Hello again everyone!
I still unfortunately need to complain about the trials and tribulations of moving house in the US.... So, last week I mentioned that I was struggling to get my electricity connected - that's an understatement... let's go back to Monday....
It's a bright and shiny morning, I'm happy because it's my birthday, the PSE&G (electicity company) is a 1 and 1/2 mile walk, so I put on my walking shoes, my puffa vest, back pack in tow with my two forms of id, a copy of my lease, a DNA sample etc. etc. I make it to the office before opening time and join the already long queue ready to rush in as the doors open at 8am on the dot. So, I get to the counter second ...everyone else was in the other queue - not sure for what, but not the same one as me... anyway, and in my bright, chirpy mood I announce I'm there to set up my account as I pull out all my documents... "I'm sorry maam, you can't open this account until the owner settles his bill"... "But I spoke to someone on the phone and they said that shouldn't matter"... "But they told you wrong maam" (de ja vu from my Cablevision discussions....), "but what does that have to do with me?"... "Nothing, but we want our money".... "But I'm going to be the one that loses power"... "Well, then your landlord should pay his bill".... "But he's not going to lose power, I will"... "We just want our money. He would've got a deposit from you, he should've paid with that"... "Well, yes, but that's got nothing to do with me... anyway, what's the chance of the power being disconnected?"...."I can't say maam, the account's closed so it could be any time".... "So, if his accounts closed, why can't I open a new one?".... "Because we want our money"....."Is there any way around this, this is not fair and I'm very concerned I am going to lose my power"... "No, this is our procedure maam".... "Well, it's stupid procedure" (maybe I didn't really say that)... I leave PSEG deflated and immediately call my landlord who says,"this is ridiculous, it's not in line with what I've been told, let me sort it out..."...."you know I can lose my power if you don't get it sorted out, so please get onto it immediately". Through the week, I get a text message, it's all sorted don't worry....
Well, I get back from Miami yesterday afternoon and what do you know, there's a PSEG card in my door and I unlock the door and there's no beeping from my alarm and the house is freezing, no light when I flick on the light switch..... the bastards, they've turned my flippn, freakn power off!!!!!!! Off went a very colourful text message and email to my landlord expressing my deepest frustration, pain, inconvenience etc. etc. etc. (I was just too mad to speak with him). Luckily, I moved my flight from Friday night to Saturday afternoon - I would've gotten back to the house at 1am with no power! So, given it's so cold, there's no way you can stay in the house with no power and although on the whole I'm okay, I'm not 100% comfortable sleeping there with no alarm. So, I book myself into a hotel in Manhattan (telling the landlord that he is paying for the bill and all associated charges), empty the suitcase of summer gear and fill it with winter gear - who knows what I grabbed, I couldn't see a thing in the wardrobe - and get myself a cab and high tail myself across the river.
The owner rings me after sorting out the situation with PSEG and directs me to Kasima in their call center who assures me that the power will be restored tomorrow morning and that they will set my account up on the spot and break standard procedure and waive my fees because of this bad situation. I get a call this morning and the technician says "I can't connect your power as they cut it at the pole and you need a bucket truck to connect it"... "Well, will they be coming today?"... "I guess so maam, but I don't know when"... "Do I need to be there when they come".... "Yes".... "But I have no lights or heating, how can I sit in a freezing house all day in case they come?"...."I suggest you call the call center maam". With the call center lady now "when will they be coming?", "I don't know maam", "but can't you call me when they're thirty minutes away and I can make sure I'm there"... "No, maam"... "but you can't even assure me that they'll be coming today"... "No maam, this is procedure, the tech"..."This is ridiculous!"...."Stop interrupting me maam, I let you speak, you should let me finish speaking"... "but you are just telling me that you are following procedure, I don't want to hear that, I want you to solve this for me"... "Well, maam I can't, it's procedure" etc. etc. etc. "Well, I want to speak with a supervisor"... " A supervisor is not available, they'll have to call you back"...."Fine!". One hour later, no call from supervisor, so I call them back and luckily get onto Kasima's supervisor (the lady who I spoke with yesterday), who is completely across my situation. "Maam, you need to be there for safety reasons as they need to access your meter inside, but I can assure you that he will be there before 4pm"..."You're sure now? I need to check out of this hotel and I'm not going to be happy if they don't come"... "Yes, they'll be there, but you need to be there". So, I check myself out of the hotel, which to be honest I couldn't stand to sleep in the same room again as they put me on a smoking floor even after requesting a non-smoking room and my clothes smelt like I'd spent a night at the Hallam Hotel back in the 90s when you could smoke in bars. Seriously, the smell was horrible and I woke up this morning with a terrible headache and sore throat!
