A Sudden Change

As of January 12, 2006, we are Texans. We came down for Christmas vacation in December. Ben had time to think and realized he didn't like the PhD program at UIUC. We had a month long winter break from the university, so we spent time job hunting during our vacation to get an idea of the job market here. We both had interviews within a week and got part time jobs lined up. So Ben dropped out of the program at UIUC and we moved.

Moving was a pain.
We drove to Champaign on a Tuesday. Actually we drove to Missouri. Our car broke down on the highway. Ben said, "Hey! I can't accelerate. Why can't I accelerate?"
His brother said, "Then engine is off. Try restarting the car."
It wouldn't start. And it wouldn't start. And it wouldn't start. Meanwhile, we were coasting and quickly decelerating (is that a real word?) from 65 mph to 10 mph. We were in a lane on the highway that had concrete barriers on both sides for some reason, so there was no shoulder to pull over. At 10 mph Ben's brothers (Mattew and Andrew) got out and pushed the car. While they were pushing the car, Matthew tripped and was dragged by the car for a little way. Fortunately he wasn't hurt at all. Eventually we found a place with some room and pulled over. Then the highway patrol came, and then roadside assistance, and finally a tow truck. I think we waited about 30 minutes total. The tow truck only had room for two passangers. Ben and I rode in the tow truck, and Matthew and Andrew rode in the police car. They said it was kind of cool and kind of not cool.

We were towed to the next exit, which had a Ford dealership. But since it was 8:00 PM, it was closed. We walked from the dealership to a gas station to buy some "food," and then walked to a hotel. Keep in mind that it was dark, and raining, and we were carrying our luggage with us. The attendant at the gas station thought we were weird. Fortunately, it was about a 10 minute walk and the hotel had vacancies. We watched a lot of TV. And I ate the whole bag of licorice we got at the gas station. And we slept.

On Wednesday morning we called the Ford dealership to check on the car. The timing belt had broken and cost $300ish to fix. We were on the road again by 1:00 PM. And we got to Champaign at 3:00 PM.

From 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM we packed boxes, went to the apartment leasing office to end our contract, ate dinner, got the moving truck, and closed our bank account.

From 7:00 PM to about 10:00 PM, we loaded the moving truck. Then we went to bed.

On Thursday we got up around 7:00 AM and cleaned the house. And we finished loading the car and moving truck. We left Champaign around 9:30 AM. Ben drove the moving truck, and his brothers drove our car. We arrived back in Texas at 11:00 PM. It was a long day, but at least the cars worked fine and we were ok. Just tired.

On Friday, we got a storage unit, changed banks, changed our cell phones, took care of some paperwork for new jobs, and unpacked our clothes and stuff we are keeping at Ben's parents' house with us. We are living with Ben's parents until we find a place of our own.

On Saturday we put our "nonessential" stuff in storage.

Now it is Sunday and I am very tired.

I already have a job tutoring math, reading, and writing at Sylvan Learning Center in Plano. Ben is still looking for a full time job. He had a part time job lined up teaching ESL at a community college, but the enrollment was too low and his classes were dropped. We are realizing that ESL is not a stable job field. We are looking to make a career change soon to something more stable.

So that is the story of how we moved all of a sudden from Illinois to Texas.

The end.