Snow Day

Today it snowed a lot in our little corner of NJ.

I started with some anxious desperation thinking "We need fruit! Why did we move here? When will the snow end? Will I die in NJ? Is this IT?! When will life begin?" I crashed my New Year's resolution to like NJ and decided to face my true feelings towards this nasty dirty cold state. It had me overwhelmed thinking about why we moved here, and what is next. NJ is just not a place where one can feel warm and cozy. Either you are born from here or you come here for a boat load of money and live in Manhattan. But I can't think of one sane person who would say, "Gosh, Jersey is so great, so beautiful, and pretty. I want to move there and live there for the rest of my entire life." No, not one person.

If you are on the fence about moving to NJ here are 5 great reasons to reconsider:

1. Highest levels of cancer. Yes, they are here! Factories, the "sanitation" industry, smog from NYC, old water pipes, dirty water, all of that adds up.

2. The weather is HORRIFIC. Since I've been here we've endured Hurricane Sandy flying  and 8 months of winter last year. This year it has been under freezing since December, no joke. I am tired of walkingn on ice, driving on ice, breaking frozen air and bringing road salt in the house. Road salt is impossible to get off of wooden floors.

3. The roads are a mess. I hate driving here because most on ramps come from the left around a curb and surprise you with a deep deep pothole. So you risk your life driving.

4. The houses are really old, really expensive and really badly built. You will spend 3 times as much in NJ with the excuse that it is close to Manhattan than you will spend in other parts of the country. Termites and radon also abound. Oh, and NJ has the highest rates on property tax in the nation.

5. It's ugly. Let's face it, NJ is the ugliest state of the nation peppered with abandoned industrial plants, live industrial plants and grey grey grey concrete everywhere. I can't think of one state that is uglier. Thinking hard...nope, NJ is the one.

6. The people are not the friendliest, which I wouldn't care if it someplace awesome. But ugly place and nasty people = Dorothy clicking her shoes. Oklahoma would even be better.


I hope no one nice ever moves to NJ. It should be bull dozed, fertilized with fresh cow manure, have some daisies planted and given time to heal from the damage that centuries of immigrants and the mob have done to its surface.

On that cheerful note, ahhh...I feel refreshed. Saying what you despise about a place is so much better than trying to like something you just can't convince yourself to like. Trying to like NJ is like trying to like your manipulative boss. It's like trying to like someones fart. Like trying to like driving on ice. Not possible. Coming out with how much I hate the state of NJ? Ahhh....I feel free to like something that is good, worthy of being liked and loved, like the rain forest of Washington. Like Assatique Island, Maryland. I feel freer to like Sirmione, Italy. To recall with true love the dozens of gelatos I ate in Rivoltella. I feel free to close my eyes and imagine the sun from Cinque Terre. Those places are worth liking, not crap-hole Jersey.

So, here are some pictures of our very boring day.

Broccoli rabe and sausage

Picasso, if this is real then why am I here? Do I need to imagine that I am a queen a little bit harder?

time clicking by. One minute at a time. It makes me want to read "The Dinner Party" by Virginia Woolf

Salt. My enemy.

10 ft of snow piled from the plow truck.

Naked David, naked David, take me to Rome! If I say that three times and click my birkenstocks will I arrive in Rome? Let's try.....nope. Doesn't work.

nap time

Bird watching

Asking El Gordo what he would do if it were him. "Go somewhere sunny" he says. Yes, he is right. Life is short. Let's live like the Dos Equis man and backpack in the Amazon and drink from giant palm leaves twisted into cups. Let's go somewhere warm. El Gordo will ride on my shoulder like a little guide monkey and Bentley will help me build a tree house like the Swiss family Robinson. 

joined at the hip

shovel men

The salt man spreading salt rocks

Men with shovels 

 Back in the house El Gordo and I practiced perfect posture. He balanced things on his furry head to show me how it's done.

pen holder

El Gordo with a mantilla veil 

That is a real clay pot! I am impressed! It just goes to show that you can put anything on a napping cats head. You just have to go slow....

Sunset

I feel like the story doesn't need to end here in NJ. There must be something more or different than this! It is just too cold and dirty and ugly to accept as forever. Sure, God built NJ as something pretty and perfect but man turned and destroyed it to grossness.

Anyway, now that the roads are plowed I know which girl will be buying an armful of flowers tomorrow to brighten her space, this one!