New Jersey Moments

Alright, Kevin's really been carrying the weight on this family blog, so it's about time that I participate. He's done a great job of getting you up-to-speed on what we've been doing and the general state of our lives in New Jersey, so my post will be less about the events of our life and more about some interesting observations I've been having about our new home.

Throughout the first few weeks here, I've found myself experiencing this weird moments where I can't explain what has just happened except to say, "Well... I guess that's Jersey."

For example: One of the first few days we were here, we were driving around a major road that runs along a big park called Johnson Park. This park is really great--it's big and runs along the Raritan River and has lots of open fields great for playing fetch with a certain golden retriever. This park also has some really weird features. Like a menagerie. This park literally has a menagerie complete with deer, a shetland pony, random goats, a llama, etc. On a nice day, there are families always there, staring at the animals through the chain-link fence. They can't pet them unless they poke through the fence, and I never see anyone there taking care of the animals. So many questions: how did they get there? Who takes care of them? What happens when the park floods (as everyone tells us it does after the even a moderate rain)? It's odd. Even odder still--just next to the menagerie is a hippodrome (you know--the track they use for chariot races... that type of hippodrome). On this occasion, as we were driving past the park, there was actually a man in what could only be a homemade chariot trotting around the hippodrome. What is this place?

Well... I guess that's Jersey.

Another example: I presented at a new faculty colloquium for my department. The colloquium was held in a very nice section of the library set aside for professional symposia and presentations. After the presentations were over, I ran to the restroom, where I encountered the following sign posted inside every stall in the ladies' room (yes, I checked every stall):

Again, so many questions: what incident prompted the need for this sign? Is this a continuing problem? Do I need to be concerned about these hooligans engaging in "activities" that might jeopardize my health? Again, What is this place?

Well... I guess that's Jersey.

So many other examples exist: Kosher sushi restaurants? Well... I guess that's Jersey. Beach boardwalks that do not allow leashed dogs? Well... I guess that's Jersey. The mystery state dish known as Pork Roll (yep... this is, apparently, New Jersey's specialty). Well... I guess that's Jersey. Being forced to have a gas attendant pump your gas? Well... I guess that's Jersey... and Oregon.

These moments, more than anything, make me laugh. And I guess it's good to know that nothing about this new home of ours is boring.

-Meara

The Beach

Another weekend, another trip with the dog (you knew all these posts about the dog HAD to be coming). 

Last weekend we headed out to what we researched as the most friendly dog beach in the area.  It turned out to be pretty great! The weather wasn't awesome, which meant we pretty much had the beach to ourselves! The dog part of the beach was a little inlet in the bay, so we didn't actually get to hang out on the main beach. We tried to walk out there, thinking it would be nice to walk along the beach, but it turned out you couldn't bring your dog on the beach, or even on the walkway along the beach... What is this Jersey?!?  So we turned around and went back to our little beach for awhile, and then went in and walked around the town. After another visit to the beach, we found a place for dinner. It was a great day trip!

The beach was all ours!

 Moxie loved playing in the sand

Finally wore her out

After the beach we found dinner in town. After an amazing burger, we decided we had to try the, "Deep Fried Red Velvet Oreos with Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce."

"WOW..."

-Kevin

Dairy Queen

As the title suggests, this post will include Dairy Queen, but goes much beyond our first visit to a Dairy Queen here in New Jersey. 

After a night out on the town, the clock hit 9:30, and we were beat (are we getting old?). Before heading home, Meara suggested we hit up a Dairy Queen so she could get the Pumpkin Blizzard, since there aren't enough pumpkin things surrounding us this time of year (as I type this I am drinking a Pumpkin Spice latte...). Naturally, I am not one to turn down a Dairy Queen blizzard (although always stick to Oreo), so Meara typed it in the GPS, and we were off. 

We soon found out that Dairy Queen's out here are much different than back home. No burgers, no fries, no chicken fingers, just milkshakes, blizzards, and hard ice cream. Not that I'm complaining, but weird! So we are waiting in line, and waiting, when the gentleman in front of us FINALLY gets his blizzard. Unfortunately, the highly qualified individual behind the counter wearing sagging sweat pants and a tattered t-shirt made his blizzard wrong. Luckily he decided to go in the back and get some help, and out comes the manager/owner, looking worse for wear than the employee... After waiting longer than I ever have just to order a blizzard, we are informed that they are out of Pumpkin Blizzards. Awesome... Meara quickly moves on and orders some Apple Pie thing, and I stick to the good stuff. Just as we finish paying, the manager informs the employee where the extra pumpkin supplies are in case anyone wants a Pumpkin Blizzard. Awesome... I think we need to find another ice cream place. 

