Orientation and Moving In

It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for -- our first day in our new home and in our new Home-Sweet-Gated Community. The very college orientation-like day is the norm for every new resident; and of course for me and Chip. This is the time when you sign the lease, and in which you are given piles of helpful literature and then you are asked to sign your name on multiple contracts over and over again, with a smile by the helpful PLB staff.

Orientation comes off without a hitch. Much less stressful than college. After we’re done signing everything, we get the keys and check the place out. (I’ve already seen the unit, but Chip has not.) We have a nice Sunday afternoon walk through the towers.

Monday morning is our move in date. It’s a busy time inside the gates of the PLB. People rushing off to work, ladies in their exercise gear on walks, bikers whizzing by, fix-it men in golf carts and Chip and I in the middle of it all, attempting to get our bearings while trying to move our bed.

The requirement that PLB sets for reserving an elevator for moving is kind of a joke; there is no freight elevator – you’re moving in or out with the rest of the community on their daily, back-and-forth routes, so it gets frustrating. People want to get into the elevator with you and all your crap and your sweat and funk. When you’re not looking people steal your elevator. And you just want to move your stuff as quickly as possible.

All things said and done, moving into (or out of) a tower via an elevator versus moving into or out of a house or apartment with stairs or a long driveway are both, in their own special ways, tiring and difficult and take a long time. Today was just a different way of moving Chip and I hadn’t yet experienced. We have boxes everywhere and now we’re just waiting for our table and sofa.