The Tiresome Ordeal of Moving to Los Angeles

It was Friday morning, as I was getting ready for work, my phone rang. As I went near I noticed it was my boss. I was surprised because I was getting ready to come to work. The moment I picked up he ordered me not to be late for the urgent meeting he wanted to have with me at 11 am.

He seemed very persistent and I didn’t ever notice this kind of restlessness before. As I was walking my way through the subway thoughts of what would have happened were constantly revolving in my mind. So much that I was about to miss my station but thankfully an old man shook me up at the right moment.

The old man was Samuel, who worked at the local diner as a bar ender. Although he was 50 years old and was retired but he insisted on working to stay healthy and active. This old man went to work in the same train as I but his stop was after me so we had lots of chatting time. But today I was so much indulged in my own thoughts that I didn’t even notice him.

As my stop can the old man Samuel grabbed my hand as he was trying to tell me that my stop has arrived. I came to my senses and said thank you and went out of the train. On my way up I bumped into a couple of people as I was going thinking of what went wrong at the office.

When I got out of the subway, I thought it was wise to take the cab to office. So I called a cab and went to the office. Today I was not enjoying the beautiful morning of the city as I used to everyday because of the phone call I received.

The moment I reached office everyone was staring at me. I straight away went to the rest room and checked myself. I noticed nothing was wrong with me. Then I realized that I was having these feelings because of the meeting with the boss. The receptionist reminded me of the meeting at 11 am.

I arrived at the office at 9 am, the usual time but it seemed as if I was late. I started my daily work routine of checking email, replying to emails, doing research work related to the projects at hand. It seemed like time had come to stand still and the clock had stopped. But I gathered myself and focused my mind on the tasks at hand.

Soon the clock struck 11 am; it was time of revelation of the true nature of the meeting. I was well prepared for it as the boss’s secretary had reminded me 10 minutes before. My heart started beating furiously as to what will be the agenda of the meeting?

As protocol insisted I knocked on the door and the boss gave me permission to come in. I went inside and sat down in front of my boss with my dairy and pen. My boss had a rule that in every meeting, every member of the staff had to have his/her own dairy and pen, so that the points of the meeting be noted down and remembered.

One thing my boss was happy of me with other things were that I always brought my own dairy and pen to every meeting. As the meeting started I noticed that there was no other person at the meeting except me, my boss and the secretary.

The boss started off by discussing my personal qualities and how much my work meant to the company. My heart started beating even faster and I was thinking when the boss will come to the point. After a long prologue he finally said that the company was opening a new office in Los Angeles and they wanted me to be the supervising officer there.

Just at that moment it seemed as if the whole world inside me calmed down and I took a sigh of relief. The boss had noticed the discomfort in my voice and behavior but didn’t say anything as he knew that when he will announce this news to me I will be all comfortable.

As I was about to go after the meeting was over, my boss told me that from now till your shifting to Los Angeles you are on paid official leave. He said that I could stay today to pack up my personal things and take care of some official things and then stayed home to pack your things.

 There were some formalities that the company had to do before shifting an employee to another city which included; change the official address on different company profiles, websites, bank accounts and other documents.

I needed to transfer my important data saved ion my computer on a 1 terabit USB as it was the policy of the company to clear all data from an employee computer, whether he/she has resigned or the company is transferring him/her.

Next I was given a large cardboard box to clear personal things from my desk. As I was clearing the desk I remembered the first day I joined the company. Everyone welcomed me with open arms and a smile on their faces. I never felt a stranger since the beginning. But now I was going with a heavy heart as I became very much attached with everyone here. Moving to another city and making new friends will be a long and bumpy road.

As the clock struck 5pm, I the whole staff was ready to go home. I was the privilege to go home early but I wanted to stay with everyone because I didn’t know when I will be seeing them again. The whole staff had arranged a surprise and urgent farewell party for me at a local dinner. This was the same dinner in which Samuel, my subway friend worked.

All of us decided that we will walk our way to the dinner as it will give them more time to spend with me. I was overwhelmed by all of this happening to me as I didn’t expect the company to have trust in me in giving me the charge of their Los Angeles office because I was with the company for only 5 years. There were more experienced people than me but my boss said that I was the most honest and hardworking employee. As due to this honesty the company can entrust no one but me with this job.

