Week ???-???: Big Bun, Big Fun

After a short hiatus from the blog, I’m back in the bun ready to ketchup with ya’ll. Since my last post, I’ve travelled back and forth between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. (Un)Specifically, all over south New Jersey, from Rio Grande to Newark, and then over to State College, PA.

I’m pretty confident that I’ve seen all that New Jersey has to offer me. Parts of the state are really pretty, reminding me almost of that up north, cabin in the woods feel, while other parts seem a little depressed and down on their luck:

“Aw c’mon dude, don’t throw that garbage out the window! Have some decency!”

“Hey, pay attention while driving fella! I wanna make it home for Christmas!”

…all while driving past abandoned lots and crumbling buildings. And so on and so on…

It’s fairly flat down in the south end of the state, not much happening in terms of wildlife. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of woods and parks and lakes, but it seems there isn’t the infrastructure to support any type of recreation having to do with such nature. Which, understandably for me, sours my attitude towards New Jersey. Driving through one particularly rough town I snapped a photo which pretty much summed up my feelings towards NJ:

But I’ll be damned if I don’t mention one good thing I found in New Jersey: Goldberg’s Bagels & Deli. This place was the bomb.com – I went there everyday that we stayed in the Newark market. Double egg whites and turkey on an everything bagel, served up hot and steamy on a first-class flight to my tummy? If ever my hopes and dreams for a breakfast sandwich could be realized, it was surely this bagel. See below for a visual representation:

Onto some juicier stuff: State College, Pennsylvania. As a guy who literally bleeds red for the Wisconsin Badgers, sleeping in such close proximity to the Penn State football stadium did unsettle me slightly – I think I might have even developed a rash at one point – but thoughts of Bucky Badger and Jump Around kept me sane. (Please, no mentions of the Big 10 Championship game from two years ago). I spent a solid week there, sleeping at the Quality Inn on Atherton Ave for those of you from there, and had a little pal come and join me. That’s right, the one and only Emily Schaefer, my beauty of a girlfriend from back home. She flew out to see me for about 10 days (spanning two markets – State College and Egg Harbor, NJ), and boy did we have a ball.

We enjoyed doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff. Golf, swimming, hiking Mount Nittany, stuffing our guts with burgers and booze from The Field – all in celebration of my upcoming birthday (which I will spend in a Walmart parking lot with the Wienermobile). She and I go together like PB and J: it’s always a sweet time and you’re always wanting just a bit more of it. Alas, her 10 days came to a close and she flew back to Wisconsin. For any who are unaware of her current adventures, she is prepping for her matriculation of medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin, a great school in the Milwaukee area that both her father and grandfather attended. It’s bizarre that we fell for each other – a story not unlike a romcom, her the assistant manager for a summer backpacking program that I applied to – because she is very much rooted in her pursuit for medicine and helping others, while I am like a used fabric softener sheet, forever tumbling in the dryer that is my uncertainty. She knows (for the most part) what career she will feel fulfilled doing till her dying day, while I couldn’t even tell you what I want for breakfast tomorrow. She’s sturdy, dependable, and confident. I’m random, high-reaching and unorthodox. But maybe that’s what makes us such a good team: She can feed off of what excitement lies in my uncertainty, providing me with fresh perspectives and optimism, while I can appreciate more the nuances of a high-level career path. Maybe it’s time I get my butt in gear.

Alright rant over. To summarize, she’s great and I’m a bonehead. We played golf twice while in State College, one set of nine holes and then another attempt for the other nine. Unfortunately a blitzkrieg storm snuck up on us and forced us off the course (a good thing too, my swing was like a lumberjack’s while she was looking like Tiger). Thankfully, we were able to get our money back with some hard bargaining via Wiener Whistles.

We climbed Mount Nittany, which wasn’t all what was cracked up to be online. They made it sound a little more challenging than what we encountered, but it’s alright. We’re badasses, we know… We did come across a hefty sized snake, so that did give us a shot of adrenaline. After our hike, we spent the afternoon at a beautiful winery, where Emily and I split a bottle and read our books.

This job allows me a lot of time to read, whether it’s waiting for our events to start or after I finish my work on a drive day. I would say this tendency also infected Emily during our trip, who is reading Game of Thrones right now (NO SPOILERS!!!). She and I could find contentment in each others company by simply turning the pages of our books.

Emily did a rockin’ job of making me feel like a king for my surrogate birthday. She took me out for a fancy dinner, made me a handwritten card (both mildly depressing but also hilarious, see below), and gave me a Kindle!!! This was the best thing I could hope for; it's lightweight, small and allows me to shed all the books I’ve been packing in my bags. Currently I’m reading 1984 by George Orwell. But before that I finished Born to Run, a very compelling read that tries to prove that we humans are natural born runners, and indeed many of our problems will be solved if we return to this ancient craft. My favorite quote from this read: “You don’t stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running”. The author has some slightly inflammatory theories, such as that humans were not meant to wear big floppy running shoes, but rather return to the barefoot methods of the past. I don’t have any real strong convictions at this point as I haven’t enough miles under my belt, but someday I hope to put his theory to the test.

I’ll wrap things up here. Right now I’m in Tom’s River, NJ, where I’ll stay till Tuesday. Then I’ll head up to Readington for the Balloon Festival (where hopefully I capitalize on scoring a hot air balloon ride).

Thanks for reading!