Jersey (Thump Thump) Respect

Last night, for the first time in my life, I found some serious respect for Jersey. No, it's not the tax-free shopping, no it's not the plethora of Olive Gardens available to choose from, and no it's not the Costco sangria mix. Melissa had phase one of her birthday celebrations over in Hoboken, the notorious area with a plethora of fresh out of college "kids" (said in a very snooty tone of voice ;o). The last thing I want to do on a Wednesday night is go to Hoboken for an event that doesn't even start until 9:00pm. But this event sounded somewhat interesting: a public, open-air showing of the movie "Crash", which I really liked. The New York area has all sorts of fun summer activities like this but I rarely have anyone to attend them with so I haven't gone to any yet in the last three years.

I was amazed when I arrived at the movie showing location. I had no idea that the PATH train drops you off so close to the water. And I had no idea that there were parks all along the Hudson river, directly across from Manhattan. On a warm summer night, you can imagine watching the light fade and an unobstructed view of the city in all of it's glory lighting up at dusk and continuing into the night. It was crystal clear out and was an amazing backdrop to a gigantic movie screen and several thousand people watching the show. Next time I'm bringing my camera. I gotta hand it to them - that idea was right on the money! Respect...

In exactly seven days, I will be boarding a jet plane to Euroland once again. The World Cup beckons! I've recently been promoted at work from windowless consultant room to "give him a cube because he's gonna get hired eventually" and along with such stature comes a laptop. I will definitely be lugging that thing with me on this vacation to commensurate J. Riley's infamous "vacation blogging". Clear off your calendars on July 11th ;o)

Justinho, my high-tech torture device known as a pallete or arch expander is coming out in T-minus-six-days