051702

 

San Antonio, TX

Friday May 17, 2002

                   My mother, who is a devout Catholic-Hispanic mom, you know, the kind that are always trying to feed you, had left a message with my ex-girlfriend telling me that she had finally talked to her brother(my uncle) and he agreed to send the money. My mother, who hates asking for money from her relatives and was trying to guilt me into feeling bad for asking for it, took her sweet-ass time in getting some help from my relatives in Puerto Rico.
                   Well I was angry with her and not talking to her for a while now. The night Chasity and I moved out of our badass loft we needed her help and did not get it. My girlfriend had to work on move-out day(bummer), so I started moving by myself. First, I had to ride the bus to my work, which, was five to ten minutes away on the bus, and get my paycheck. It was my second-to-last paycheck because I had just gotten involuntarily terminated from work.
                   My work is at the end-of-the-line for the 96 so after getting my check I just hopped back on the bus, good thing the bus driver had waited for us check-cashers. I took the bus to the U-Haul place, which was not too far from where I live(d), and drove it back to the apartment. I backed it up and parked right in front of our place. Chasity had started packing like a week ago, you know chicks. Now the day before, I should’ve been packing also but no. I told myself, "I have always waited until the last minute to move and it gets done eventually. With the U-Haul it will be simple, even if I don’t put stuff in boxes I can just pile everything in there until it’s filled up and do as many trips as it takes to finish. We’re not moving that far." Also, I have always felt that if you don’t start packing days before and do it at the last minute, you’re less-likely to have trouble finding things. If you do it at the last minute you feel better, being very sure of where things are.
                   That’s how I justified it to myself, it made sense that way. Some call me lazy. I think I was being realistic. So I got the ball rolling on the move. First, I had to disassemble my badass California-king sleigh bed that I bought with the insurance settlement(I only got a measly nine thousand dollar settlement). It’s such a sturdy bed, you really do get what you pay for. I got a great deal on it too. We got it at Diane Flacks, surprisingly. It cost five hundred and fifty dollars. The dudes were late in delivering it, like by three days, so Chasity called and bitched about it and they knocked off a hundred dollars. Then we got a California-king(hard to find)boxspring and mattress at good ‘ol Billy Bob’s Beds, spent about $450 also. So I was sleeping on almost $1k of bed. Damnit, I didn’t think I deserved such a luxury. For the first time in my life, well since I was seventeen, I had never slept on a bed where my feet didn’t hang off. I sleep great now. Okay, I am getting off-subject. I am going to write a whole story on this later. I’ll save it until then.
 

                   Most of my shit was big furniture and computer parts. They really didn’t need to be in a box. Big, bulky things like my bed, my computer table, my computer(s), etc. It didn’t take me that much time filling up the U-Haul(that was the easy part). It was like 8:00am when I got my paycheck. Chasity was only working until noon and I was supposed to pick her up in the U-Haul for lunch. I made good use of those four hours and got a lot done. We ate lunch, I can’t remember where.

                   So now there were two of us packing shit into the U-Haul. In the end, it took Chasity and I from the time I woke up(8:00am), eighteen hours to move nine hundred square feet of two people’s shit, into a six hundred square fooft one-bedroom apartment.

                   Uh, I got my head-injury bullshit to go to tomorrow morning. I really should go to sleep. It’s already 12:20am. I am thinking it may be hard to fall asleep. I had taken a great nap earlier. Last night I slept great. I am finally in my own apartment, on my own, learning the independence lesson finally. I am so happy with these apartments. I have always thought that this place was out of my league. Okay, I’ll shut up already. I am sure you don’t care anyway. I need to go to sleep, but first I’ll jam out to Weezer and shmoke a cigarette.

                   Okay, back to the story-telling. My mother told me that my uncle had sent a check and that it wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday, but I was due to move out on Saturday. That night a stroke of brilliance came upon me and I called my old boss, an architect I worked for before my second head-injury.
                   My old boss had been like a father. That night, I took out my phone-card that I had won at work and went to the payphone at Chasity's apartment. I called my boss and he said it was good to hear from me. I then told him what was going on and asked if I could borrow some money. I asked for three hundred and fifty. The leasing office pro-rated my move-in for the remaining days of May(it was the 18th remember) so all I needed to move in was $246. Also I would need to rent another U-Haul which only cost $19.95 but they ask for a hundred dollar deposit which I would get back whenever I returned it. I told my boss that I could pay him back $250 as soon as my uncle’s check arrived, and then the hundred when I returned the U-Haul that same day. He agreed, knowing he could trust me.
                   So there I was, happy knowing I would be moving out the next day. I was jumping for joy. I was amazed at the ease of that request and glad it was filled with so little prior notice. There I was again, tapping my resources.
                   Needless to say, I slept great that night.

Next day..