Road Trip to Charlottesville

Well this was a very last-minute road trip. Phil got a call on Tuesday from the Albermarle County (Virginia) School District wanting to interview him that Friday. I was already busy and stressed trying to simultaneously get ready for a MOPS leadership meeting I had to run at church that night plus filling out the hundreds of forms (ok not quite many but still quite a few for 3 kids) for registration day at school the next day. So I left Phil to take care of the details of his trip. Which by the way, was tough for me. I am used to planning all the details of events and trips and knowing what's going on and where we're going. But Phil made the hotel reservations and MapQuested the directions and everything. Yay!

Flash forward to Wednesday afternoon and after many phone calls, conversations and stress, Phil and I are both heading to VA the next day. Phil's parents offered to keep the girls, which thrilled Rose and Rachel to pieces!! And my parents offered to come down, pack up some of our things (in case we had to move) and help Brett take care of the boys. So being the detail-oriented person that I am, I'm frantically packing stuff for us, packing stuff for the girls, doing 5 loads of laundry (can't pack dirty clothes after all!) and trying to figure out what my parents can pack up for us. Stress? What stress?

Well somehow it all got done and we left around 11 a.m. Thursday morning. The trip out was delightfully uneventful. We were listening to music, doing crosswords together and enjoying being able to drive without a small voice from the backseat wondering “Are we there YET?” when we realized we were low on gas. Phil said that the car runs out of gas very suddenly right near empty (our van can drive probably 15 miles on empty before it quits). We decided to get off at next exit. Halfway up the ramp the car stopped. Yep, out of gas. So we walked to the top of the ramp. Fortunately there was an Exxon right there so we got gas in a borrowed gas can and and started walking back. Then of course 2 people stopped to ask if we needed help. Where were they when we were walking up the hill??? We got a surprisingly yummy dinner at a little restaurant adjoining the gas station and got back on the road and continued driving through the rain. Then we saw it - a double rainbow – that was symmetrical no less. The colorws were (from left to right) blue, green, yellow, orange, red; then red, orange, yellow, green, blue in the rainbow next to it. How cool was that?? Then ¼ mile later we saw another rainbow – an amazingly brilliant rainbow – you could actually see all 7 colors vividly. A full arch too. I have never seen a rainbow this long and colorful before. It was easily the best rainbow I've ever seen!!!! If only I'd had a camera. . .

We got to the Super 8 that Phil made reservations at. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were indoor corridors (as opposed to those motels where you walk from the parking lot directly into your room), free Wi-Fi, cable and even a continental breakfast in the morning. We ordered Chinese food and settled down to relax. I found a website with sample job interview questions and was quizzing Phil, while munching on egg rolls and fried rice. What a nice evening!

So the next day Phil put on his suit and we headed to the interview (after what Phil called “the lamest continental breakfast ever”). I dropped him off and went to look for some real estate books and scope out the area. About 45 minutes later Phil called to ask me to come pick him up. I could hear it in his voice before he even said anything. The disappointment and defeat. The interview hadn't gone well. As it turned out, the interview was more like an interrogation. They handed Phil a list of 15 questions which they claimed they asked everyone and told him to read them out loud and answer them. Then they just started at him without cracking a smile or anything. Phil said it was like talking to Mt. Rushmore. Questions #14 was “Knowing that this is only a 2-year position, are you still interested in this job?” WHAT?!? Yep, apparently this job is part of the stimulus package from Pres. Obama. It lasts 2 years then dries up. And of course Phil didn't want to uproot his family, move to a state where we knew very few people only to be unemployed again in 2 years. So we are back where we started We are both sad, but determined to press on with the job search. And hey; at least we got a road trip out of it!