Tuesday and Wednesday in a nutcase

Well, the panic meter has been fluctuating wildly the past couple days. Here's the short recap:

The good news: signed the lease on our apartment Tuesday morning! The prerequisite was to get insurance, which required a trip to the bank across town as soon as it opened. Our account manager was a model of bureaucratic efficiency -- really. We had everything done and got back across town with enough time to spare to check out sleeper sofas. The lease signing went very smoothly, as did the walk-through on the apartment, with everything in good condition. They even had our name on the mailbox already!

A few more details on the apartment... or at least the neighborhood. We're a 10-15 minute walk from Carter's school. About 4 blocks from the Champ de Mars, which has the Eiffel Tower as its most well-known feature, but also several playgrounds, a soccer field, ping-pong tables, grounds for bocci (or boules), and a basketball court. Within a couple blocks are three different Metro lines, that will take us directly to the Arc de Triomphe, to some great shopping neighborhoods, and several very nice parks. The ride to my office takes one transfer, probably 15 minutes on the train and a 15 minute walk (or short bus ride) on the office end. Plus, we're just above the Mac store (one of very few in Paris) and down the street from a tack and bridle shop. Apparently there are horses at the Ecole Militaire just around the corner. But not available to the public, as far as we know. Not that we'd know what to do even if they were...

We have 7 keys! One for the entry door to the building, one for the courtyard where trash goes (and a bike rack there, plus entry to the "cave" or basement storage space), two for the front door of the apartment, two for the door from the apartment to the service staircase, and one for our mailbox. Whew. (And an extra set of the main door keys for visitors!)

Had a very nice lunch at the cafe on the corner, with a little wine to toast our new place. Good thing we had fortification...

The bad news... turns out we can't get electricity hooked up in the apartment until Friday afternoon. Our relocation agent, Liz, spent an hour on the phone with them trying to negotiate, but according to EDF (Electricite de France, the electric company) it's impossible to do it any sooner, there are no technicians available, etc. A model of bureaucratic inefficiency... But as it turns out, that's not really an issue because our air freight from the U.S. hasn't yet arrived in France. Which includes all our air mattresses, sheets, towels, starter set of kitchen stuff---basically, all the stuff we decided was necessary to live reasonably before our bigger furniture and dishes get here. Turns out that our storage company... well, they forgot to send it. So it only left the States yesterday. Hopefully that means it can be delivered Saturday. So we have a nice apartment, but not exactly livable. Many apologies from the storage company. Somewhat gratifying (I mean, EDF didn't offer apologies...), but not much practical help. We need to be out of our temporary apartment by Friday morning, so we'll be buying some air mattresses and cheap blankets and camping out in the apartment until some of our stuff arrives. The nice thing is that the kids will probably find it to be a huge adventure. And we have a friend from NEA around the corner who's invited us over for crepes on Friday night, so that will be a good welcome to the neighborhood and one less meal to worry about cooking.

On the bright side, we've found some good kitchen appliances and house stuff second-hand from someone who's moving back to the States. We need to find someone to move and install them, but the guy recommended a mover, and we can probably use the plumber in our building to install. So hopefully we can get them all in next week.

And of course, the other bright spot is that this makes a much better story than us just moving in with no hitches. What's a little inconvenience in the service of a good story (and it's all true, I swear!)? I mean, you have to have your priorities. And we're only going a little crazy.

Tomorrow is Carter's first day of school -- think happy thoughts for him. Or maybe dream happy thoughts for him, since you'll all be asleep when he's arriving at school. I know he'll do great, but he's very nervous. And we're off to buy a sleeper sofa. If they deliver it this week, we're going to draw straws to see who gets to sleep there instead of the air mattress.

We love and miss you all.

p.s. Congratulations to Derek and Lisa on your new house. It's beautiful! You have all our sympathies on packing and moving. At least there's very little chance they'll forget to move your stuff...