You Must Respect My Propertah

The move went OK, if "OK" can mean that (1) it took more than twice as long as it was supposed to, and (2) it was temporarily interrupted by the arrival of four police cars answering a report of a burglary in progress.

On Friday, our movers parked at a hydrant that is in front of the lot next-door to ours. They were carrying boxes and stacking them on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, which, as we all know, belongs to the city even though homeowners have the responsibility of caring for it. Midway through the second load, a neighbor climbed out of his enormous, gas-guzzling, environment-screwing Hummer and demanded that they move everything off the grass immediately. When I came out to see what was going on, he accused me repeatedly of disrespecting his property and his house by stacking the boxes on the grass. I pointed out that, given the location of the truck, that strip of grass was the logical place to put the boxes, and also pointed out that it wasn't in fact his grass anyway. He looked at me like I was a bug—a crazy bug—and repeated that I had to move my stuff immediately. Not wanting a big confrontation, I said that we would move the stuff right away, and actually started moving it into the gutter behind the truck before he went into his house. I went back inside as soon as it was cleared off, thinking everything was fine.

Until the police cars started showing up and parking in the street. I went outside and found the neighbor talking to several policemen. When I asked what was wrong, they said that they'd received a report of a burglary in progress. They were quite unhappy when they learned that the neighbor had called in the "burglary" after talking to me and learning that I lived next door and was moving my own property out. Apparently seven cars were en route, but only four had arrived before the call was discovered to be a slight overreaction. They lectured my neighbor about making what amounted to a crank call to 911, pointing out that the seven cars that were sent might very well have been needed for an actual emergency call. One particularly grumpy-looking officer told the neighbor that he should probably go back into his house and stay there; then he turned to me and said I could go ahead and finish my move in peace.

I learned from another person in my building that this guy has a history of being a big doodoo-head. (This blog is rated PG-13. Parental guidance is suggested.). Her bike is her only mode of transportation, and sometimes when she has to fetch something from her apartment she'll lock it up to the railing on our porch for a few minutes. One day he approached her and said that she shouldn't do that because it lowered his property value.

Anyway, that was Friday around 4. By midnight, the exhausted movers were done, except for that "last minute" stuff that wasn't packed, which amounted to six or seven car loads over the rest of the weekend. Sunday was cleaning day; we were at the old apartment from 10 until midnight, painting a ceiling, cleaning, packing, and cleaning. Now it's done, except the approximately 4/7 of our stuff that is still in storage. After we get done painting the new place, we get to go through this again. And please forgive the South Park reference. It was too perfect to pass up.

Moving Day

Out of the old...

Nuptiated

Instead of doing the courthouse thing, we asked our neighbor, a minister, to officiate, and she was happy to comply (at 10:30 last night in her living room). It was nice, much more personal than the courthouse would have been. It sort of felt like a 1940s movie, where the bashful couple wakes up the justice of the peace in the middle of the night. He's bleary-eyed but seems used to this, and he sends Ma into the kitchen to make coffee while he ushers the couple into the study.

Almost There

In Cook County, you can get a marriage license and a business license in the same office. However, I don't think there's a waiting period before you can open your business.