Love this Law

Move it! State law in Colorado says if you are involved in an accident on a freeway/expressway and there are no injuries, the vehicles are driveable and drugs/alcohol are not suspected, then you are required to get the vehicles out of traffic lanes. It's a myth you have to wait for the cops to show up before you can move the cars. For every one minute an accident sits in traffic it causes five minutes of delay for everyone else.
Which clearly means when you are involved in a fender bender, get the hell off the highway to exchange your insurance information, so people can get to where they have to go.
Why don't we have this law in NY and NJ ?
It seems to be an obvious solution for rush hour traffic, and while they're at it, there should also be a 'fine' for rubber-necking.

Is Boulder the new Amsterdam ?

I heard that Boulder,Colorado is now a mecca for Marijuana Shops, or should I say 'Medical Marijuana Centers' .
My daughters and I went for a bike ride around downtown Boulder and came upon Dr. Reefer's Dispensary, which had set up shop across from the University of Colorado and is part of University Hill's shopping district.
Upon looking in the window, I noticed the store was out of business and a sign was posted on the door:

Please support free markets !
The city of Boulder is allowing only 3 Medical Marijuana Centers within 500 feet.
A free market will allow for the best quality for the best price !
Please join our cause and sign up today at Cannabis and receive a complimentary joint !

How did Boulder allow this business to originally open across from their University ?
I'm sure Dr.Reefer had to apply for a sign permit, and the person on the Boulder Sign Committee who approved a green neon sign that advertised 'Dr.Reefer's Marijuana Shop' must have been smoking some that day.
When Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana for 'medical purposes', didn't they anticipate businesses popping up on every street corner ? Hey, I even thought about opening one, that is, if I lived in Colorado !
Maybe the state muckey-mucks should have made it clear that only 3 'Pot' Centers could open up 500 feet from each other from the get go.
And maybe there should have been a notation in there against opening up so close to a school.
Hey, just a thought from a NJ mom driving through the Colorado rockies....

What happened to Gary, Indiana ?

Being a huge Michael Jackson fan, I thought it only right that I pay tribute to my icon while traveling through Indiana.
My friend, Stuart, told me Gary, Indiana was not worth the stop, but I had to see MJ's hometown for myself.
I expected to see a town reminiscent of Harlem, with jazz clubs advertising local bands on their marquees.
To my dismay,Gary is a ghost town. Buildings are boarded up, businesses have left town long ago, and there isn't a soul walking on the street.
I felt I had entered the scene of a scary movie, and expected to see zombies walking down the alleys.
Trying to lighten the ominous feeling in the car, I pointed out a beautiful ivy covered brick building, to which my daughter replied, 'The windows are all shot out'.
I stopped a man getting in his car with his son and asked where we could get something to eat.
He told me I should drive on to the next town.
My daughter wanted to leave immediately so I made a u-turn and headed back to route 80.
A huge poster board sign with an arrow and 'Michael Jackson's Childhood Home' caught my eye and I made a quick turn.
First of all, imagine the worst street in Newark, and there is where you will find Michael Jackson's home.
It is tiny, and the current owner has erected a huge stone memorial in the front yard, you'd think MJ was buried there. He has Jackson 5 music blaring from the driveway, and the neighbor across the street has also capitalized on living here. She sells t-shirts, dvd's and all kinds of Jackson 5 souvenirs. I was impressed.
Can you imagine Brad Pitt's neighbor in LA selling Angelina Jolie t-shirts on the street corner?
But getting back to the house, how the hell did they all fit in this little home?
There were 9 or 10 of them. This home is the size of a shed- and with all their instruments-impossible.
In all, it was a sad day, to see a town that is the birthplace of such amazing talent to become a boarded up, shell of an existence. The towns people could have capitalized on their famous hometown boy and replicate a Graceland-type tourist spot to revitalize their dying town, but instead they let it just fall by the wayside.....

Girls Gone West: Good bye NJ........

Girls Gone West: Good bye NJ........

Good bye NJ........

