28 Nov 2011

I’m back in New Jersey for more training.  It’s only been a bit more than a week since I was last here, but nevertheless, things have changed.  For starters, the neon N atop the hotel has burned out, reducing this already a shade-shy-of-tacky commercial park icon to something closer to just plain tacky.  To counterbalance this lack of exterior neon glow, the lobby has been spruced up with a glow of its own, brought forth by the glittery and animated snowmen nodding a greeting to all that enter.

My room for the next two weeks is different too, facing east instead of west, facing smokestacks and a highway instead of office buildings and railroad tracks.  Oh, and a cemetery.  Quite the contrast, the ever-buzzing freeway slicing a grey swath through that field of green and granite, people in a hurry to get where they’re going versus people with nowhere else to go.  I’m sure New Jersey has more to offer than what I’m seeing outside my Hilto window, but exploring beyond the parking lot boundaries will have to wait for another time.

Perhaps the other most obvious change since I was last here is that I have gained a pound or two after all of the Thanksfeasting festivities while home for the holiday.  Gina and I were treated to good food and good times with friends of new and old.  We also picked out our Christmas tree, walking it 7 blocks home from the lot and decorating it with the lights and baubles that spent last year in a box.  It’s a fun season for us this year, being back in the familiar and the different, savoring the memories of our travels from this time last year while settling into a new routine.  And while I’m happy to seek out new adventures and places in this world (the planning wheels are ever turning), I must also say that Dorothy was right – there’s no place like home.