Directions!

Go to the blog entry marked "Jersey!," and read up from there. For some reason, I couldn't post a lot of photos in each blog, so I had to break it up a bit... But if you read from "Jersey!," you get a coherent (I hope!) story.

A final photo, my humble bed!

NP: Still the Graham Chapman, it's a long cut...

Continued!

Okay, here's more photos... Perhaps St. Peter's internet connection is a bit different? Who knows...

Here's the other side of the kitchen, with more counter space, and a sink. Always a necessity.

A little further into the apartment, looking back towards the door...

Here's the bathroom. It's ORANGE! Very ORANGE!!! The last person living here painted it that color. The College may repaint it, but if Sue likes it, I'm happy to keep it this way. Or, if there's another color she wants, we can talk to the College about it...

The walk in closet off of the larger of the two bedrooms.

Here's the view of the larger bedroom, from the doorway of the walk in closet. I like the shelving on the walls of many of the rooms.

And the smaller of the two bedrooms, from the doorway into it. I moved a chair from the living room into here, so I could type all this to you, Gentle Reader. Again, note the shelves. And the windows all face east. Good morning sunlight. Once Sue gets here, we'll decide which bedroom to put our bed into it. Personally, I'm leaning towards this room...

So, there you have the little travelogue of the new apartment. Not a bad place. I think now I'm going to go out and walk around a bit, get a sense of the neighborhood, and all that...

NP: Graham Chapman - A Six Pack of Lies

Apartment!

Here are photos of the new apartment! It's a bit more "institutional" than our last apartment (cinder block walls, lighting, etc.), but it may actually be a bit bigger than our last place, or perhaps just set up a bit better...

This is the view into the apartment from the front door. You can see a bit of the doorjam on the right hand side of the photo. The chair on the left, I'm using to keep the door propped open. The carpets were cleaned before I arrived, and there was still a bit of that "carpet cleaning smell" to the place when we (Carla, the Director of Res Life) and I opened the apartment yesterday....

As of right now, there's no chairs with the dining table, on the left, but those will be arriving soonish...

View after walking into the apartment, looking into the living room. You can see the access to the kitchen on the right hand side of the photo.

A little further into the apartment, looking right, you see a bit more of the living room, and a bit more of the kitchen area. The kitchen area has a view of the living room, and yes, that is my penguin sitting in the window...

Here's a photo from in the living room, looking into the kitchen...

And here's the kitchen, from the entranceway. Some little snacks are there, left as welcoming gifts. How nice!

Blogger seems to not be letting me post any more photos, so let me start a new post, and continue this little photo montage...

NP: Graham Chapman - A Six Pack Of Lies

Jersey!

I arrived in NJ yesterday, after a MUCH longer drive than it should have been. For those of you in the know, you know that driving from Hanover, New Hampshire, to Jersey City, NJ should take about 4.5 hours, if there's no traffic.

For most of the drive, there was no traffic. I was having smooth sailing, and life was good.

However, at about 2:30-3pm, Interstate 95 started being backed up. And when I say backed up, I mean it was slow to the point of being totally stopped for periods of time. However, this first backup cleared up after about 20-30 minutes.

Then, the slamming began.

I think it was about Exit 10 in New York, where traffic was slowed like it was before, except even worse. It felt like I was actually in reverse for part of it.

Also, did you realize that Interstate 95, one of the main superhighways in the US, actually narrows down to ONE LANE at one point in the approach to New York City? Incredible.

Anyway, I had left Hanover at 11:35am or so yesterday. I arrived at the parking lot here at St. Peter's at 7:26pm. The drive that should have been 4.5 hours ended up being a bit shy of 8 hours.

