New Jersey

Has there a time when you have visited a loved one and you got the feeling that you brought a little bit of bad luck along with you?

In my case, I had been visiting Carolyn in Montclair, New Jersey, for just a couple of hours when things started to go wrong.

First, we were lounging on the couch as I was trying to show her some holiday photos on my iBook. One particular curiosity I was trying to show her was my dad, who was wearing a bright red, snowflake patterned Christmas shirt that he was extremely proud of. Continue reading »

“How’s the armpit of America?” a dear friend facetiously asked in an email while I was in New Jersey.

Now, I cannot confirm or refute whether the rest of New Jersey is deserving of being an “armpit”, though I had my suspicions when I got off a train in Seacaucous, took an unfortunate deep breath of air, and subsequently turned and remarked to Carolyn, “Wow, that’s pretty foul…” She explained that this area was, essentially, built on top of a swamp. The surrounding water did look really nasty. Furthermore, landfills in this area are completely overflowing, creating some garbage headaches for the entire region… Continue reading »