I told Liz that, while in New Jersey, I wanted to take a side trip down the shore to the Seaside Heights area, which was hit the hardest last year by Superstorm Sandy. She and I headed down there this morning and took a long stroll on the boardwalk. The businesses that are still intact on the boardwalk (there are lots of them!) are closed for the season and we were two of just a handful of people out there, not counting all of the construction workers who were fixing everything. As quiet as it was, I was able to imagine a bustling, noisy, funnel cake-smelling amusement area thanks to…
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Greetings From New Jersey!
I have been waiting for this day for what seems like forever (amazing how three and a half months can feel like forever!): I’m back in the same state–the same room, even!–as my sistuh-from-anuthuh-mutha. I’m so excited to be here I might possibly cry at some point. It’s been interesting, telling people before today that I was going to New Jersey. I got questions like, “Why would you go there?” and funny looks ranging anywhere from scowling to nose crinkling to head shaking. New Jersey has a bad rap. In fact, I was going to embed a video of Fred Armisen portraying former New York governor David Paterson on SNL…
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Scenic.
Everyone who travels has their favorite airports–and their least-favorite ones, too–and in fact while I was in Detroit I had a discussion with a friend who was highly opinionated about both categories. On her least-favorite list? Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. She said that in her experience she has found that every airport employee at O’Hare is extremely unhelpful and downright rude, and she had some other grumbles as well. Her opinion took me by surprise because I happen to like O’Hare very much, and it’s not just because it’s one of my two hometown airports (the other being Midway). One of the best things about traveling via O’Hare is the scenery…
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All By Myself
So here I am, at this awesome hotel in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Actually, it almost doesn’t even seem like a hotel. It wasn’t, always. It used to be someone’s house. Now it’s a “hotel” with twelve rooms and four suites, one of which Jim and I were given (yay!). I am in heaven, honestly. This is a working trip for Jim, and I tagged along willingly, knowing that I would be left to my own devices. I find that most people either don’t mind spending time alone, or they absolutely hate it. I rather enjoy it, to be honest. It’s not that I don’t like (or prefer) being with others–I…
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Escape To Key West: It Only Takes A Weekend
Each year before Hanukkah, Jim and I have a discussion about budgeting for the holiday overall as well as specifically how much our budget is for each other’s gifts. When the holiday rolled around last month, Jim (once again) proved himself to be quite clever, as he came up with a gift that was not only way below budget but was romantic and pretty awesome: plane tickets to Key West. No, our budget was not THAT high. He bought the tickets with airline miles: it only cost him twenty bucks! See? Clever! With a little research and some more budgeting, we found a nice, very reasonably-priced guest house where we…