August 14, 2010
The dogs and I left NJ at 8:15 am.....saying goodbye to friends and family took me weeks and way too much alcohol.
I am officially taking a hiatus from Grey Goose and will use my time on the road to dry out.
I picked up the girls from Camp in Woodward, Pa. and we officially hit the road.
Visions of blasting Beach Boys and laughing our way down Rt.80 soon gave way to Lexi needing medication for a sinus infection and Casey suffering from a sore throat.They bundled up in blankets and fell fast asleep in the backseat. The skies soon opened up and God had a really good cry....I had to maneuver the minivan through torrential downpours, tempermental windshield wipers and a slippery highway. My girlfriend called to say there was flooding in Iowa and maybe I should avoid driving in that direction. Well, it was a little late, how was I supposed to drive around Iowa ?
I was excited that my bungee cords were keeping my crap strapped neatly on the back of my car, even though it was probably getting soaked.After an hour of gripping the steering wheel and trying to see the highway through a blurry windshield, the skies cleared and the sun came out.
All seemed bright and cheery until I stopped at the Ohio toll booth and was alerted by an agent that I lost a bicycle wheel 30 miles back that was quickly mangled in an 18 wheeler.
I had my daughter run around back and take a photo to confirm our loss....and we continued on to Illinois.

homeless

July 1.
I am officially moved out of the home I have lived in for the past 20 years, 7 months.
They say that the stress of moving is second to the stress felt for the death of a loved one.
How true.
Packing boxes, having numerous garage sales,turning off utilities, organizing movers and cleaning crews and deciding what comes and what goes has been all consuming for the past few months.
When I drove away from my house yesterday for the last time I was overcome with an enormous sadness.
Was I doing the right thing by taking the only home my kids have known away from them ?
Casey cried. Lexi is in Paris and Casey emailed her photos of her empty bedroom.
Dan waited until the last day to remove the safe he had drilled into the basement floor.
Maybe this was to spend a few quiet moments in his childhood home before moving into his Dads house.
I look at it as a new chapter in our lives, time to move on.......
but to move on you need to go through the pain, similar to losing a loved one.
only time heals.

My New Tenants

We have 2 1/2 weeks left before we are officially homeless.
I have been fixing up the house; repairing the broken fence, the dishwasher that refuses to clean dishes and the rotting doorframe. I painted the inside of the garage and inside every closet in the house. I know that might seem strange but when all my stuff comes out, what is left is 20 years of crayon and scuff marks.
I am trying to keep the house from falling apart, but it has been nearly impossible with 3 teenagers.
Dan and Lexi were having a fight on the staircase the other day and ripped the railing off the wall.
Someone put their hand through the screen door leaving a gaping hole.
Last night a mouse ran across the room and under the tv set, which explains the incessant noise I have been hearing in the walls the past month.
I assume his whole family has taken up residence here.
I tried a quick solution of putting mouse poison in the corner of the room behind the tv set away from the dogs.
Bad idea.
My shitzu squeezed behind it and had a little mouse poison for a snack.
I quickly called the vet who said I must bring her in right away to induce vomiting or she'll bleed to death.
Evidently ,this mouse poison makes the animal bleed out from every orifice.
What a horrible, inhumane way to die. Does the ASPCA know of this?
The vet put morphine solution drops in my dog's eyes which quickly induced vomiting.He said I was lucky to have caught it in time, and he has seen dogs who have ingested this poison literally bleed to death on his table.
I cried all the way home, my dog is going to be fine, and I have decided to let the mice live in my home.
I just hope the new tenants don't mind.