My colleagues had chosen this dinner as it had the most variety of food and beverages. One of the staff members had already booked a table for the occasion. Samuel saw me and requested the manager that he would like to attend to us. The manager was kind enough to do so. As I saw Samuel I became excited and hugged him with joy. Everyone was looking in amazement. I explained that in the morning it was he who shook me up as my stop arrived otherwise I would have been late for work n this incredible day.

Everyone started seating and Samuel distributed the menu to use and asked about the special occasion? As the reason became clear to him he too was happy for me and suggested the chief’s special to be ordered today. The whole staff agreed and enjoyed the VIP treatment at the dinner.

When we were finished my colleagues asked for the bill but the manager told us that the bill had been paid. We all were astonished as to who had paid? It came to our notice that the owner of the place was kind enough to pay. We insisted to offer our gratitude to the owner but the manager had to follow rules.

But I was persistent and straight away knocked on the door and the owner gave me permission to enter. As I entered the office I saw Samuel sitting at the owner’s chair. Yes Samuel the bar tender was the owner of the dinner. He explained that he liked serving people so he acted as a bar tender. But he insisted not to tell anyone then I went outside, everyone asked me about the owner and I replied that he was not in his office. I waited for him there and when he didn’t return I came back.      

After coming out of the dinner, I received a farewell gift which was a duffle bag in which I could keep my important things. It became clear that my colleagues loved and respected me as they knew what gift would benefit me. Some of my colleagues offered me help in packing my things, although I didn’t need any help but I said yes out of courtesy.

I was so tired when I reached home that straight away I went to bed. I didn’t ever turn on the alarm for 7 am, the usual time to wake up.

In the morning I woke up with heavy banging at the door. My neighbor got worried that why I was sleeping so late even on a Saturday morning? It was my routine to wake up at 7 am every morning. Go to the grocery store and buy dairy products. But today was an unusual day as I had to prepare myself for the journey ahead of me.

I opened the door and saw my neighbor all worried but when I explained to her she took a sigh of relief. After a few minutes there was another knock at the door and my same neighbor brought me breakfast. I thanked her and said that I would miss her hospitality in Los Angeles.

After breakfast I had lots of things to do. The very first was to make a checklist of things to do which included; estimate of the moving, getting rid of the things not needed, bank account transfer, listing important numbers and addresses and applying for finance for moving.

As soon as the checklist was complete I had to make estimate of how much my moving will cost? So I wrote down a few things like; buying cardboard boxes, hiring the right movers and packers, spare newspapers and other necessary items.

When I knew how much money I needed to move to Los Angeles, now the only obstacle was to get the loan amount? I remembered that one of my colleagues in office was also worried about getting a loan. Like me she also a bad credit history as both didn’t pay back loans on time. He once discussed about how he had found a website https://greatfinance.us/ which provided top companies who provided guaranteed approval loans bad credit service to people with bad credit.

I did the same as I opened that website, to my surprise many big companies who provided this facility were there. It took me a while but after browsing through each company I found that all companies had the same procedure.

So I clicked on one company mentioned on GreatFinance.us. That directed me to the company website. First I read the terms and conditions of the lender. Estimated the cost of my loan through the loan estimator. When I was satisfied with my paying back amount I applied to the loan for bad credit.

For my personal satisfaction I called the customer care representative and asked about different points. When I was satisfied I was now ready to apply for the loan. By clicking on the “apply now” tab the page will direct you to a form where you have to fill it with the necessary information asked by the company.

I choose the option of receiving the money through my bank account because I wanted to close my account in the current city and open a new one is Los Angeles. So as soon as I received a message from the bank about money transferred to my account I without further delay went to the bank. Met the manager and requested him to close my account as I was shifting to another city.

He gave me a form to fill. After filling that form I gave it to the presiding officer and he did all the formalities of closing the account. After waiting for a few minutes the officer called me and gave me the money that I had in my bank account and a receipt of approval of account closure.

