Officially a Charlottean

Yesterday was a very big day in my move to Charlotte - I finally slept in my own apartment in my own bed! Since arriving in Charlotte on February 24th, I have been living in hotels - the reason for this is that I was unable to rent anything here until I was able to sell me co-op back in NJ. Well, the closing should be happening within the week, so I went apartment hunting in late May and chose an apartment in early June. After signing the lease, it was a waiting period until I was able to get my keys on July 3rd.

During that time I had to set up the utilities and planning the move from Jersey. More about the apartment later - but here's all you need to know about the move. On Saturday, June 29th I worked the morning shift then made the run to the airport to catch my flight at 5:55 pm to go back to NJ to meet the packers and movers. The relocation package included packing, moving and unpacking as well as the trip home to meet the movers and make the final move. I checked into my flight on-line the day before and noticed that the flight was only 1/2 full, so I was a little concerned that the flight would be cancelled in the current status of the airlines - but figured I'd deal with that as it happens. I got to the airport about 90 minutes before my flight time, I wasn't checking any bags, so I headed to the gate with my boarding pass and drivers license. Passed through security - only issue there was that someone else took my laptop off the belt, but we cleared that up quickly. As I was walking down to my gate, I checked the departure monitor to verify the same gate, and noticed that the flight was indeed cancelled! I made my way to the gate and there was another flight to Newark that was posted as "boarding". The woman at the gate first told me that the current flight had already left and they would put me on another airline. She then turned around and noticed that the plane was still there, she called to see if the door was closed because there was one empty seat on the plane - after some back and forth with the plane, she led me down the jetway and they reopened the door to the plane. The flight attendant informed us that he had 50 passengers on the plane and no empty seats - but the manifest only showed 49. I am assuming that the empty seat was filled with an airline employee, because a gentleman came forward and moved into the cockpit to sit on the jumper seat. So I got on an earlier flight, or so I thought! The door was closed again, we pulled away from the gate and started taxiing toward the runway, only to pull over because the air traffic in the New York area was full and we would have to wait. We ended up leaving at the same time my original flight would have left! I arrived in Newark, took the monorail to the car rental and got my Hyandai for the weekend. Then off to Tinton Falls to check into a hotel.

Saturday night I went out to Asbury Park hoping to see some of my friends on my last visit to NJ until at least October. Luckily I ran into a couple of friends, so it was a nice evening out, although I was a little off my game, since I didn't close the bar. (LOL)

On Sunday, I went over to my old co-op and made sure that I had it ready to be packed up on Monday. Did some work and made sure everything was ready. On Monday morning two gentlemen arrived to pack all my stuff up. It took several hours, but when they left, they had packed about 43 cartons - cleaning out all cabinets, closets and shelves as well all the pictures off the walls. As the pictures show, everything was packed up and ready for the movers to arrive on July 1st to pack everything into the truck. Four guys got there between 10 and 11 and after a quick tour of the co-op and letting them know what was going and what was staying, they started loading the truck. It took about 5 or 6 hours for them to get it all loaded - with another load in front of mine that was heading to Wilmington, NC after they make my delivery. Two of the guys that loaded the truck would be making the drive down to Charlotte and at that time they were unable to let me know when they would be arriving except to say that it would be the following week, due to the holiday on Friday (July 4th). With the truck loaded and having checked out of the hotel that morning, I headed up to Passaic County to visit my Mom and Sister before the "final move" to Charlotte. We had dinner and a nice visit and before it got too late, I headed down into Bergen County for the night. On Wednesday morning I was able to visit with a friend who used to work for me at a previous hotel and now she is the AGM of a new hotel. We hadn't seen each other in at least 4 years and it was really nice to catch up with each other. Then it was off to the airport to catch my flight back home! I joked all week that during this trip I was going "home" twice, once back to NJ and then back to Charlotte since that is now my new home.

More on the delivery and unpacking on the next post -- but the BIG NEWS is that for the first time in over four months, I was able to say, "I'm going home.", when I left work last night and woke up in my own bed this morning!!

Thanks for reading and hope all is well on your end!