Upon arrival, I gave the Director here a buzz. I was concerned that they were a bit worried about me, since I had e-mailed before I left that I should be arriving around 4ish, the Traffic Gods willing. Needless to say, there was much sympathy expressed about my travelling issues. But, that's in the past now, and my arrival couldn't have been nicer. Besides Carla, the Director, a number of other people were there to help unload my car. These people include Sara (one of the people I'll be supervising), Mike (an Operations person, if I remember my job responsibility breakdown correctly), and John, one of the Resident Assistants here, and who was one of the student interviewers when I was here back in early June. With their help, we unloaded my car in about 10-15 minutes, I think...

Once everything was in, we went out to dinner at a local Appleby's. (Am I spelling that right? I'm not sure...) First though, I called Sue to let her know that I got in okay. She had just gotten in from work a bit of time ago, and was shocked to hear that I had just gotten in... But, all was well, and today's her last day at work. Hopefully her travels on Sunday will be better than mine from yesterday!

For dinner, we were joined by two other students, and a former employee of the College. One of the students was named Brian, and I'm blanking on the names of the other two people. Horrible, I know...

Then, after dinner, I came back to the apartment (probably around 10ish), and started putting some stuff away, at least temporarily. Permanent decisions will have to wait for Sue's arrival.

I'll be posting some photos of the place up here soon. I've been trying to do it with this post, but they're not showing for some reason. Once I figure out the problem, they'll be right up here...

NP: Pink Floyd - Fearless

Fireworks!

Fourth of July! Yeah!

However, no fireworks seen by me tonight, although I heard some in the distance about an hour or so ago. I enjoy a good fireworks show, but unless it's a really good one, it's always a bit anticlimatic to me.

When I was a little kid, I really didn't like fireworks. The noise bothered me. I remember going with family to see 4th of July fireworks shows at the boardwalk in Asbury Park, and keeping fingers in my ears and my eyes closed. Part of it might have also been people making a big deal out of the shows, so I just didn't want to show interest. But initially, I think it was fear more than anything else, those loud booms!

Living in Boston till about 1996, I really got spoiled with fireworks, the shows there were so good, on the Charles River. I'd go with friends from college, and hang out most of the day on the Cambridge side, having fun till nightfall and the start of the show. They'd always end with those loud blasts, that would light up the sky like it was almost daylight. The first time I saw it, it was almost overwhelming because there were so many going off at once, and the blasts were so bright. After that first one, I never thought the later shows matched the intensity of that first time, but I'm guessing that's more about perception than reality.

Of course, we're just a few days too late to see the NYC shows, so we'll have to wait until next year. I saw a bit of it on TV tonight, but watching fireworks on television just isn't the same...

And as per Lou's comment on the wrestling matches basically being science fiction themselves, in my blog below, I think that's as good a reason as any!

NP: Spirits Burning - Red

Wrestling?

Can someone explain to me why ECW Wrestling is on the SCI-FI channel????

NP: The Twilight Zone, on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Zone!

So, Sci-Fi Channel is having a Twilight Zone marathon. I think they do it most every Fourth of July, and in its own way, I really do think showing this show is a celebration of freedom. Freedom of thought, and to make people think about issues that are beyond themselves.

Sure, many of the episodes are "spooky," or that traditional "wow, that's weird" ending. However, many of them are critical looks at government, society, religion, just about anything that's worth thinking about.

I watched the Twilight Zone often as a kid, and I think that for storytelling, great writing, and to think about "big issues," it's a great show for young people to watch. I'll also include the original Star Trek in that category, with the added benefit in Star Trek of having a regular cast of characters for people to identify with.

Of course, I watched the Love Boat as a kid also, so not everything has to be educational...

In other news, I hung out with some work people today, ate lunch (courtesy of CD Dan, thanks!), talked to some students, and went out to eat with Sue to Molly's, one of our favorite places to eat in Hanover. All in all, a very good day.

Tomorrow, we have no real plans. There's some stuff happening in town in the late morning that I/we may walk on down to, and I may do some packing of some of our final items. That'll also happen on Wednesday, as the movers are coming on Thursday.

I also got some good news about the move today, it's going to be cheaper than I expected. That's always a good thing!

Back to Twilight Zone now...

NP: Of course, the Twilight Zone...