I’m not sure which to call this one. Probably late Friday. I’m one of those people who doesn’t count a new day as starting until after I’ve gone to sleep and gotten back up.
Anyway, the reason we’re up so late was a birthday party over at the future in-laws. The birthday boy, aka ‘Mr. Paul’, provided the fixings for chicken or steak kebabs, and we had a great time assembling our meals and sending them out to be grilled.
We got talking about travel and flying, and there was one exchange that I need to share. My future Sis-In-Law was complaining about an annoying landing she’d had in Amsterdam where her plane aborted its approach and then went back up and circled for a while before finally landing. She said, “How often does a plane completely miss the airport!”
I replied, “Usually, just once.”
Whoops! Had a bit of an interruption there… It’s pouring down hail and rain, which once again is going to interfere with my lawn-mowing plans…
Actually, the convergence of hail and birthdays has reminded me of a long and convoluted story that I haven’t yet inflicted on shared with my readers, so I’m going to completely change the subject while still exploring a tenuous thread of connectivity.
A couple years ago I was moving from a townhouse that I shared with two other people to an apartment of my own. One of the residents was my friend Rob who was moving to a smaller place in the some complex, about two or three blocks away. The other person was my ex-girlfriend. Our relationship had broken up a few months before the end of the lease, but it wasn’t horrifyingly acrimonious or anything, so there weren’t too many problems living in the same building. She was moving back in with her parents just out of town.
My parents were on vacation in Ireland, so they’d driven down from the U.P. to catch their flight out of Detroit. If you’ve ever taken one of the tiny commuter flights between Detroit and Marquette, you’ll understand why eight hours on the road is the more comfortable option. They knew that I’d be moving, so they had me drop them off at the airport and let me use their mini-van. I had about a week of overlap between the beginning of my lease at my new place and the end of the lease at the townhouse. I figured that, if I could get some help with the heavy stuff, I’d be in good shape.
That week went by incredibly quickly, and I discovered that in my year at the townhouse my stuff had expanded to fit the available space. Hauling four or five boxes of stuff over every night barely put a dent in things. The more I brought over, the more I’d discover that needed to be packed up and moved. The last two days of the week were a panic of packing and hauling. And once I got a van full of stuff, I’d need to drive five miles and run it all up three flights of stairs to the new place. To top it all off, I couldn’t find anyone to help with the big stuff. The only people I knew who weren’t my current housemates were either ill or were out of town on vacation.
The last day of the old lease was hot and humid, about 90 degrees. If I recall correctly, it was a Saturday. Our lease ended at midnight, and at the very latest our keys had to be in the rental office before it opened the next morning. All three of us spent the whole day getting the last of our stuff out and the place cleaned up for the next tenants. I was already numb with fatigue from hauling stuff over to my new place until after midnight on Friday. Finally it was down to a computer desk and a couple of similarly hefty bits of furniture. I could get them into the van, but there was no way I could get them up the stairs in my new place. Desperate for help, I went through my phone book and called everyone I could think of. Nobody answered anywhere, except for at my friend Tony’s place.
It was a vaguely familiar voice. “Hello?”
“Hi, this is Matt. Is Tony there?”
“No, he’s out of town for the weekend. What’s up?”
“Well, I’m in the middle of moving and I could really use some help…”
“Hey, I’m not doing anything right now. You still in the townhouses?”
“Yeah! Let me give you directions…”
I had suddenly realized that I must have gotten ahold of Gene! He was this big burly black guy who I’d met through a friend’s Ars Magica game. Nice guy, kind of a square, wanted to be a policeman… I’d heard that he was rooming with Tony, but I hadn’t been over there for a while. All of this was floating around in my head as I did the best I could to get the last of the heavy stuff together.
About ten minutes later, someone rang the doorbell. I opened the door and saw a person I’d never met before. He said, “Hi, I’m looking for Matt?”
There was no way he was Gene. He was at least a foot shorter, much skinnier and the wrong color. From the confused look he was giving me, I could tell that he was expecting someone else too.
As it turned out, this guy’s name was Gary. He was the third person in Tony’s apartment. He’d moved in after Gene (who was out of town too) and we’d never met before, ever. He knew a different person named Matt who lived in the same townhouse complex, and he was expecting to help them move instead of me… But he was a friend of Tony’s and a good guy, and he helped me get a load of heavy stuff out of the van at the new apartment before he headed home.
Anyway, from early morning on Saturday, I worked through to early morning on Sunday. The last of my stuff was loaded in the van and Rob and I set to work on the last of the cleaning at around 5 A.M. My ex had gotten the last of her stuff out and departed around midnight. At 6 on Sunday we declared the job done. Rob and I dropped an envelope with our keys off at the rental office. He headed off to his new apartment, and I drove off to mine. I left the last load in the van (I know there was a washer and dryer in there, but I forget what else) and went upstairs to sleep. I woke up mid-day on Monday and realized a few things in quick succession.
I’d completely slept through Sunday.
Monday was the 2nd day of the month, so my rent for the new place was already late.
Saturday, the day I’d worked to exhaustion, had been the 31st day of the previous month.
It had also been my birthday.
Happy freaking birthday to me.
So that’s the tenuous thread relating to birthdays… I’ll explain the whole thing about hail tomorrow.