So Much To Do

This whole moving across the country thing has proven to be pretty darn complicated. It’s not that it’s one giant thing to do, it’s dozens and dozens of really really small things that I’ve been struggling to keep in my head.

Maybe I should make a list. I made a list of things to do at the beginning of the month, and now I’ve crossed those all off. Unfortunately, they’ve all been replaced by more little stupid things that I need to do. It really kind of sucks that this will go on for the next 50+ years.

I got all my stuff together and packed in boxes. UPS will be picking them up tomorrow because although FedEx quoted me a cheaper rate, after 10 minutes of going all the way through their online pickup scheduling process, they finally informed me that my address isn’t in their pickup area and I would have to have the boxes picked up at another address. So Tom Hanks definitely deserved what he got, and I’m officially endorsing UPS as my official shipping company.

So my clothes and stuff are scheduled to arrive at my apartment by the close of business Wednesday, which is also when I should be showing up. So far, so good. Of course, I won’t have a bed, or a TV, or internet access. But the Phillies will be in town to play the Cubs, my guess is I’ll be able to find someplace with the game on, I head people in Chicago like the Cubs.

But what am I going to do about those three other items that won’t be in my apartment???

Good question…

Bed – I had gone to Sears to try out new mattresses, but wasn’t happy about their selection. My plan then turned to 1-800 Mattress (leave off the last S for savings!), which I used in New Jersey. But they don’t have any showrooms in Pennsylvania or Illinois, and I wasn’t too interested in buying a mattress without trying it first (even with their 15 day return period which comes with a couple hundred bucks in hidden fees)

Then I went to this company called SleepSquad. I’m pretty excited about trying them, because they’ve got a pretty cool idea. You pick out three mattresses you’d like to try, and they’ll drive their custom truck/showroom over to you. Then you try all your choices, and if you like one, they can just bring it upstairs. Sounds dangerously close to being pretty cool. It helps that they had all 5-star Yelp reviews, so I’m hopeful that I can make an appointment for Thursday and find a nice new bed for my nice new apartment.

TV – After much deliberation, I narrowed all the choices down to two LCD’s. In case you weren’t aware, I’m going to be springing for a pretty nice (and large) television. I promised myself I would if I won enough on Jeopardy, so now I’m trying to cope with having to buy something extravagant for myself. Anyway, I narrowed it to two LCD’s a 46” Samsung and a 47” Vizio. The Samsung has great reviews, and is supposed to be the best TV in that size as far as picture quality etc. goes. The Vizio, while it doesn’t have as great a picture as the Samsung, is also supposed to be very good. It’s also got a bunch of really good reviews. And despite being an inch bigger in terms of screen size, it’s at least $700 cheaper. I think I’m getting the Vizio, because honestly, my eyes kind of glaze over when I read techie reports talking about the differences in black levels and whatever else they’re talking about. It’s supposed to have a really good picture, and while it might not be a great picture, I probably won’t notice any significant difference.

Of course, since I haven’t ordered the TV yet, I still haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to deal with the Cable guy, who’s coming to the apartment on Thursday. I’m assuming he can still give me the box and everything, but he just might not be able to test whether it works. They’ll be hooking up my internet also, so my guess is if that works, the TV should be ok. So I hope anyway.

With those three things down, there are only another 50 or so on my list.