Quotidian Loveliness

Hey folks - friends, acquaintances, etc.

I need to ship the remainder of my belongings out here to LA. However, the quotes I've gotten have been prohibitively expensive - at least $1900.00, and that for only part of my stuff, not even the whole load. Renting a U-Haul would end up being even more expensive, plus would require a week of my time. So that's not a feasible option.

So, if any of you, who have relocated across the country, know of a way to get about half an apartment's-worth of stuff out to LA, I'd be mighty grateful if you could provide a suggestion. I figure my budget is something along the lines of $1500.00, but I'd really like to do it for less. I'm considering, in fact, just flying home and boxing crap up and shipping it to myself at $40.00 a box, and giving away, selling, or getting rid of the furniture.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe your out-of-work brother-in-law who's willing to drive his mini-van cross country in exchange for some cash? Teleportation devices that your mad-scientist neighbor wants to test? Anything?

So, much thanks to yagathai - I found a shipper that will do the job for $398.00. Even if I missed my estimate of the total weight by a factor of 100% (which we have to allow is possible) the cost would only be $650.00. Which is still WAY less than I planned on spending. It will mean leaving the furniture and MonsterTV in PA, sadly. But the round trip ticket will also only be about $250.00. So, assuming that I'm actually shipping 1,000 pounds rather than 500, the whole ordeal will still be less than $1,000.00, with a trip to visit friends and family included. Woohoo. Assuming all goes well and I get paid for the project I'm working on, I'm looking at early May! I'm bummed about that TV though. It would be prodigiously nice to have out here... And in other news - I just threw my hat in the ring to be a writer on The animated series of "Clone Wars" . Everything bad that has ever happened to me will be rendered meaningless if I get a gig there, and everything good will dwarf in comparison. It's the longest long shot that was ever shot - I'm not even sure the guy I know is really involved in that project, though it's fairly likely - but the point is, it's a shot, and long or not, I can only get it if I try.