ebay

if you have ever bid on an auction item on ebay, you will understand the adrenalin pumping,gambling induced high you get from being the highest bidder. you are bidding against strangers to win an item you are not exactly sure you even want, you just want to win it.
as the auction time is running out, you are glued to your ebay account, god forbid you get outbid the last few seconds.
this is how I bought my minivan.
of course, I never actually saw it and was relying solely on the pictures the owner posted and the information he supplied. hopefully he wasn't a crack addict.
how bad could it be.
i am now the proud owner of a 2000 chrysler town and country minivan with 117,000 miles. i won it for $3,050.00.
on the way down to the jersey shore to pick it up, i prayed that it was not a piece of crap and would get us across the country without any problems.
it turns out, the engine was the least of my worries.
it seems the minivan was used for transporting seafood of some kind and the interior reeked of salty, dead fish.
the smell would come out of the upholstery in waves and produce a gagging feeling in your chest that would make you want to vomit.
unfortunately, it had an even more disgusting problem. the owner had glued a fabric cover on the steering wheel. it was moist, dirty and smelly.
i had to hold the steering wheel with tissues.
maybe i could dip the minivan in a big tub of clorox?

Minivan Hell

There is no way 3 adults and 2 dogs can fit comfortably in my small car for a road trip across the country. The fact is, I will lose my mind or leave one of the kids or dogs at a rest stop.
I promised myself a long time ago I would NEVER, EVER succumb to buying a mini van.
The thought of driving one makes me shudder....
but the time has come to reconsider.
The dogs will need room to stretch out, the girls will need their own space and I can drive without everyone breathing down my neck, literally.
After scouring Craigslist,I found a cheap mini van dealer named Mohammed who has a used car business in Hackensack. It took some time to locate his unmarked garage on State Street and I felt a little uneasy walking into the dank office in the back parking lot. A man with an Australian accent, who was clearly not Mohammed, showed me a few minivans in my price range.By the looks of the cars, my price range of $2,000.00 may have been a little high. The first car he showed me had some trouble starting. Not a good sign for a trip across country .He told me the cars were all bought at auctions and were priced for quick sales.Most of the cars had some exterior damage, but the outside was not my concern.
Could this minivan make it over the Rockies?
The next minivan started without a problem and I began to get excited, this just might be our car.
I got in the drivers seat, and upon turning around to survey the back of the car, I noticed there was no carpeting.Now I know this might be a minor detail to some people, but I started to think of why there was no carpeting in the car. All I could come up with, was that this car must have been involved in a bloody massacre and the carpeting had to be taken out.I would be thinking about this scenario all the way across country. I know carpeting may be a luxury in some cars but the alternative is much more bleak, and I started to feel dirty just sitting in this car.I needed to get as far away from Mohammed and his sketchy minivans as possible.
While driving back home, I started to rethink the whole minivan scenario.
Maybe I can rent a U-Haul and attach it to my little car. When the girls get tired, they could lie in the U-Haul and stretch out. I'm not sure that this is safe or even legal but it may be worth looking into....

A new lease on life.....

Finally.....after 4 months on the market ,I have rented our home.
Our dream is now a reality. Now the fun begins.
What do I do with 20 years of stuff ?
Furniture, photos, baby clothes, paintings,dishes,the kids'artwork,
school albums, kitchen gadgets,leaf blowers,bicycles....
I wonder if the new tenant could use my chainsaw ?
I have to fix the fence that is being held up by duct tape, I don't think it will hold up through next winter.And what about those weeds, should I just let them grow ? maybe they will think that they are exotic plants.
so many things to do in 2 months before we leave-maybe I could use a man around the house after all.
Or maybe I just screw it, rent a dumpster and fill it with all my stuff and start over.
Do I really want to save the antique rocking horse I bought with my (now ex-husband) to celebrate our 2 year anniversary?
I mean when I think about it, this is all just stuff, I am not bringing it with me when I die, so maybe I just make a clean break with it now....

Roadtrip Across America

This summer, my 2 teenage daughters,Lexi and Casey, and I will be renting out our huge suburban home in NJ, selling all our furniture and belongings on Craigslist and taking a road trip across the US for one year.My daughters have grown up watching reality shows and believing that all teens should receive a BMW when they get their license and have a super Sweet 16 with Lil Wayne performing. I want to give them my own dose of reality, and if being in the car with me is not exciting enough, we will be stopping in cities across the US and meeting and talking to local teenagers,seeing where they go to high school and what they do for fun. We have no set destination in mind but to just experience the lives of other teens and their families while traveling through America's heartland.