We then continue on our way home, driving through a town about 10-15 minutes outside Highland Park. It's about 10pm on a Friday night, so quite a few people are out and about (not sure why they aren't at home). We turn a corner, and a man darts in front of our car across the street, narrowly avoiding becoming a hood ornament. We then quickly realize why he is running. On the opposite side of the street we see a man carrying a baseball bat, and another carrying a big heavy chain. We see the first man has joined a group on the other side of the road, and more men are coming to join those carrying the beat sticks (flashback to the fight scene in Anchorman). And we are stuck in between these two parties. I quickly punch the gas, ducking behind the wheel as if I am dodging bullets like they do in the movies. Neither of us have experienced something like this, it just doesn't happen too often out on the farm, as far as I know. 

We wind through the streets without any other incidents, and pull into Highland Park to find: the local Jewish Temple has just let out. So instead of stopping for men carrying weapons, we kindly stop for two gentlemen wearing suits and their Kippahs as they head home from worship. Good feeling to be back in our neighborhood. 

-Kevin

Front Page!

Meara is making it in the big time over here in New Jersey! Here is a link to her front page article! Go check it out!

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu


-Kevin

A Rough Afternoon

Unfortunately, our great Saturday was capped off with a not-so-great welcome home. As we were entering our house, our downstairs neighbors' dogs broke out of their house and attacked Moxie. It was a pretty traumatizing event for everyone, but luckily no person was injured, and Mox came out with minor injuries. It's been a hectic few days recovering and trying to move forward from this. Moxie checked out at the vet, and should be okay in a few days! Here's just a couple of pictures of Moxie's battle wounds!

This was the worst of them. The vet shaved around it just to make sure there wasn't more to it.  

Moxie has been scratching at it and making it worse, so we had to try and bandage her up. She is definitely not happy about it!

Manasquan Reservoir

This past Saturday we headed out to Manasquan Reservoir, which is about an hour from our house. We have been trying to find a spot for Moxie to swim, and got this suggestion from our neighbors. It turned out to be really nice! There is a walking trail all the way around which is about 6 miles, and we found a beach spot for Moxie to swim. There were plenty of other people there with their dogs, but none of them were swimming. Pretty sure we got plenty of dirty looks as Moxie was splashing around in the water. I think the couple in the canoe trying to fish just out from where we were playing fetch probably had the biggest issue with us. But we didn't care! :) And neither did Moxie! We had a great time, and I'm sure will be heading back. Just wish it was closer!

Spent some time on the walking trails!

Moxie was so happy to be back in the water. She played fetch for well over an hour!

 So Happy!

Even Meara had fun! 

The Big Question

No, I haven't asked Meara to marry me for the second time, even though I know Meara would love to do the whole wedding thing over again (but I'm sure Tim and Jhon wouldn't want to see that bill). The big question we keep hearing over here is, "Why the heck did you move to New Jersey?!" 
Honestly, every time I say that I just moved over here from Seattle, people have the same response, "I've heard Seattle is so beautiful! Why in the world would you move over here?" I mean, c-mon people! You aren't making this any easier! And how about representing your state? It would be nice to hear, "Oh wow, well you will love it here! We have so much to offer!" But no, we continue to get the same response... So I think I'm just going to stop telling people I just moved from Seattle. Maybe I'll change it and say I moved from South Dakota. New Jersey HAS to be better than South Dakota, right? 

-Kevin

A Night Out

Last Friday we went out to celebrate Meara completing her first week of being a college professor. Since we got our kitchen set up, we've been trying not to eat out too much, since we spent about a month straight eating out while in the process of moving. But we figured this was an occasion to celebrate! I let Meara choose the place (I know, generous) and she decided we should try out Benihana. I know some of you out there are avid "Friends" fans, and you may remember Ross eating at Benihana on a date. It was a pretty fun experience! However, don't go here expecting a nice quiet, intimate dinner. You get seated at a table with 6 other people (in our case it was 3 other couples) and are sitting around a giant stove. They didn't consider elbow room, or table room when constructing this setup. Everyone orders their food, and then you have a personal chef come out to your table and cook all the food for you. It turned out to be really fun, and great food!

 Our chef making the fried rice!

 It's a flaming onion!

Drivers Cont...

Okay, just a few more rants, and then I will be done!

