It’s been SEVEN years but

[Larra]

Sending virtual chicken soup for you! Bad timing with the movers, though it will be good to get things done.

 

[southernlady]

Sending virtual chicken soup for you! Bad timing with the movers, though it will be good to get things done.

I’m using cough syrup and Mucinex, the only medications I can use.

 

[hilary1617]

Hope you get good rest and hydrate well today and that tomorrow you feel a bit better! Hope that the move-in goes smoothly!

 

[southernlady]

Our stuff got here yesterday. They were supposed to call an hour before arrival and call my husband. They called MY phone (we told them 5 times to call his), and they were in front of the house when they called. So it was a mad scramble to crate critters, we managed to crate 7 out of 8 so we had to keep a very close eye on the front door at all times.

Now I have absolutely nothing against LEGAL immigrants but at least have a basic understanding of English please. One had almost no clue what was said, the other maybe 20%. I spent several trips upstairs rearranging where stuff had been put cause they stuck it in the wrong room. How hard is to the room on the left or the room with the closed door, HARD?

They also had delivered a load ahead of us, they failed to deliver some of their stuff so we ended up getting two outdoor chairs. They tried to give us some of their stuff so next delivery. Honestly they needed some type of divider between sections. I understand having more than one delivery on a load but they need a better solution of keeping loads separated.

I’ve started unpacking.

Had help in my first box, it was the cut glass I inherited from my great aunt. That’s Pollux, my female ginger peeking out of all the paper I was creating for her to play with.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Our stuff got here yesterday. They were supposed to call an hour before arrival and call my husband. They called MY phone (we told them 5 times to call his), and they were in front of the house when they called. So it was a mad scramble to crate critters, we managed to crate 7 out of 8 so we had to keep a very close eye on the front door at all times.

Now I have absolutely nothing against LEGAL immigrants but at least have a basic understanding of English please. One had almost no clue what was said, the other maybe 20%. I spent several trips upstairs rearranging where stuff had been put cause they stuck it in the wrong room. How hard is to the room on the left or the room with the closed door, HARD?

They also had delivered a load ahead of us, they failed to deliver some of their stuff so we ended up getting two outdoor chairs. They tried to give us some of their stuff so next delivery. Honestly they needed some type of divider between sections. I understand having more than one delivery on a load but they need a better solution of keeping loads separated.

I’ve started unpacking.

Had help in my first box, it was the cut glass I inherited from my great aunt. That’s Pollux, my female ginger peeking out of all the paper I was creating for her to play with. View attachment 2997

So…as a person who LEGALLY arrived in a foreign country (Germany) with a German vocabulary of only those words which had found their way into the Yiddish-English expressions used by friends’ parents, I’m gonna go for “somewhat offended” here.

Liz, unless YOUR 20% of their language allowed you to question—and understand their responses—to your questions, you probably have no idea what their status is here. But one thing some folks reading this may be learning is that these guys came from a location where life was so tough, they traveled and entered a strange country (maybe legally, maybe not) willing to seek work doing jobs that English-proficient citizens and immigrants won’t do because it’s too hard and doesn’t pay ****.

And, as usual, the probably wealthy owners of moving (and construction, landscaping, roofing, agricultural, car wash, restaurants, factories, etc companies) are legally required to check the SS#s of those they hire and they don’t. (This is how my neighbor, in SoCal learned that she had—per SS records—been working in a shoe factory in Texas for YEARS.)

There is a lot of BS hype being circulated from the highest level of government right now, promoting the Us vs Them polarization that wins the votes of people who believe their “leaders.” But here in Commie California, we see who is working in the fields and who is standing outside of Home Depot willing to do dirty, heavy work and who shows up to clean our toilets when we call any home cleaning company and who mows our lawns and who crawls under our house and sits there in a back-breaking position for three days to do earthquake stabilization work…almost all with limited English skills.

But we can probably agree on one thing…Pollux is a cutie.

 

[southernlady]

I’m making the assumption they are legal. I’m not assuming they are illegal. They were of Hispanic background. Charles said that’s why they ignored everything I told them. Guess I’m not assertive enough. I can understand limited skills but left and closed door?

I really would have been pissed if they had dropped my China cabinet which was hand made in the 40’s by the same person who made one for the DuPont family. I could see it was leaning dangerously.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I’m making the assumption they are legal. I’m not assuming they are illegal. They were of Hispanic background. Charles said that’s why they ignored everything I told them. Guess I’m not assertive enough. I can understand limited skills but left and closed door?

