Monica's Musings

So I just had some stuff on my mind. Random things that I wanted to share. Maybe I'll do this from time to time and make it a whole thing. I'll take suggestions for what it should be called, but for now Monica's Musings will have to do...

1. Our new neighbors get up at 6 in the morning and make all sorts of noise waking me and Joe up. We don't like being awake at 6 a.m. thank you. I hate to be a complainer, but seriously if this keeps up I'm going to have to talk to the landlord I think about asking them to not scream at 6 a.m. I can't believe no one has ever complained. It's been two mornings now this has happened.

2. Joe had jury duty today. It figures we've got a million things to do and he'd have to go. So I had to drop him off at the court at 8:30 a.m. and then quickly run the girls to school for 8:55 a.m. I got them there with a minute to spare. Although, since they weren't in their classrooms and I know the snails pace they walk at once they are out of my site I imagine they were still late. Good news is Joe was done with his jury duty by 11:30.

3. Some lady clipped my mirror today. I was stopped at a stop light on my way to bringing the girls to school and this lady in this big SUV(not that it was much bigger than my mini van) decided to make a turn lane where there was not one. She pulled up along side of me and our mirrors clipped. Thankfully she wasn't going fast and there was no damage done or anything, but I found the lady very rude. I looked in her car to see if there was any reaction or apology coming from her, but no she put her hands to her mouth as if to say oops, but never once looked over at me to even mouth an "I'm sorry". We were sitting side by side at that traffic light for a good minute too. When the light turned green I had to get out of the way of getting hit again too. Some people.

4. I am getting reimbursed from U-Haul for not getting the truck I had reserved. I'm actually getting back more than I was expecting. I would have been happy with the cost of mileage back, but they are giving me $50 back. I'll believe it when I see it I guess, but it's definitely nice.

5. I had a moment of panic today when I couldn't find my debit card. I completely forgot I had given it to Joe to pay for our gas today before I brought him to jury duty and he didn't give it back. So I was going through my purse and wallet worried that I had left it behind somewhere or some how it fell out of my purse and wallet. It was a relief to hear from Joe and confirm that he did still have it and hadn't handed it back to me and I forgot where I put it.

6. Unpacking is going slow. I do have my kitchen mostly unpacked, but that's about it.

7. CJ is very 2 these days. This morning he opened up his box of blocks and dumped them all over the living room floor and then proceeded to spread them all around and then got up to play with something else. I told him numerous times to put them away. He started to, but was playing with it a little and then would try to distract me with his cuteness and left them strewn across the floor. After numerous requests to get him to put them away I finally just did it myself and now I have blocks and he doesn't, but he doesn't seem bothered in the least. He also then told me "No" when I said it was nap time. Yup, he's definitely 2.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Tune in next time for more of Monica's Musings...

The U-Haul Saga

I don't know why I bother with U-Haul for our moves. When we had moved up here 6 years ago we had reserved a U-Haul, but never got it. We ended up having to get a Budget truck instead. Little has changed with U-Haul in six years.

I had hoped I wouldn't have to post about our move. I was hoping all would go off without a hitch and I wouldn't have been totally stressed out. But I went with U-Haul for our moving truck.

I had reserved a 17 foot truck for 10 a.m. on Saturday at our local U-Haul. Everything seemed fine when I did it Monday. We got to the U-Haul location shortly after 10. They were supposed to open at 10 and close at 6. There was no one there. We tried every single door to the place, but nothing. And of course neither Joe nor I had our phone on us. So we had to drive home to get our phone and try calling. I couldn't find the number in the phone book so I called the number on the door, but it was a fax number. So I called 1-800-GO-UHAUL. I was on hold with them for a while. I explained that no one was there and checked to make sure I had the address right. I did. They tried calling the number and they got a busy signal. So they were assuming someone was there. I said there is no one here we have tried every single door. So frustrated and already cutting deep into our move time I asked if there was another location near by that had the 17 foot truck. There was and they were transferring our reservation. So over to the other U-Haul we went. They were actually open. We went in, but they DID NOT have a 17 foot truck. It was reserved for noon so we couldn't have it. Grrr! All they could give us was a 14 foot truck. I was ticked. But it was a truck. So we took it. It was smaller though so therefore wouldn't fit as much. And you have to pay for mileage. So needless to say I was frustrated to no end at that point. But we had a truck. We went and loaded the truck and ended up doing the moving well into the night. So late into the night that our refrigerator did not make it up the stairs because everyone was too exhausted to do it. So we went to return the truck with the hopes of renting an appliance dolly the next day. However, the battery was dead. So we had to go get jumper cables and jump the U-Haul with our van. Then we were able to return the truck.

The next morning we got up all sore from our exhausting move. Went to get something to eat and then called the U-Haul place to rent the dolly. No answer. Hmmm, so I called 1-800-GO-UHAUL again. I found out that the place we were trying to rent the dolly from was open, but only for 15 more minutes. I asked why they weren't answering then. The lady didn't know. She said she'd try to reach them on three way to see if they'd stay open a little later. I guess she couldn't get anyone because the next thing I knew I was back in the automated system. I got a new person who told me they don't rent just the dollys without the truck. I was getting a little ticked off at this point in time. This lady felt the need to tell me she's worked there for 12 years like I care how long she's worked there. Whatever. She ended up transferring me to the regional office. There I was told if they aren't open they aren't open. Uhhh, that's just it they are open. Or at this point they were open when I called, but they weren't answering. I lost it and told them they didn't know how to run a company because of all the trouble we've had and I simply would like to rent a dolly so I could finish my move. Well, I got put on hold again. Then the person came back and told me I could go to this other location and gave me the number. They are open until 2 and if I called the guy would work with me. Well, we ended up going with someone else for the dolly entirely after this because I was just too fed up. All of the big stuff is now up. I have a few things left at the other place. But because we lost an hour of our move and 3 feet in our truck we are going to be making a lot of trips with our mini van to get the rest of the stuff here. I guess you get what you pay for with U-Haul. Next time I move maybe I'll have enough money to just hire movers to move us.