Day Two

Day Two: Your First Love

Good question. What does love really mean? I can tell you the first person I had a real middle school crush on. That'd be Alyssa Mueller (soon to be Alyssa Miller, ha) who is still a great friend of mine and hopefully always will be. She wasn't my first love though. I think the person I had actual feelings for was another Mueller actually. Not just because I love people I share a last name with, but because it was my first girlfriend that actually lasted more than a month. Her name was Beth and we dated during my Sophomore year of high school. She went to a different school than I did, but thanks to a great set of parents, we were able to see each other once a weekend at one of the countless parties or dances or movies that we attended that year. Beth was (and I'm sure still is) a great person. She was nice, very sincere and pure funny all the time. Its funny this question comes up because while I haven't really seen or hung out with any of those people (including Beth) from that year in high school for years, it all came into conversation just a couple weeks ago. A great friend from high school and before, Kim, actually lives in NYC as well. We met up and talked about all those times for hours at a dive bar in the East Village. It was amazing because both of us really seemed to have moved past those times and nearly forgotten about them after college, but Kim had some pictures to look through that brought all the memories back. They were good memories. Life wasn't complicated at all. It was just about where the next party was, or the next Six Flags trip. Less worries and more fun. It was all structured, but sometimes structure is okay. I guess I was just amazed that I had forgotten about so many of those times. It's good to look back on occasion. Beth actually got married a couple of months ago. I hope all is well with her life.

Terrorism

One thing that I expected to have to deal with working in NYC was the occasional bomb threat in Times Square, what I wasn't expecting was how often.

You may have heard this morning that multiple UPS planes and trucks around NYC were stopped pending the discovery of a "suspicious package" that was a toner cartridge manipulated to look like a bomb. These were found not to be dangerous, but the fact is this is just one scare of many that have gone unpublished since I've arrived. Being in Times Square everyday, I get emails regarding safety in the area, and probably once every 4 or 5 days there are a string of emails updating on suspicious vehicles or packages that shut down multiple avenues and blocks in and around Times Square.

Obviously none of these suspicions and threats have turned out to be true, but it goes to show what kind of day we are living in. It also shows how quickly the NYPD and Port Authority PD are responding to these threats as well. These reports generally go unheard of because the police shut down the blocks, call in the bomb squad, and have things back to normal within an hour and a half. There are NYPD cops on patrol on street corners all over Manhattan on actual shifts that are designed just to watch and deter terrorism.

Reports say that the scare this morning was a dry run for a mail bomb plot. Practice. It's good to know that almost all of these suspicious packages were found and stopped before they even got off the plane. Terrorism is a legitimate fear I have working in Midtown, but it's nice to see the authorities are always on their game here. Makes me feel a bit safer.

Day One

Day One: Introduction

For starters my name is Nick Miller, and I was born near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I started this blog to help people keep up with goings on in my life as I have moved from Wisconsin to New York City for six months. I currently live in Newark, NJ and work at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Times Square. I'm here for six months on a “Graduate Program” where I move from attraction to attraction around the US (and maybe elsewere) training to start a career in the entertainment industry. It's a job I absolutely love and time is literally flying by. I've been here nearly two months already and feels like I just got here yesterday.

Before moving to the east coast I spent four years at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire studying Public Relations and Sociology. I was also on the competitive speech team each year. Speech is something that I never thought I'd enjoy, but I ended up falling in love with it and pursued it throughout college. I was also an RA in my dorm for two years. I like long walks on the beach and Battlestar Galactica along with roller coasters and adventures. Needless to say I'm different. Some people think weird, I think unique. I don't want to say a whole lot more because I've got 29 more days of mini blogs here, but I'll just leave with this. I've been through some major changes in the past two months. I've moved to a completely different part of the US and its been pretty tough adjusting. I also think that the challenge is all part of the process though. I really like where my life is going, and I'm excited for it to unfold even more.

Helping me Blog

 Each day I post a new entry. I figure this should help me post everyday for a month. I'll be as honest as I can.

