New Jersey / New York (Part 1)

After about a 6-hour drive I made it to my childhood home in NJ.  As I pulled into the drive way I realized I'd had 3 bottles of water during the drive and hadn't stopped at a restroom once.  Ooops!  I couldn't even stop to hug my parents upon entering the house.  I had other business that needed to be handled first.  After a quick visit to the restroom I returned to the living room to properly give out hugs.  My parents' dog, Mitzi, is madly in love with me and has a habit of getting so excited whenever I come home that she pees on the spot.  We took the reunion outside so she would be free to take care of her own business.  It's probably important to tell you that I lived in this house from the time I was born until I left for college.  And, many of the neighbors have similar longevity on the block...  As my parents, Mitzi and I were standing in the front yard neighbors came pouring out of their houses. 

Tina Shark was the first to make her way over.  Tina and Greg moved onto Third Avenue when I was 8 years old.  When I was 9 years old they had their first child, Katie, and I am became their babysitter.  They went on to have 3 more children, Jackie, Zach and Anastasia before I left for college.  Proceeds from babysitting the Shark children undoubtedly paid for about 1/2 of the car I bought myself when I was 17.  We got fully caught up on the kids (3 are college graduates - Anastasia is a senior is high school) and just as we were finishing up our conversation, Gale and Frank Rivera made their way out of their house to do some yard work.  They caught a glimpse of me from across the street and the yard work was put on hold.  I got an update on their son, Adam, and the rest of the family (Gale's sister also lived on Third Avenue for many years and I babysat for her children before they moved to North Carolina in 1989.)  As we were chatting Janice Conklin pulled up in front of her house, returning from the grocery store.  She has 4 kids:  Eddie, Melissa, Jamie and Robbie.  Melissa and I are the same age, so we spent much of our childhood playing together.  We chatted for a moment and I promised to swing over and say hello again while I was in town.  It's amazing how much can change in the world, while other things stay exactly the same...

For those of you who don't know... the majority of people who grow up in Northern NJ stay pretty close by after they graduate from high school.  Nearly all of my childhood friends live within 15 miles of the homes they grew up in (where their parents still live, of course!).  I am the exception to the rule for sure - going to college in NC and moving to GA for my career was a real oddity amongst my group of friends.  The nicest thing about having them all in town is that I can easily get together with all of them when I am in the area.  I got plans in place to see Christine, Jenna and JB right away and decided to wait on everyone else until I'd be back in town on my way back down to Atlanta in November.

My parents and I had dinner, played a game of Quiddler and called it a night.  After a swim at the YMCA the next morning, Christine and I met for lunch.  We had so much to catch up on that I wasn't sure how we'd cover it all during a single meal.  As it turns out, we couldn't cover everything over lunch and we decided to have a good ole sleep over party at her house that night!  She moved to Chester, NY a few years ago and had to get home to pick up her son, Nate, from school.  I drove up later that afternoon and we enjoyed some playing in the yard, wine on the deck and Chinese food for dinner...

Nate having a Zen moment over Chinese food

June flashing me her pearly whites

Brent was able to stay home with the kids so Christine and I could go out and we decided to head to Jay and Barb's house.  The backstory won't add anything to this post, but I've know Jay for years and Barb is the love of his life whom I was meeting for the first time.  FABULOUS!  You know when you meet someone and like them instantaneously?  That's how I felt about Barb.  I knew she was a good match for Jay when she suggested we moon him on his way back from getting beers for us.  :)  There was also a whipped cream fight later in the evening.  Use your imagination...

When I got back to my parents the next day I had plans to attend Jenna's youngest sister's 30th birthday party.  I was so excited because I'd be able to see Jenna's entire extended family at the party.  I hadn't seen some of her cousins in ~5 years.  I got to Jenna's house just as her Aunt Nancy was walking to the front door and I surprised her with a beep of my horn.  We walked into the house together where we found Jenna, her Mom and her Grandma in the kitchen.  Jenna popped a bottle of champagne and we all got caught up on life.  So fun!  We headed to the party a few hours later and it was absolutely amazing to see Jenna's sisters, Elisa and Christina as well as the rest of her extended family.  We laughed, danced, ate, drank.  It was just like old times!

On Saturday I went for a long walk in the park with my parents and Mitzi and had dinner with my friend JB and his wife, Sarah.  They have two little girls now, Sadie and Novi and Sadie had me cracking up all night.  I bet she can even make you laugh via this blog.  Here she is doing Thai Chi:

Seriously?  How many 3 year olds do you know who do Thai Chi?



I had to be in Boston on Sunday to relieve my sister-in-law's parents of their babysitting duties for the coming week.  Paul and Nichole had a trip to London pop up and asked if I could watch the kids for a week.  Uh... YES!  I was so excited about having a whole week with Parker and Evie that I didn't know what to do with myself.  I hit the road at 2:00 and arrive in Boston shortly before dinner...