For a guy who currently doesn't have a job, has no friends in the state, and can't reach many "fun" places without a car (when Nicole's off at work), I sure manage not to write a whole hell of a lot.
Sheesh. I'm losing it. Really. Any "edge" I may have had seems to be fading, I fear. I'm sure I can whip myself back into shape with a little effort, but honestly ... every day starts to blur at this point.
I shouldn't complain, of course, because I'm very lucky and I realize it. I managed to save enough money not to be destitute, and Nicole's been great about letting me have all the time and space I need to find a job I'm interested in, given that I've moved cross-country for her career twice now. Still, I need some structure. I need some routine. And man oh man, do I need to find a local gym. Even if I put on my best rock star attitude, jumping around playing Guitar Hero is a sad replacement for actual physical activity (regardless of how fun it actually is).
The thing we're noticing most - and the thing that bothers us most - is the ridiculous change in the cost of living that we're experiencing. Milk is $4.75 or so per gallon. You don't want to know about Orange Juice. And the electric company ...
See, New Jersey's electric system was apparently deregulated a few years ago, which in theory should provide customers with choices regarding who they want to use as their service. Except us, of course, because we live where only one company services our neighborhood. We got our first partial bill (two weeks plus the installation charge), and it was almost as much as our regular Portland bill for a month. The kilowatt hour charge is nearly twice as much, and then there are fees and all this other nonsense ... seriously, it'd be reason alone not to buy a house here.
The neighborhoods around Morristown seem really nice and quiet, and despite the overload of Yankees fan everyone seems incredibly nice, but I can't see why anyone would want to stick around these parts, based solely on the cost of everyday life.
Which, of course, only compounds my issue of needing employment, which I'm just not motivated enough to find just yet ... though I can tell the novelty of sitting around watching DVDs and listening to Howard Stern all day is wearing off.
***
A quick story about day one in New Jersey:
The flight from Portland (via Denver) arrived in Newark at about 5:00, roughly on time and just in time for rush hour traffic. Of course, we're fresh off the boat and don't know where we're going anyway, so slower traffic wasn't necessarily a bad thing at that point. We went to the rental agency office to pick up the car that had been reserved for us, but the guy at the desk couldn't locate the reservation in his computer, so Nicole grabbed her printout of the itinerary and rental info, and sure enough, she does have a reservation - in Denver. She didn't make these arrangements herself, of course, and whoever booked everything for her didn't notice, apparently, that we were actually not planning to drive to our final destination from Denver, as lovely a trip as that may have been.
Off to a great start.
Traffic, as expected, was backed up ... right at our exit. The other exits seemed OK, but ours was slooow. If we weren't noobs to the area, perhaps we'd have known alternate routes. We were at Googlemap's mercy, though, so by the time we finally got to the Parsippany Hilton to rest for the night, we were beyond thrilled to find that the parking lot was overfilled, the lobby was teeming with an unusual collection of humanity, and we could barely walk to the elevators with our bags.
You'll find out why in the next post.
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