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From Heather Snowman, Assistant Controller:

The first time I moved (I mean really moved — not counting the transition from home to college, or from one dorm to another), I made locating an apartment my primary concern. My Mom always said I should land a job first, but I highly recommend finding a suitable place to live before you load up all of your worldly belongings and set out for the great unknown.

After finishing college in Syracuse, New York, I was determined to land a position with Apple Computer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. However, the company was doing all of its hiring through a temp agency — which meant that I had to be in town to land the job. And I couldn't be in town without a place to live, so...

Getting an apartment without a job takes a bit of work. I tried explaining to the people at the rental agency that I was a college graduate with a good GPA and would surely find a job in no time. They said, "I'm sure you will. We'd be happy to hold an apartment for you — as long as you pay six months rent up front." Wow, such a deal! After a little finagling, I got them to accept me with only three months paid in advance and an extra (no small print here) clause saying that they could evict me if I didn't pay on the first of every month — no exceptions.

Step two. What to lug along with me? Originally, I figured I'd take everything. What the hell, I didn't have that much to begin with. I'd rent a U-Haul and be on my way, right? Wrong! Rental truck prices were way beyond my means (especially after I had paid three months ahead in rent). Even the smallest trailer to drag behind my car was $1400 — plus the cost of purchasing the correct trailer hookup for my particular model of car, which they were willing to let go for an additional $500 (they don't rent the hitch trailers for my car). What happened to $19.95 a day for a truck??

Time for Plan B.

Decisions, decisions. What was worthy of making the trip? What could I store with my folks? And what should find its way toward the curb for trash removal? Down to basics: One huge beanbag made a great bed and a chair for reading and watching TV. That, and a couple of TV trays, were my only real furniture for quite some time. For $200, UPS shipped what my trusty hatchback couldn't hold. And fortunately, I got my foot in the door at Apple right away with a temp job — and was soon hired for a permanent position as Financial Planner.

My second big move was back home. A few years after my first cross-country adventure, Apple closed our site and handed me my walking papers. So much for "permanent." But, at least I figured the move wouldn't be quite so tricky this time; I had learned a couple of things about the process and had a bit more cash on hand. What I also had was two years' worth of accumulated furniture — and this time I didn't want to part with it! I shopped around and got U-Haul's second biggest truck for only $800. Apparently, the direction in which you are traveling makes a world of difference. It seems that throngs of people were moving from the east and west coasts to Colorado — and U-Haul couldn't get the trucks back out of Colorado fast enough!

So, once again, I was off. I should pause here for a few words about the woes of traveling long distances in a rental truck: Those things eat more gas than you could ever imagine, have no tape player (which especially sucks on a 36-hour drive), and are equipped with a built-in "governor" which ensures that the truck won't go faster than 70 mph (even though the speed limit for half of my trip was 75 mph). Suddenly, 28 hours into the trip, the governor stopped working. It seemed like a miracle. I could finally make some decent time!

Thirty-one hours down; five to go. At 8:30 p.m. on a warm summer night, I decided I could afford to stop for a bit. After five minutes at a rest stop, I was refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the trip. I restart the truck — but wait, what's this? The truck would only go in reverse. The gear shift seemed to work, but if I moved it into drive, nothing happened. The engine would rev, but no momentum. Humm, maybe I shouldn't have taken the truck past 80 after all...

Could I drive in reverse the rest of the way? I'm a seasoned driver and had been on the road for 31 hours. I mean, come on — it sounded better than unpacking and repacking the truck by myself. It took ten hours to load it, and that was with five friends helping!

Prepared for the worst, I called U-Haul's 800 number. Boy, did they come through in a crunch! They had me picked up and driven to a nearby hotel, and then paid for dinner, the hotel, a movie, and breakfast the next morning. While I slept, a crew of U-Haul employees unpacked and repacked my truck and had me on my way by 9:00 a.m. the next morning.

All's well that ends well, and happy moving to you!

Heather, Assistant Controller (9/19/97)

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Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the archive.

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