I remembered what my boss said when we were departing that before going to Los Angeles do a thorough research on the city. The important things to note are; the climate there, the cultural significance, the people, festivals and different communities.

So I picked up my I Pad and typed Los Angeles. Lots of websites opened and all of them were very informative. I decided to join the dance studio there as dancing is a form of exercise. Also use social media networks to make new friends in Los Angeles. A lot my friends went to Los Angeles on vacations so I asked about their experiences.

Overall review was good about the place. So that gave me satisfaction.

The moment I received the money from the bank, I went straight to the stationery shop and bought cardboard boxes, masking tape, paper, permanent markers, extra newspapers and stuffing to keep the glass items and cutlery safe from breaking.

As I reached home I saw my colleagues were waiting for me at my door. They came after work to help me packing and sort out items that I didn’t need. One of my friends asked me if I wanted the spare items to be sold on the yard sale he is having that weekend. And I said yes who doesn’t want some extra bit of money?

 My friends divided the work load of packing. Two were in charge of the kitchen stuff, three helped in the drawing and dining rooms and three with me packed the bedroom stuff and my clothes. We carefully packed the glasses and other delicate items.

The boxes were branded with the names of the different rooms. The kitchen items were branded “handle with care” and “fragile”. This was done so that the movers can be extra careful with specific boxes.

There are many companies in the US who provide the best facility of packers and movers. But I choose the one who had a well known reputation. My boss sent people from the packers and movers company that he had hired when he first arrived here. They were the best company in the whole state. But they were to arrive on Monday and I had the whole weekend to enjoy my last days before moving to Los Angeles.

I put a reminder of Saturday about the yard sale at my friend’s house. And on Saturday I went to his house and participated in the sale. I had some unique things to offer in the yard sale and to my utmost surprise people were very much interested in those things.

The things that I put up at the yard sale sold at very reasonable price. My friend gave me the money with a suggestion to utilize it when you reach Los Angeles. I appreciated the suggestion and locked the money away in the suitcase.

On my way back it struck to me to count my things and list it down on a piece of paper so that I could confirm the boxes and my luggage when I reach Los Angeles. There were total 7 boxes, 3 suitcases and 2 travel bags. In total 12 items were there.

As Saturday night came I wondered what I will do in the morning on Sunday. As I was staring at the empty ceiling it occurred to me that I could take a final tour of the city and visit the historical and important places one last time before going.

In the morning I got dressed in my casual jeans and tees, took my back pack in which a camera, water bottle and a few other things were there and went out. Started walking on the street, took a few pictures of the neighborhood, visited my favorite places and gave a last good bye to Samuel.

I went to his dinner and saw that he was waiting for me at a table specially prepared for me. He knew that it was my last day in the city so I will come and visit my old subway friend. We had brunch together and talked about different memories that we shared. When we were finished I gave him a last good bye hug and went out with a heavy heart.

There were a few shops in the neighborhood from which I bought things. They were the very first people I knew in the city so I needed to visit them and bid farewell to them too. Everyone I met was happy for me that I got a great opportunity but at the same time sad to depart from a friend.

For the very last time I walked down the way to my office. I took the same sub, came out at the same station, walked on the busy Chinatown Street. There I went to the herbal store form where I bought my spices. The shop keeper gave me a medallion as a good luck charm.

As I was walking down the street I towards my office I noticed the community square where during my lunch time I came and spend some time with the pigeons. Today it seemed as these pigeons were also sad on my going away. Leaving them was hard because I had made a bonding with them.

As evening came I sat on the sidewalk by the river and enjoyed my last cup of my favorite chocolate chip smoothie that I had from the same café across the street from my office. Sitting there reminded me of the fun I had there with my friends and colleagues and now I had to leave them behind to go to a new city.

The day arrived when the packers and movers company came to take my stuff and shift it to Los Angeles. After that I also had to go to the train station to take the train to Los Angeles. Many people suggested that I travel by air but I loved travelling by train or bus as I could see all the wild beauty of the country side.

I was very much surprised to see almost everyone at the train station to see me off. A few people also brought food and beverages for my travel. As the train whistled I hurriedly got on to the train in time and everyone wished me farewell and best of luck for the new life to come.