Just to clarify my position, I am SO for the whole moving out of the house deal, just barely making ends meet, and being independent. I dig that - hard. And not only do i support everyone who is doing it, im also a little jealous. My current bank account funds are hitting pretty low due to my months of travel, and seeing as Ive only been employed for a few weeks, I hardly have the means to be paying rent and the other expenses that come with that.... So yes - Im mooching off my parents - THANKS MOM AND DAD!! The reason im more ok with this (my excuse, if you will) is that im hoping to move out of the country - Ive given myself until 2013 the absolute latest to save up what I can and move to Israel (where God knows itll be harder to save my money, assuming I can even make any... heres to hoping and praying and a touch of hard work!) I channel Rachel Green from friends right now, circa season one when she is waitressing at Central Perk and gets her first paycheck which leads her to ask "Who is FICA and why is he taking all my money?!?!" - JenAn - I feel the very same way. My assumed salary is only giving 60% to my pocket and the rest im pretty sure ill never see again in my lifetime. The idea that social security will be paid out to me when im older is a funny little joke which makes me cry instead of laugh. But i stray from my thought process (get used to that - im sure itll happen a lot) - the point is that im trying to save as much money as I can right now, and that means living at home with the Lewy-Neuman clan.
But again, I am the lone chicken left in the coop here in New Jersey for the extended future months to come. Just recently, basically my last couple of local friends have taken the plunge and moved into big old scary NYC. Dope pad, by the way, but it doesn't make me feel better that im left to hold down the youthful fort in the neighborhood. Theres no real reason for sharing the following, other than the fact that in hindsight it was a funny experience and I would like to write about it. So it revolves around a couch. Being one who doesn't shell out a lot of money for things (are you getting the cheap vibe from me? Please Don't - maybe I used to be, but now Ive gotten better at spending money while maintaining my money-conscious attitude) I am all for getting free furniture and hand me downs of just about anything. And when you are starting your life in "The Real World", every little bit of help is just that - helpful. So when a friend of mine was moving out and needed to furnish their apartment, I agreed to helping them schlepp a couch from their house to their brand spanking new abode. Other then the fact that im laden with super-human strength and physical capabilities, My dad also has a big white commercial-style van (completely empty back) that is perfect for moving stuff (= couches!). So the couches of today are made to be aesthetically pleasing as well as comfortable and easy to maneuver. Such is not the case with the couches of yesteryear. Old-school couches, like the one in this story, might be sturdy as an Ox but are often made of wood, and are madly heavy. Additionally, this piece had a fold out queen size bed - perfect for the sleepovers I was bound to have on it - not so perfect when it added about 100 pounds (im terrible at guessing weight - it could have been as little at 20 pounds or as much as 220 pounds) to an already heavy couch. Anyway, not wanting to believe that I wasn't physically able in addition to sheer determination, I went ahead with the plan of transporting this monster of a piece of furniture.
So we get to the city and find an illegal parking spot right at the corner. Knowing that the 2 of us wouldn't be able to bring the couch up on our own (oh, did I mention the apt was on the second floor -not counting ground floor - and no elevator) my friends roommate inquired at a pub next door to their place if there was a worker they could pay to help us. It happened to be a busy time when we got there and the man wasn't allowed to leave to help us. We tried to ask some other people who worked on that street if we could pay them to help, and each guy that came over attempted to lift a side of the couch to see how heavy it was, and immediately dismissed us while laughing at our misfortune. Finally the roommate came himself to assist in the dragging. The 3 of us each grabbed a side and hauled, leaving the veins from our necks at the original site of lift. Literally just getting it to the front door of the building used up most of my energy, and it was maybe 34-40 feet from where the van was. I knew that this was going to be a difficult attempted adventure. Somehow we managed to slide the couch through the narrow door, almost taking off someones arm with it, and we were able push it down the hallway until we reached carpet at the foot of the stairs. The next plan was to conceptualize how on earth we were going to get the whale up the stairs. Aside from actually lifting the couch off the ground, we also had to figure out which way to flip it so that we could get it around the bends of the staircase. (here is where I channel Ross Geller of friends - circa season 5? - trying to get his new couch up the stairs of the building yelling out instructions; "Pi-Vot! Pi-Vooootttt!!!") We somehow convinced ourselves to put the thing on its side - vertically, so that it was almost touching the ceiling. It must have been about 15 minutes of leaning it in different directions trying to see how we could lift it a little bit more easily, actually getting it to fit in the alloted space. I dont think it was until we almost broke the handrail, adversarially made of wood, and painted in green (at least when we got there it was) that we started thinking of possibly paying a moving company to hike it up the stairs before realizing defeat and knowing it was a lost cause. It was a little sad for a minute or 2 knowing that our efforts didn't result in our desired outcome (well thats not true - i woke up that morning thinking how much I would love not to be able to feel my arms by the end of the day - thankfully i was able to check that off my list). The funny part about it was actually re-loading the couch back into my white van and driving it back home.
Now, that may have sounded like a depressing story but if that is the message you got from it, please take off your current clouded spectacles and put on your rose colored glasses! We were a group of friends, working together towards a common goal and putting in some good old fashion elbow-greased hard work. We also may have lived our lives in regret if we never would have tried - i can confidently say today that i have no regrets about not having tried that day - i tried and im proud of it! Of US!!! We weren't successful at getting the couch upstairs but as any teacher would have awarded us, we earned an A for effort. Lesson: Always TRY! Additionally, if you are going to take free furniture from your house, try and make sure that you can actually move it and get it to your new place. Trumping that, though, is the message to always take free furniture.
So in regard to my sign off, ive decided that i will end each blog posting with a link or picture preceded by "On that note, I leave you with the following:" From there i will try and attach something that has to do with something ive said, but theres also a likelihood that it'll just be a music video or viral video that I enjoy.
So, on that note, I leave you with the following:
Courtesy of Colin Jacobs:
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