I’ve only moved my living location four times in my life. First was when I was 5 years old, then at 26 years old, 27 years old, and the last time at age 32. I’ve helped friends and family move a lot more times. One of those moves involved my former sister-in-law and her husband.
The year was 2001, I had been laid off from a dot com and was doing any work I could for money. My sister-in-law was a stay at home mom, her husband (I’ll call him Greg) was a manager at a hugely successful burger chain (after bonuses he was making over $110k/yr). Greg was asking help in moving which required driving 5 hours one-way, packing up an entire 2,400 sq ft house and then driving back a moving truck (and the family van). I wasn’t looking for money when my (now ex-)wife volunteered my assistance, but wait ’til you hear what happened.
We were about to start on our trip when at the last physical minute before leaving Greg said he agreed to bring his daughter, who happened to have a cold. This isn’t so bad, she’s always been one of my favorite neices, so even though it was suppose to be a couple men going to pack and move an entire house’s contents in a 24-hour period it wasn’t bad having my neice go along.
The ride up only had one stop, for my neice to tinkle. Greg and I are both grown men and though I haven’t had any roadtrip games with him, he could probably keep from breaking the seal for our short car ride.
When we arrived at the house, it was serious packing time. There was packing from around 5 pm when we got to the house until about 2 am, when we rested. My neice was a darling, she was packing up her bedroom and though she wasn’t the most efficient packer, she was a good girl.
The following morning we awoke around 6 am and started packing and loading boxes and furniture into the truck. Thankfully we had a 36′ truck, it allowed for transportation of the entire house’s contents, with a fantastic packing job by Greg.
Approaching 7 pm and we had finished with all packing, so it was time for a quick meal before returning home. Since until this time we had only eaten snacks and drank water, I was ready for any food that Greg and his daughter were interested in, which turned out to be a local pizza place.
Greg insisted that I order first. I stepped up and ordered a slice of pizza and a soda, and stood to the side assuming that Greg was going to pay. Greg stepped up and turned my slice of pepperoni pizza into a medium pie and my drink into a pitcher of soda. Greg reached into his pocket and pulled out $10, leaving me with $9 and change due. WTF? Greg was expecting me to pay? Worse, I was paying more for than I was if I were to just order for myself. I’m unemployed! You make > $100k!!
Of course, my punishment ended up being that I caught a cold from my neice which turned into bronchitis in me, which stayed with me for about 6 months. Oh ya, and I never got paid. And I needed the money.