Back to the power issue, I arrive home and the PSEG van (not bucket truck) pulls up just as I do. He says "you need a buket truck".... "Yes, I know there was a technician here earlier who already said that"..."Oh, well I'm going to go then"... "Do you think you can check for me whether the bucket truck is on order"... "I'm sure it is"... "No, please confirm for me"... after a few minutes phone call "Yes, maam, there's one on order". So I settle in with two jumpers, a scarf, a pair of gloves and a book. Surprisingly, at 3pm up turns the bucket truck (it's a miracle). I go out and ask him "do you need anything from me or access to the house?", "No maam, I just need to connect at the pole".... so, the "safety requirement" that they had told me on the the phone that I needed to be here for so they could access the meter box on the inside, was just bull! Anyway, I can get over it, I've got power now, the house is gradually warming up, I have internet, I have tv, I have cable... happy days! Let's just hope that's the last of my drama!
So, as I mentioned I was in Miami. What a week - as expected, completely stressful, but very successful. I finally got some free time Friday night and joined Mary Ann and Vilma from the office for dinner. We booked in to Prime one twelve, apparently a very good and famous Miami restaurant, so couldn't get a table until 9pm - fine, I'm sure it's worth it. So we turn up and the paparazzi is there snapping anyone that gets out of an expensive car - unfortunately I think they were all just rich business people, no celebs... clearly we don't get snapped getting out of our yellow cab. So, we get in there and the place is so totally packed, it's ridiculous. We find out that we can't get a table until 10pm, but hell, this place must be good with a buzz like this, we'll just wait. We grab a glass of wine and wait out the front (it's less crowded and they don't care about you drinking on the street), and the cars that are rolling up are unbelievable - brand new ferraris, porsches, mazzaratis, etc. etc. Finally, at around 10 they take us to our seats - a plastic table on the corner where massive gusts of wind would be likely to blow any meal off the table. I look through the window and there's all these spare seats. I asked the hostess "can't we sit in there?" "No, there's still people here from 9:30 that we'll be seating there", "but we can't sit here, it's terrible and we've been waiting since 9pm, surely there's something you can do?"... "Let me see, I don't think so though". So I follow her back to the front desk... I don't think she expected me to follow her... she didn't ask anyone or do anything, but then she said, "oh, we've been able to get you a table inside". To give some context, the inside of the restaurant is like sitting in business class versus sitting outside would be like economy, except you still have to pay the same price! The meal was very nice, a bit too garlicky for my liking, but stilll very good. The dessert however was something else - Vilma ordered some deep fried Oreos and kindly allowed me to try some. Wow, they were bloody good! They were in like a donut dough mmmmm....... (it's okay, I managed to fit in a Spinning class on the Tuesday morning, which well and truly compensated for the deep fried Oreos!). If you make it to Miami, make sure you put this restaurant on the agenda, if not for the food, which is pretty good, for the vibe of the place.
It was also nice, on Saturday my flight wasn't until 12:40, so I took the opportunity to sit by the pool and enjoy the heat and read my book for an hour or so. It was 30 odd degrees so it was beautiful! I don'ot feel like I'm relaxing too much lately, so this was very nice and I think after the week I had well deserved... I certainly needed it for what was awaiting me in NY!
Finally, it was my birthday on Monday - thank you to everyone for your beautiful birthday wishes. It was hard being away from everyone, but I got through it. At work Friday week ago they had also held a surprise party for me - I was genuinely surprised and nearly jumped out of my shoes. The poor things, they were waiting for me for like 30 minutes whilst I was on the phone with my colleague from Argentina. They got me a selection of these lovely little cup cakes - they were delicious, particularly the peanut butter and jelly variety mmmm.... I guess I'll send you a photo soon when I have purchased my first muʻumuʻu (you know the fat suit like what Homer wore when he got super obese) - just kidding... I'm at the gym regularly!
Well, that's about it for the week. No more planned trips until middle of April, so it will be good to keep my feet planted and to continue getting properly settled. Everything else for the house is now sorted, but uni has started up again this week, so time to get myself into the discipline of studying again!
Take care!
Michele
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