I Love New...Jersey (if you are from Jersey and are proud of it...ummm...don't read on)
It's not very often you can say you had the worst steak of your life, the worst hamburger of your life and even the worst Starbucks vanilla latte and chocolate croissant all in the worst smelling city you've ever been in all in the same week. I can say that.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hilton Newark Airport.
There is a comparitive stat used by Baseball Prospectus called VORP (Value over replacement player). It is designed to figure out how vauable a baseball player is in comparison to a typical replacement player at his position. I came to the conclusion by Tuesday morning that if we could calculate VORS (Value over replacement state) New Jersey's would be negative. I came to this conclusion before driving to a restaurant with the only person I know from New Jersey and having her tell me not to open the window because it smells too bad. I'll get to that later.
My week started with a 4:30 wake up call and a cab ride to the airport. The driver went to Savio so we discussed the recent school closing. He expressed his pride in being an english speaking cab driver. That was pretty much that. I walked into the airport, passed through the normal terminals into a 20 x 25 room that is apparently where they store the people flying to NJ. After an uneventful flight I learn that the rerminals at Newark Airport are not reall connected, so I have to take tram to get to Avis. Wait
This is taking way too long, I'm going to highlight key points.
1. The client I'm working on looks like an auto body shop and seems to be in a slightly lower class version of Forest Hills.
2. GPS is the best and the worst thing I've ever used. It was great at finding the NJ office, it was not so great when it insisted I take a left turn through someone's living room.
3. On Monday night I ordered a steak from room service; the entire meal cost $51; it was the worst steak I've ever eaten; if I took a piece of london broil, stuck it on a grill for an hour on high and seasoned it with dirt mixed with Murray's pee...well that would've been worse, but since I bothered to make that comparison I think you get the point.
4. On Tuesday night I decided there would be no risks involved, I had a chicken quesadilla and beer and that went fine. I went back to hotel room and watched a few hours of MSNBC's replay of their 9/11/2001 coverage. I really couldn't take my eyes off it. Since I was on my way to work or in work while all of it happened, I didn't see any of the actual coverage until after everything had happened and we knew what was going on. It was weird listening to their thoughts of what was going on as it happened and it was kind of erie listening to their speculation while you know what's coming next. I could probably go on about this for awhile but I won't.
5. On Wednesday I e-mailed my only friend in NJ and proptly got her out of office reply that she was on vacation. Given how things had gone so far I should have expected that.
6. A few hours later I got an e-mail back that she was on vacation at home and was around for dinner.
7. While driving to the restaurant she instructs me not to open the window. I ask why. "The smell." "What smell?" "The smell of New Jersey." "Boston smells, it couldn't be that bad." "Boston doesn't smell like New Jersey." I accepted it an moved on.
8. Had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the water directly across from the New York skyline, saw the lit up version of the Statue of Liberty (this was actually the closest look I've ever had of it). The manager told us that Tuesday would've been a perfect night to be there because of the lights from the towers. Yeah, that would've been nice to see. Needless to say Wednesday was pretty much the week's bright spot.
9. Thursday, back to the hotel bar. I figured a hamburger and beer was safe. I bit the hamburger and realize I was wrong. Aparently they think it's a good idea to cook a burger and then inject the cow blood into the middle of the burger. That doesn't make for good things.
10. I'm sure I'm forgetting things that I hated about New Jersey, but on the good side I got to leave early and was home by 5:30. On the bad side I have to spend 2 more weeks there. I guess I can be happy about Continental miles and Hilton Honors points.
I concede that all I saw of New Jersey was Newark and the surrounding communities, but that was enough for me.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hilton Newark Airport.
There is a comparitive stat used by Baseball Prospectus called VORP (Value over replacement player). It is designed to figure out how vauable a baseball player is in comparison to a typical replacement player at his position. I came to the conclusion by Tuesday morning that if we could calculate VORS (Value over replacement state) New Jersey's would be negative. I came to this conclusion before driving to a restaurant with the only person I know from New Jersey and having her tell me not to open the window because it smells too bad. I'll get to that later.
My week started with a 4:30 wake up call and a cab ride to the airport. The driver went to Savio so we discussed the recent school closing. He expressed his pride in being an english speaking cab driver. That was pretty much that. I walked into the airport, passed through the normal terminals into a 20 x 25 room that is apparently where they store the people flying to NJ. After an uneventful flight I learn that the rerminals at Newark Airport are not reall connected, so I have to take tram to get to Avis. Wait
This is taking way too long, I'm going to highlight key points.
1. The client I'm working on looks like an auto body shop and seems to be in a slightly lower class version of Forest Hills.
2. GPS is the best and the worst thing I've ever used. It was great at finding the NJ office, it was not so great when it insisted I take a left turn through someone's living room.
3. On Monday night I ordered a steak from room service; the entire meal cost $51; it was the worst steak I've ever eaten; if I took a piece of london broil, stuck it on a grill for an hour on high and seasoned it with dirt mixed with Murray's pee...well that would've been worse, but since I bothered to make that comparison I think you get the point.
4. On Tuesday night I decided there would be no risks involved, I had a chicken quesadilla and beer and that went fine. I went back to hotel room and watched a few hours of MSNBC's replay of their 9/11/2001 coverage. I really couldn't take my eyes off it. Since I was on my way to work or in work while all of it happened, I didn't see any of the actual coverage until after everything had happened and we knew what was going on. It was weird listening to their thoughts of what was going on as it happened and it was kind of erie listening to their speculation while you know what's coming next. I could probably go on about this for awhile but I won't.
5. On Wednesday I e-mailed my only friend in NJ and proptly got her out of office reply that she was on vacation. Given how things had gone so far I should have expected that.
6. A few hours later I got an e-mail back that she was on vacation at home and was around for dinner.
7. While driving to the restaurant she instructs me not to open the window. I ask why. "The smell." "What smell?" "The smell of New Jersey." "Boston smells, it couldn't be that bad." "Boston doesn't smell like New Jersey." I accepted it an moved on.
8. Had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the water directly across from the New York skyline, saw the lit up version of the Statue of Liberty (this was actually the closest look I've ever had of it). The manager told us that Tuesday would've been a perfect night to be there because of the lights from the towers. Yeah, that would've been nice to see. Needless to say Wednesday was pretty much the week's bright spot.
9. Thursday, back to the hotel bar. I figured a hamburger and beer was safe. I bit the hamburger and realize I was wrong. Aparently they think it's a good idea to cook a burger and then inject the cow blood into the middle of the burger. That doesn't make for good things.
10. I'm sure I'm forgetting things that I hated about New Jersey, but on the good side I got to leave early and was home by 5:30. On the bad side I have to spend 2 more weeks there. I guess I can be happy about Continental miles and Hilton Honors points.
I concede that all I saw of New Jersey was Newark and the surrounding communities, but that was enough for me.