s great to have more family back in Pittsburgh!