Midway through Middle America

My parents and I are staying the night in Jackson, Tennessee, which has this cool feeling like the entire town is rising up out of a grassy field. All the streets dead end into a field of yellow grass that comes up to my knees. Literally, the street looks like it was meant to connect to another road, like part of this huge new development, but not much has been built.

We went to a minor league baseball game, which felt part of the grassy culture too. Afterward we stopped by a Sonic to pick up some ice cream desserts and listen to oldies on the Sonic radio. Overall the town felt like a scene from American Graffiti.

Earlier today we ate at a restaurant in La Grange, Kentucky, which sat on the main street. It's an old main street lined by stores with tin ceilings and hand-painted signs. But what makes this main street so unusual is that every 20-30 minutes a train pummels right down the middle of it! And it's not a big street!

So we're over halfway home to Longview, where my parents live and where I'll be living while I look for work. We should get in tomorrow and unload all my stuff.

(ps- for those who might be wondering, we rented a truck instead of a trailer, and everything seems to be working fine; we got out yesterday)

Trying to leave Pittsburgh

Yesterday my parents helped me pack up all my stuff, which was such a relief since I have so many little things I forget about. It's like that any time I move, there's piles and piles of stuff that I find in closets and in shelves that I forget I have.

Today after church my parents and I went to eat at Primanti Bros. at Market Square. Those sandwiches are huge!

But now on to the real story. We had arranged to get a U-Haul trailer to connect to our SUV. We had to drive to some part of the north hills I've never been to. All of this seemed fine, but on the way back to my apartment, we kept feeling the car jerking back. Then the transmission light went on. So there went our trailer plan. Instead we returned the trailer and went to Church Brew Works for dinner.

Now I'm sitting in a hotel watching The Dark Knight. So Plan B for moving starts tomorrow. Someone from my church told me today that they wouldn't let me go without a fight, so I guess this is Pittsburgh's way of making me stay a little longer.

Leaving Pittsburgh

After six years in Pittsburgh, I'm moving back to my home state, Texas, and looking for work in Dallas. My parents are coming in tonight to help me move. We're going to go out to a Thai restaurant on Walnut Street.

It's crazy to think that I'll be leaving Pittsburgh after such a long stay. I've loved being here with friends from CMU and First Trinity. I'm hoping that this can be a way for people from Pittsburgh/CMU to know what's going on with me as I move. It beats lots of annoying emails, anyways! I plan to use this to write about me finding work and adjusting to life back in Texas. I am also interested in starting more blogs later about topics I'm interested in, such as urbanism/suburbs, current events/pop culture, and christian topics, so stay tuned.