America's Armpit?

Today is the beginning of travel week 2, the first of my two weeks in New Jersey. I've been to Jersey before and enjoyed my last experience immensely, but so far today my views of Jersey aren't so hot. Before you read on, if you are from Jersey or some Jersey aficionado, I am not speaking on behalf of all Jersey, but just my experience so far. To sum it up, Jersey stinks. Like actually smells. As soon as I got into Jersey after the bridge, the air smelled so retched that I had to roll up the windows. I think it was sewage. Then, I went to Walmart and the inside smelled horrifically and on my way to the hotel, it was like 100 dogs farted right infront me. I just don't know how to say it in a more polite manner. To top it off, when I took a shower, even the water smelled like mold. Delish. Over the weekend one of my perfume bottles exploded in my toiletries bag, so now everything smells like Gap pink, which is a fabulous smell. It's more than a little over powering but at least something smells good.

With the exception of one person, every I have met so far really hasn't been very friendly. The concierge doesn't say hello. The hostess was far from verbose. "Last name? Sign here. Initial here. This is your room number." The Texans were much friendlier. Even the random people in the hotel, at Walmart, and the gas stations were unfriendly. I think it's the proximity to the city to be honest. Very different way of life. I am NOT a city person. In fact, I pretty much despise Manhattan (though when driving by it today, blasting Jay Z's New York was a must...3 times)


This week's car is a 2010 Madza 3 in gunmetal blue. It's an awesome color. It definitely tries to be sporty and rides a little rough like a sports car. I enjoy that. The armrest console has an aux port in it, as well as a second cigarette lighter port. Interestingly, there are two indents to let the power cords out from the console, so the phone can charge sitting in the cup holder. I think all cars should have this. I like these features but that's pretty much where it ends.

First, this particular one doesn't have power locks. My friends cars don't have power locks, so I'm used to manually locking things, but I forgot how totally inconvenient it is. Also, I just really like the little reassuring beep beep Foci makes when I double click it. Another flaw is that the Mazda's dash lights are red. While one may say I'm being too picky (but then again, I'm overly picky about food, hotels, guys, schools, etc), I would never ever ever purchase a car with red dash lights. I just don't like the reddish orange numbers or radio buttons. It's ugly and less easy on the eyes. White or blue all the way. While this may seem trivial, if you were going to spend $16,000+, wouldn't you want to get exactly what you like? Other flaws include space. The car has great trunk space, but I dont think two adults could comfortably sit in the backseat for any period of time. This car also has the option of driving it as an automatic or manual transmission. It's supposed to be sporty, so shifting, even as an automatic, requires you to follow a preset design. It's not just a straight line of P, R, N, D, 1,2. Because of this, I am always in the wrong gear. Not good. As I pulled off the lot when I got it, I didn't realize I was in manual and I stalled all over the place. Then today I got a little curious if I could drive a stick, and drove around the parking lot shifting when it seemed right. Now, I have no, NO, training on how to drive a stick. All I know is you shift when it starts to sound like it needs shifting. And I think there's general rules about 10mph then maybe 20mph and 40mph are different gears. I honestly have no idea. I'm going to Google it later. It was my New Year's resolution to learn how to drive a standard. I want to learn but I stopped trying in the parking lot in fear of completely ruining the car that I had to drive around for a week. I don't think our corporate contract covers educational self-discovery moments.

For now,
Zoom. Zoom.