Everything Happens in NJ

It seems as if you simply cannot drive around northern NJ without finding something that has become famous -- from the quasi, kinda-sorta variety to the outright makings in the history books. Washington indeed must have slept everywhere around here, and television icons flock to various sites for filming. In the spring, we stumbled (once purposefully, once accidentally) upon two scenes from The Sopranos, a fun pilgrimage which left us smiling and the kids questioning ("Whose house is that?" and "Why are we here? I thought we were going to the park."), rolling their eyes at the strange antics of adults, forswearing that they will never do this kind of thing when they are all grown up. If we have this much fun making these little discoveries, imagine what it would have been like for Henry Hudson or Neil Armstrong.

Yesterday afternoon, our primary destination was to drop Don's work van off at the shop, and then after that we promised the kids that we would drive around in search of the best Christmas light displays. We got off the highway and suddenly realized what road we were on: the site of last week's episode of Kitchen Nightmares, our newest Gordon Ramsay mini-obsession, where the famous chef visits a sad, struggling, screwed up restaurant each week and, in one week's time, magically transforms it into a culinary mecca. We love this show, and while the majority of the episodes have centered around the other side of the Hudson, last week he came closer to home. And there it was, the newly transformed Italian restaurant. We pulled into the parking lot, snapped a picture with Don's cell phone, and quickly drove away. I suppose there was no need for such a quick getaway, for no one saw us. The place was beautiful, but empty.

Fun times. Fun little road trips. Fun little blog posts with no real meaning other than the fact that I get a kick out of these things. Now my own reality show is kicking in, with the kids having once again awakened at the horrible hour of 6:30 a.m. (sick kids need to sleep, right? right?? right??!!), Aidan still feverish and hacking up his spleen, Grace being a full-fledged two year old with giggles one second, screeching fits the next, and an overabundance of attitude to overshadow any 13 year old, mega-loads of laundry to do (thanks to the bedtime puking episode of last night) ...

I felt some peace last night, right? Some joy was mentioned in there somewhere, right? Yes, it was. It was there. "Live in the present," my friend Jen always tells me. How right she is. I was living in the present last night, truly sensing that joy. But the present shifts, doesn't it. That's OK ... that's the "ebb and flow" of life. We all experience it. It's just nice to have fun little jaunts to stick in the journey every once in a while along the way.