PIL: Cool Story Babe. Go Make Me A Sandwich.

…and other things I saw at the Jersey Shore today.

Every season, beach-side t-shirt shops have a few trends that spread like crabs (har har). A few years ago it was neon paint splatters with big, block letters. Several years before that it was OBX style logos. People go nuts over this stuff. The siren songs of this weird, ubiquitous crap fool sun-stricken beach-goers into thinking that A) $40 is a reasonable price for a tank top and B) “Yeah, I’ll totally wear this again, MOM.”

This year I noticed two big trends:

- The Reversible Jersey, screened with whatever. Logos. Characters. Stupid Sayings. Names. Etc. If I felt more strongly about Philadelphia and less attached to Pittsburgh, I would have grabbed an “ill” jersey in Phillies font. It was pretty sick.

- Plain shirts with phrases like, “Cool Story Bro. Tell It Again” in Helvetica  or some other clean font. The title of this post is borrowed from another design you could purchase. Seriously? WTF. At first, I thought they were quotes from the Jersey Shore TV series, but after doing a quick search, all of the sayings they had are just pop-culture garbage or memes. I propose another style option: “Nice T-Shirt, Douche. I’ll Be Seeing It At Goodwill When Your Vaycay Is Over.”

Sometimes, you could find these trends together. I saw two twelve-year old girls wearing pink jerseys with the Bro saying on it. Amazing. Double rainbow.

The short list of things we did today:

- Cape May, NJ: Drove around  to look at the Victorian houses. Walked around for about half an hour. By “walk” I mean I sat in the sun, in a wheelchair, while my parents checked out shops. It was so hot that the ice in our Arnold Palmers melted before we got to the car. Also, there was a mis-communication that resulted in a cup of beach fries falling all over the floor of my parents’ new ride. Let’s just say it was a quiet the whole way to…

- Ocean City, NJ: I insisted on crutching around because there was so much “over-helping” with the wheelchair situation. I love my parents and they do a lot for me, but sometimes it’s easier to just get the job done yourself.

We really didn’t/couldn’t do much here because of my walking status. I was glad to find that the weird beach/record store still exists and still sells Black Flag t-shirts. I was too tired to walk around in it, but that’s okay. They probably don’t carry Atom and His Package hoodies anymore. OH WELL.

The highlight of our afternoon and the whole reason we even went to O.C. was getting taffy at Shriver’s. My parents grew up spending summers at the shore so Shriver’s is kind of a big deal. I don’t remember what flavors of taffy I picked out, but let’s just say my bag is already 1/3 empty…(a generous estimate).

- Atlantic City, NJ: My parents kept talking about this place called Noodles of the World in The Borgata hotel and casino. They ate there before and thought I would like it. I had the chicken Pad Thai (boooooring). It was totally delicious but completely ordinary. I was craving seafood, being on the coast and all, but the place only had one serious seafood dish…and it involved soup…and it was 100+ degrees outside. Pass. My meal at Noodles of the World was really nice though. The best part was my aloe vera drink!

I drank a regular one, not a sugar-free one.

I’m no expert, but I thought The Borgata’s casino was fancy and comfortable. We played some penny slot machines which, honestly, is all that I can handle. I am not a gambler nor do I have a lot of money to blow, so using a slot machine is like playing some kind of weird, adult video game where you don’t get to fight anyone or throw a skee-ball. It’s more entertaining than lighting your dollars on fire but not as entertaining as buying a months’ subscription to Game Fly. Meh.

Keeping Sanity Sane: Time Outs (Part 1)

photo from psykojello on flickr.

January is getting to me. It’s under my skin.

And not in the way that January in Pittsburgh, like the cold weather, gets in everyone’s bones and fatigues them. The post-holiday blues mixed with early, dark evenings keeps everyone indoors these days, except me.

I thrive in this gross, cold weather. I will trudge through the snow and wind to meet friends for dinner. This is the season of craft-nights. It’s invigorating. The holiday season is always overwhelming and about what other people want. Now there’s less pressure and everyone can focus on the things we really want.

I started the year off strong: making lists of things I wanted/needed to do; creating a budget to follow; setting goals to strive for. 2011 started off full-force. Now, over 3 weeks in, I’m starting to experience burnout.

I’ve been filling my time with activities my friends and I agreed upon before the holidays were over. In the merriment, it’s easy to cook up big schemes (weekend snowboarding trips or starting a puppet-show troupe). But how do we fit in the things we’ve always meant to do on top of what we already have to do?

I’m ready for some time to myself. Yesterday, I decided that I would NOT be committing myself to many activities with other people this week (unless I decided to spontaneously), so I can get my business together. Within 3 hours of making that promise to myself, I broke it when I accepted a last-minute offer to go see Liz Phair (whatever, she was worth it!)

There’s a lot of value in making time for family, friends, and other things you care about. But can you enjoy the good things in life if you’re not mentally, emotionally, and physically balanced?

This topic warrents further examination, which is why I am developing a regular series in this blog. Title TBD, but good things are coming!