Reading (For Dummies)

New Jersey Yet Again

In typical road-trip fashion, I went to New Paltz on Saturday to meet up wit my brother and old man for some beer and dinner. Afterwards, Erik and I went for a drive down to New Jersey.

We got to my mom's house sometime around midnight. Everybody else has flown away from the New Jersey love-nest, including my mother, who was out in Los Angeles at the time. Even the keys were gone; Erik and I were oafish and forgot ours, and the spare was with Jason and Kristen in Philadelphia.

After trying unsuccessfully to break in via the windows, we sank defeated for a night sleeping under the stars. Fortunately, Jason and Kristen were back in not much time.

At a loss for what to do on Sunday, Erik and I went to the Rock Gym. Getting a taste for climbing again was a good idea.

We wandered through Old City, admiring the architecture and the cleavage, before settling on an underground bar called Sugar Mom's. I had been there once before, as a sort of "meet the sister-in-law" night in Philadelphia. I have been told, but not had it confirmed, that the women's bathrooms reciprocate the men's treatment.

We got it in our heads that a pitcher was the best bet for the afternoon. The bar was empty, save for the bartender, George, and some slobbering drunkard whose name escapes me.

Exactly what the doctor ordered was the bill of the day. The bartender was some variety of Catholic, so we talked god, love, artificial intelligence. Giving up, he popped us a bottle of Bourbon for toasting. Another pitcher later, things were becoming less intelligeble. So we headed to the Kwelty's.

The Kwelty family lived next door to my mom until I was about 12, when they moved about a mile down the road. My fondest childhood memories involve giving Kyle a bloody lip, and me nearly drowning after a scuffle in the pond. In between nearly killing each other, we spent a lot of time catching bullfrogs and northeastern painted turtles.

Now Kyle is getting married, to one of my kindergarten classmates of all things. I can't help but think of the play "Our Town". It's sort of surprising that relationships work like that any longer in the Information Age. The world got too big for that somewhere...

Speaking of small town romances, some other news cropped up around the time of this trip -- I will soon be an uncle. Jason and Kristen are expecting in 6 months. Time flies...

After having more beer at the Kwelty's, the whole lot of us went to the new bar in Medford Lakes, for even more beer. Like a Navy SEAL that's in too deep, I called for extraction. Kat came to my rescue.

The Fourth was hangover city, an enviable position for spending an afternoon with the family. It went off well, actually, I think. I got to swap stories with my grandmum for a bit. It's kind of nice to have family members that are okay with my being lost.

Without much fanfare, we had to leave. Erik for his home, and, eventually, me for mine. Separate lives going separate ways, at least for this week...