Our Worst Anniversary

I need to update my blog. Jeremiah's mom starts asking when I'm going to update it when it's been too long. Thanks for the encouragement! I don't have any recent pictures, so I'll just add some random pics.
Moving week was terrible! My friend, Christina, came over every day to help me pack stuff up. Thank goodness for her! I don't know how I would have done it without her!
Thursday morning was moving day. Jer and I woke up early and got to work. Jer went to pick up the moving truck, and I worked around the house. We started loading the truck and about an hour later, Christina and Glenn (a friend) came to help. It took us 2 trips to get everything to the new house, and after the 2nd load, Christina and Glenn went home. Glenn had been up all night on night shift and hadn't slept at all. Jeremiah's troop came to help unload the 2nd load. It was harder in the dark, and it was quiet hours, so they had to be careful. I was inside going up and down the stairs taking boxes and bins to the right rooms and clearing a way for the big furniture. We got to bed at 12:48 am.
Friday. July 31. Our 6th anniversary.
We woke up at 5:30am too tired to get moving quickly. We'd scheduled a couple weeks beforehand for the cable to come on Friday and hook us up at 2:00 pm at the new house. Well, the day before (while we were moving) they called and said they couldn't do it then and had to come in the morning. That really screwed up our plans. We had to be back at the old house (25 minutes away) in the morning to finish cleaning and for the meter reading. So, it was decided I would go early with Jer then come back here (the new place) to wait for the cable people. Here's how the day panned out:
We got in the moving truck and found a gas station to fill up (or be charged horrible amounts from the rental company). It wasn't as easy as we thought since we couldn't figure out how to get the gas cap off. Luckily there was a trucker there filling the station with his petrol. I asked him to please help us. We paid and left to take the truck back to the rental place. We rented it for 24 hours and had to turn it in before the time was up. They were not open yet, but we were able to drop it off and turn the key in to the hotel. We knew we'd have to go back later to sign and pay, etc.
Our car was parked in their lot, so we got in and drove to the old house where we met the new tenants. We gave them our keys and I furiously started working. I'd already scrubbed the toilets, sinks, showers and tub, and swept the top 3 floors and stairs, but the basement was the worst and I had to finish sweeping that before I left to go back to the new place to wait for the cable people. We also had to load up the car with the rest of the boxes and crap that was still there. I told the new tenants I was really sorry that the floors were not mopped yet. I told them how we were screwed by the cable company and I would have to come back later to do it. They were really good about it and weren't worried at all. I left and Jer stayed behind (his motorcycle was still there).
Jer called the landlord to tell her everyone was there and they were ready for the meter read (they do it a little differently in Germany). The landlord told him that she would be an hour cause she wanted to eat breakfast and walk her dog. Whatever! She told us before that we should just call and she'd come over. We tried to schedule a time with her, but she said to just call. So, Jer had to wait around for her. Then apparently she thought she was doing an inspection too and walked around the whole house shaking her head making snide comments about the dirty floor, even pointing to spots and shaking her head, tsking. When she looked at the mown grass in the yard she said, "Do I even have to say anything?" Jer wanted to punch her. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there cause I would have been rude back. But we needed our deposit back, so Jer held his tongue. He also told her from the beginning that I was planning to come back (with the steam cleaner) to clean the floors, but it fell on deaf ears. The new tenants are really nice and had no problem with it. They knew it wasn't my fault I had to leave. And everything was clean already except for mopping the floor.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting at home on the long couch dozing off waiting for the cable people to show up between 8-11:30am. Next thing I know Jer walks in and I tell him they haven't come yet. We don't know their phone number and can't get online to find out, so Jer calls his work to ask someone. The cable company says they'll call the technician, who will give us a call. At that point I decide I'll run to the commissary really quick because we had no food and I couldn't see another time to be able to do it that day. And our new house is now close to base. Yay!
While I am at the commissary:
The cable people come by and Jer shows them where we want it hooked up. Then they go into the basement to see where it comes into the house. Cable has never been hooked up in the house. It runs to the house, and that's it. So, in order to install it, they needed the landlord's permission. (We checked with the cable company before getting this house to make sure it is offered here, and checked the speed of connection, as cable here is spotty). I happened to have both house keys with me. In Germany the houses lock automatically. Their doors and locks are different here. There are no handles or knobs to turn on the outside of the house. You have to have a key to get in the house. I had my keyring, and the one on the car keyring.