I really would have been pissed if they had dropped my China cabinet which was hand made in the 40’s by the same person who made one for the DuPont family. I could see it was leaning dangerously.

I get what you are saying. Culturally, they would have ignored you if Charles was giving opposing directions. OR, if they just assumed that if a man was present, the man would be in charge.

A while back there was an article in, I think, the L. A. Times, where the author explained that she had to fire her nanny/housekeeper/helper lady, because she was treating her son as if he were a little king and her daughter as the “lesser” child. At a practicum I attended in child development—the rich white folks sent their kids with the Latina nannies—a little boy maybe 2-3 years old was dancing around to some music. The nannies were talking about him, calling him a “mariposo” which is the slang equivalent of “fairy.” (I ratted them out to faculty, who included teaching parents to look for those responses.)

My “Mexican American” grandfather was born in Arizona, which was a part of Mexico, before it was a state. His best friend was Roy McClelland. He named his son Roy. My “Mexican American” grandmother’s mother was born Jenny Brown…her dad, Hank was from Illinois. That crowd’s first language was Spanish. But when Mark Twain wrote about the insane stage coach drivers, one of them was my ancestor, Brown. The men all spoke and could read and write (somewhat) in English. Nobody taught reading and writing in Spanish, so my grandfather spelled Spanish words with English phonics. Really hard to read! Oh! And another WAAAY back person on my Mexican side was the guy who mapped Colonial Baltimore. Go figure. I think folks got along better back then.

But by the time my mom was a young bride, things had changed. Irish were no longer welcome on the east coast. My parents went to a restaurant that had a sign that said “No dogs or Mexicans.” Mom RUDELY informed them that they had just served “a Mexican.”

I managed to learn SOME German. I can still say “I want to rent a furnished apartment,” should the need arise.

 

[JackieOnLine]

Honestly they needed some type of divider between sections. I understand having more than one delivery on a load but they need a better solution of keeping loads separated.

I'm sorry the experience could have been a TON better, customer-service wise, but I'm glad you got your stuff and I hope you got ALL of your stuff. without a divider, who knows where things will end up?

I’m gonna go for “somewhat offended” here.

I get that. This is a horrible time in our country - I hope it's the worst and we begin to get better but all signs point to it getting a lot worse before it turns around. and worse in a LOT of ways.

meanwhile, as upset as I am on my own behalf, and as bad as I feel for federal workers losing their jobs, it's so much worse for the people being deported and being harassed by ICE (they are so racially profiling, there is too much evidence to hide it) and so on.

Yesterday I saw a news clip about a teacher in ID who they are trying to force to take "EVERBODY IS WELCOME HERE" signs down. It has arms/hands with different skin tones.
They said it breaks the law because it isn't neutral information: it's divisive.

because offending nazis is apparently now not allowed.

Charles said that’s why they ignored everything I told them.

I can't know what went on and why, but I get why it was frustration. moving costs a lot of money and it's so personal. I'm glad it went as well as it did.

and the pets are all OK!

 

[JackieOnLine]

My parents went to a restaurant that had a sign that said “No dogs or Mexicans.”

I'm glad she told them off, but really angry she had to go through that.

I hope to live long enough to see the fascists out of power.

 

[southernlady]

Thing is, he was telling them the same thing or when I was saying it, he wasn’t saying anything different. In other words, HE was letting ME be in charge. Several times, he would ask me to come tell them where to take stuff. So he was being my husband.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Thing is, he was telling them the same thing or when I was saying it, he wasn’t saying anything different. In other words, HE was letting ME be in charge. Several times, he would ask me to come tell them where to take stuff. So he was being my husband.

I just remembered! In SOME cultures…I’m thinking’ Middle Eastern maybe…men just don’t even TALK to women not in their family. So there’s THAT.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Oh, again!

You’re in a theater, in Germany. The first two seats in your row are occupied. You have to go PAST those people to get to your seat. Go ahead, start…

YOU RUDE PIG!

“Why?” you ask. Because you probably faced the front of the theater with your rear toward the seated people. Germans have a very uncomfortable relationship with $#¡t. To get to your seat, you position your rear toward the front of the theater and you face the back of the room.