Happy One Month!

So, we've been married for a whole month today and living in Illinois for one week. I haven't noticed a difference in married life vs. being engaged, but the differences between Austin and Champaign are striking.

Here are some examples:

In Austin, you can buy beer in a Target. In Champaign, you can't buy beer in a Target, but you can buy liquor at the grocery store.

In Austin, rent is figured for two people per bedroom. In Champaign, it's figured for one person per bedroom. You have two people living in a one bedroom apartment and the rent increases.

Austin is a dog friendly town. In Champaign, there are no dog friendly apartments.

Let me tell you a story:

This apartment building used to be owned by Barr Real Estate. They allowed dogs under certain circumstances and were generally lenient about their no dog policy. This spring, University Group bought the property from Barr Real Estate.

We moved up here and spent the first week unpacking and getting our lives back in order, planning to go discuss lease stuff (adding me, adding an additional pet, etc.) this week. Saturday, Chuck, the burnout hippie maintenance man, stopped me. Chuck, according to his story, lost his job as maintenance man when the property sold, but was rehired by University Group. It's his job to keep the place clean, do the yardwork, and make sure people are following the rules: pets, noise, parking, etc.

He said, you're not supposed to have dogs here without permission from University Group. He said there are other dogs in the complex, but you have to get them to add special permission to your lease. I have to go up to the office on Monday and I'll talk to them.

Figuring it was best to head Cheech off at the pass, we went that day to discuss the lease. They were too busy to discuss the situation, so we went back for a meeting today.

I learned these interesting tidbits:

1. Chuck doesn't work for University Group. He's just a crazy old bastard that sweeps the front walk and spies on neighbors for free.

2. There are no exceptions to the No Dog policy. In fact, they told us, since there are rumors of other dogs on the property, we're going today to do a unit by unit sweep to look for unauthorized pets.

3. Honesty is not the best policy.

4. We have to look for a new place to live as soon as possible and find someone to watch our dog until we find a place. Since dog friendly apartments are very nearly nonexistent in this town, we have to find a house or a duplex. However, there don't seem to be any in decent parts of town. Most of the ones we've found are either strictly Section 8, Section 8 friendly, or not Section 8, but in neighborhoods I don't feel safe driving through.

So that's our One Month Anniversary present from University Group. My foes I do repute them, every one. Me cago en la leche de sus madres.