Murphy's Law; As Illustrated Through Move-in

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."


Let me just preface this entire post by saying that if you want to read a story where everything goes smoothly, things go as planned, and stress/ anxiety is avoided completely... I recommend skipping this one.


So, as you may know, Thursday I was supposed to meet my new roommate on campus in the early evening. The plan was as follows:


Step 1:
Meet roommate, and pile her things in the car, drive over to the second union.
Step 2:
Retrieve her student ID, and drive to the desk near our dorms to get the room key
Step 3:
Get to the room, unload, unpack, and maybe have me spend the night.
Step 4:
The next day, open a bank account, pay some bills, show her around campus.
This all seems simple, and would have been too, had not everything gone wrong every step of the way.


First of all, her plane was running late, so that means she got on the bus late, which means she arrived on campus a little later than expected. Which would have been fine, really. It's not like I live 4 hours away, only 2 with traffic.


So in any case, we finally meet up, and load all her bags in the car. Her bags were about half my size, and my full weight, each, so the car was very full. We drove to the second union, and surprise! the ID office is closed. and the people at the desk are in every way the most unhelpful and unknowledgeable that they could have possibly been. they gave her a list of hotels for the night in case we couldn't get the key without the ID. Here's the thing guys, she's not 21 yet, so she can't sign for a room.


We then drove to the place that hands out keys. They were also closed. All the food places for students were closed. Sensing a pattern? So far steps 1-3 have been demolished and step 4 is nearly void.


So she came home with us, and stayed the night. It makes me wonder what would have happened had we not been so close to campus, or if I wasn't able to meet her. That would have been disaster. Way to go guys.


So when we got home, other randoms went wrong. Her lock on her suitcase was broken, my laptop was slow, I hadn't eaten dinner and was hungry, you know, the usual.
Then we all went to sleep (or in my case, tried to), and the next day we ate breakfast, got ready, and took a bus back to campus.


Once we got there, we had the issue of 6 bags and 2 purses to carry. All the way to the other student union. We started on the trek, and that's when I decided that it just wasn't happening. So then we crawled, dragging our stuff, to the nearest bus stop and waited for a metro bus.


We took the bus to our dorm's front desk hoping against all odds that they would give us the key to the room despite the fact that we didn't have her student ID. And if that didn't work, if they would just watch our bags. They ended up giving her a key and a key fob to let us into the building and our room.


Did I mention that there's construction surrounding our dorm building? Yeah, and the only other way we could find to get there is up a hill. At least a 45 degree incline. So we pile the largest bags into a cart, and I basically throw my body weight at it to get it up the hill. My butt is still sore. We gather the rest of the bags, and finally get to the door, to find...


Stairs! (hooray!) we empty the now useless cart, and begin struggling to get these ridiculously heavy, clumsy, and large bags into the building. We get them up the first short steps to find...more stairs inside! (and we're sweating buckets at this point).


We use the last of our strength to get the bags up the internal stairs, and into the hallway. We finally locate our room, and we're home free. There is absolutely no way that my roommate would have been able to do any of this on her own. It literally would have been impossible.
How in any way is that fair? Once again. Way to go guys.


Then, after dumping the stuff in the room, and washing our now aching hands, we leave to go to the second student union to get me roommate's student ID. We take the bus there. Apart from the worker behind the desk being inaudible and impersonal, all went smoothly.
Next, I helped my roommate open a banking account. Luckily, there was a location right inside the second student union, and with her new ID in hand, it went without a hitch.


Then we walked halfway across campus to a walgreens where she bought some essentials for the night, and we headed back to the dorm because my bus back home was scheduled to leave in an hour.


We got on a metro bus back to the dorm with a half hour to spare. After I walked her to our room, I left to catch the bus back home. I had about 20 minutes. It usually takes exactly 15 minutes by metro bus without traffic or construction, and at that time of day, I had both.
So, cursing in my head, I sat impatiently on the bus watching the clock on my phone. A block away from my final stop I book it off the bus because it was taking too long at that specific stop, and run with all my stuff and a pillow under my arm to the bus back home and made it with 5 minutes to spare. I bought my ticket, and then realized how ragingly hungry I was. At least it was only 1.5 hours until I would be home and be able to eat. The lady sitting next to me on the bus was eating. Figures. As you now know, I hadn't eaten all day, and I was exhausted.


I've just now finished packing for my scheduled move-in day tomorrow. Thank God. Finally, soon this madness will be close to over. I'm still excited, and I know all the hard work will be worth it, but I can't wait for the final result of that hard work.


Also, I want a hug. Just sayin'.