You know how the saying goes, "Green means go, yellow means GO FASTER!" It always seemed to be a joke when you saw someone blow through a yellow light. But here in Jersey, that saying is taken to heart. Meara was actually warned by someone to not brake on a yellow light, because there is a good chance you may get rear-ended. I think the saying even goes "Yellow go faster, and red you better really punch it!" in New Jersey.  They actually have delayed green lights, which are signified by a sign at many intersections, for the sole reason that they know people will be blowing through these till the last second. UNBELIEVABLE!

Horns: I think they should stop putting horns in cars. I have never been honked at so many times in my illustrious driving career. You better make sure that foot is ready go once that light turns green, or someone is bound to lay on their horn. I feel like I need some lessons from Jeff Gordon on how to get off the line. I think I am learning that you just need to ignore the horns you hear. In Seattle, you only honked if something truly terrible happened. In Jersey, if you don't honk at least once every time you are out on the road, you may be liable for a ticket (at least that's my perception). So I'm trying to get better and just go about my business, and try to ignore that constant horn in my ear...

Roads: Wow... Every time we move, we somehow expect the roads to get better, since we feel they are so terrible everywhere we have lived. However, the opposite has happened. Spokane, was bad, Seattle seemed to get a little worse in places, and New Jersey is on another level. I've never been jostled and thrown around so much by potholes in my life. And it never stops. You hope the next road you turn down will be better than the last, and that has yet to happen. I wonder if this is why all the drivers are so cranky?

Drivers in Jersey

These people must not go through a proper Driver's Ed course! I can't believe some of the things I have seen/had to avoid! I thought Seattle drivers were bad, and usually they did drive me nuts, but Jersey drives are on another level.

The posted speed limit sign seems to mean nothing over here. The main highway we use has three lanes. In the far left lane, I figured I could go 5-10 over, and be okay. Not true. The flow of traffic most times is about 15-20 over, and you'll still get the occasional jerk weaving through traffic. Then there's the middle lane. You would think you could sit in this lane, go the speed limit, and not have too many issues. Again, not true. For the most part, people are still doing about 10-15 over the limit, but then you hit the semi-trucks. All semis seem to use the middle lane, which is a little frustrating. Our highway is dotted with traffic lights, so this middle lane often slows down quite a bit with the semis constantly starting and stopping off the traffic lights. And finally you have the far right lane. As a rule, I usually try to avoid this lane, whichever coast I am driving on. In the right lane you find all sorts of drivers, from those swerving over because the two left lanes are too slow, to the oblivious driver who thinks the highway is their backroad, cruising at the high speeds of 30 mph. And then you add in the lane mergers every 100 feet, and this lane quickly turns deadly. Every merging lane has a yield sign for incoming traffic, which most people seem to turn a blind eye to. I have seen several cars almost taken out by someone just entering the highway without even checking for oncoming cars. The car on the highway swerves out of their lane, just missing the car in the middle lane. It's insane. And if you are trying to merge from these on ramps, your car better have enough horsepower to get up and go from a dead stop before the guy going 60 rear ends you. What an adventure!

People have asked how we are adjusting to New Jersey, and for the most part we are doing okay, but these drivers! And almost everyone I talk to over here and mention adjusting to the drivers is hard, they just say, "It will never get better. Drivers here are crazy!" And I couldn't agree more...

-Kevin

Settling In

So here goes... I'm going to give this blogging thing a shot. Hopefully I can keep up with everything happening over here in New Jersey!

Hard to believe, but we have been in New Jersey for 3 weeks now! We have been working hard at getting settled in to our new apartment. We knew we were downsizing moving over here, but didn't imagine it would be this hard to find a place for all of our stuff! We were soooo glad we had professional movers. After some special maneuvers to get our couch in (which takes up about 75% of our family room), and tossing our box spring and desk over our 2nd floor deck, we decided we at least had to buy them lunch for their incredible efforts!

So the past three weeks have consisted of us unpacking, filling every nook and cranny of this apartment, and just trying to get settled in. At this point, I would say we have been pretty successful. Our latest addition was a washer/dryer to the apartment, which both Meara and I are thrilled about! We were originally told that we had a washer/dryer downstairs in a shared space with the other tenants, which is true. But come to find out, the basement is absolutely awful (pretty sure even the spiders have started moving out of there), and our washer/dryer down there were barely functional. When the dryer was running, it screeched so loud I could here in our upstairs apartment, and couldn't imagine how it sounded to our downstairs neighbors. And even worse, it was disrupting my daily SportsCenter updates, which just couldn't be had. So luckily I found out our apartment had the hook-ups ready to go, so a little jimmy-rigging later, and we have the units in our apartment! Needless to say, they haven't stopped running since we got them.

We've started to explore the neighborhood a bit, and dared a bit to get out on the roads, but more on that later!

-Kevin