Anyway, the cable people told Jer he would have to reschedule when the landlord was there too. Jer refused and told them he would go get the landlord (his phone number was not programmed into our cell phones--FAIL!) who lives around the block. So, he came back with the landlord, who by then was off work because it was a Friday and most Germans don't work on Friday afternoons. The landlord didn't want unsightly wires all over the house, so decided to NOT have cable installed, but gave us another internet company that is "much more reliable" and has a "very fast" connection. Towards the end of the conversation, and as the cable people and landlord were leaving, I came home. Jer told me what happened. So, Jer called the other company (DSL) having already heard of them and their slow internet. The fastest connection we could get at our house was 1 mb/s. Now, that sort of means nothing to me unless I put it in this perspective: We had around 30 mb/s download speed at the old house, and close to the same in Hampton.
At that point I was lost as to what to do because I was tired, hungry, sore, and we still had many things we had to do. So I do the only thing I know that's left: cry.
It didn't last for long because we had to leave to go back to the old house. We packed up the car with our steam cleaner, scrub brush, and Scrubbing Bubbles. We still had the boxes and paper in the trunk, which we were going to drop off at the recycling center on base.
Here's what happened next:
We were headed to base but first stopped back at the truck rental place to give them money for the dolly and moving blanket rental (had to be cash for some reason, even though the rental was on the card). Jer pulled our car straight into a corner he didn't see and smashed the front bumper. It was a cement walkway that was about 8 inches high and we hit it at its 90 degree corner. It's all too common in Germany to have weird angles jutting out into driving space--even on roads. It's really different.
With a messed-up front bumper, we went on base to eat lunch at Taco Bell. But the post office is on the way, so we stopped there first. Apparently we had 5 packages, 3 large ones. Jer got back in the car (where I was waiting) and pulled it around closer to the entrance where a volunteer was waiting with a dolly and our many packages. Guess what! Package # 1: 3 large bins we ordered 1 1/2 months ago from Lowes. (Because the BX is regularly out of bins) Package # 2: 3 large bins we ordered 1 1/2 months ago from Lowes. (TOO LATE, LOWES!!!) At this point the volunteer went back inside and told us she couldn't accept the cardboard back. I told her it was fine because we were on our way to the recycling center, but had to get the bins out of the boxes in order to fit them in the car. I start to open Package # 3: A huge box inside. As I'm pulling the box out of the box, I turned to Jer and asked, "What did you order!?" It was a gaudy, super-ugly, yellow gold and glass chandelier in a box bigger than the boxes our 6 bins came in. Oh, and a bathroom faucet in silver. Obviously Jer did NOT order that. We looked at the box again, and it was addressed to Jer. So, we looked at the packaging slip inside. Apparently Lowes sent us someone else's order and Ms. King, I'm sure, is irritated that she hasn't received her order yet. Well, we didn't bank on this extra package and we couldn't fit everything into the car. So, we packed the car full (with smaller packages # 4 and 5 stuffed in there unopened) minus Jer and the big cardboard boxes, and I took the crap home, dropped it off, and went back to the P.O. to pick up Jer and the other boxes. We then found the recycling center and emptied our car. Then to Taco Bell, finally.
We finally made it back to the old house as the new tenants' movers were just finishing. We waited until they were gone and got to work, starting on the 4th floor and moving down to the worst--the basement. We worked there for a good two hours making sure the floor was clean. Then called the landlord for her to come back to inspect. She seemed in a better mood, so that's good.
We left and went back home. We started moving the big furniture upstairs. It had only been unloaded onto the main floor because of how late it was the night before. We set up the downstairs tv so we could watch a movie, but by then it was time to eat again (remember we were also working hard and burning a lot of calories), so we had a romantic dinner at: Taco Bell. We sat and ate, both of us stinky and wearing the same clothes for two sweaty days. At one point I looked up at Jer and told him (with a smile), "Happy worst anniversary ever." And he said, "Same to you." We had to chuckle at ourselves at this.
Once we got home I didn't want to watch a movie in the living room. All I really wanted was to take a much-needed shower and lie in bed and watch something until I fell asleep. So, we had to unpack the bedroom tv, move the dresser, etc...
Finally the day ended and I'm so glad that week is over.
We do like our new house better. It feels like home. I guess I can say living in the new house is the best anniversary gift we gave to ourselves this year. Now to unpack everything... Ich hasse es!