Day 01 - Introduction
Day 02 – Your first love
Day 03 – Your parents
Day 04 – Your music
Day 05 – Your definition of love
Day 06 – Your hobbies
Day 07 – Your best friend
Day 08 – A precious item
Day 09 – Your beliefs
Day 10 – What you wore today
Day 11 – Your siblings
Day 12 – What’s in your purse
Day 13 – Your mode of transportation
Day 14 – Where you live
Day 15 – Your childhood
Day 16 – Your first kiss
Day 17 – Your favorite memory
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday
Day 19 – Something you regret
Day 20 – Your morning routine
Day 21 – Your job and/or schooling
Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – Your sleeping habits
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favorite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your favorite foods/drinks
Day 30 – Your aspirations

Six Flags New England.

Well here comes a trip report about a week late, as seems to happen with my blogs lately. I'm typing this on a Megabus where my laptop battery may very well short out as it seems to do every half hour or so. Hoping that I get a fair amount of this done before the laptop gods inevitably cut this little typing session short.

I was lucky enough to have the company of the wonderful Natalie Hunter on this trip to Patriots (ugh) country. The drive from Rhode Island to Springfield, MA was absolutely beautiful. Fall colors everywhere and the TomTom was good enough to take us through some great state highways that were full of turns and hills. That combined with sunshine and 60 degree weather made the two hour drive fly by. Getting into the park was simple. We actually parked at a side lot for 5 bucks instead of the highway robbery Six Flags parks tend to charge (15-20). It was actually a shorter walk from our side lot than it was the Six Flags lot anyway, so that worked out quite well. Without a coupon for Natalie we were looking at a pretty stiff admission price. Armed with my season pass and persuasive power I asked the admissions lady if there was any discount for season pass holder's friends. I was expecting perhaps a $7 discount if anything at all, but the admissions lady was good enough to give us $12 admission for Natalie instead of $40. So far, so good, Six Flags.

As I tend to do with new parks, Natalie and I just wondered around for about 20 or 30 minutes checking out everything the park had to offer rides wise and such. I really liked the front of the park, it reminded me of Six Flags St. Louis with fairly narrow streets with old shops everywhere and not a whole lot of advertising. The back of the park was a different story. Its easy to see where the park was before Six Flags bought it, and what was newly added. Cozy theme park cobblestone streets replaced with giant concrete paths littered with Papa John's Pizza and overpriced Johnny Rockets. I'm the kind of person who obviously loves roller coasters and thrill rides, but its the overall park experience that gets me to come back to a park, not just the coasters. That's why my favorite parks are ones like Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Islands of Adventure, and Dollywood. Parks that have thrill rides, but focus more on overall experience such as theming, landscaping, and hiring employees that aren't 16 year old jerks. I know what I'm going to receive when I go to a Six Flags park. Some stellar rides, sure, but also snobby service (if any at all) dirty pathways, and an overall lack of upkeep which is just depressing. Six Flags New England was no different (except for one fantastic worker at a restaurant who nearly made my night with his customer service) but luckily they had some great thrills and I had great company, so the day turned out great. Now that the little rant is over, here's how things went:

The weather turned out way nicer than expected during the day, so for the first time since Hurricane Harbor opened at Six Flags Great America, we got a locker to put our coats and bags in all day. We came back 3 or 4 times, so it may have actually been worth it. The number one reason why I came to this park was for a ride called Bizarro. For those of you who have read my previous installment, you might be thinking its the same Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure, but you'd be wrong. This Bizarro does not go upside down, instead it drops you 200 feet and it packed with loads of airtime and tons of turns, tunnels, and bunnyhills. It has won Amusement Park Today's Top Steel Coaster award atleast five times, so I have been pretty excited for this coaster for awhile. It did not disappoint. Queue was about 25 minutes long all day, and our first ride was in the back row. First drop rocked, so did the second and third. The onboard audio was the same as Bizarro in Great Adventure, but that was fine. The second half of the ride was the best because it wasn't traditional like most big steel hyper coasters. It was filled with twisting and turning track that dove into the ground and back again, airtime the whole way. Once it was done I had to ride it again, this time towards the front, cause I knew it'd be even better. More on that later.

Something this park really has going for it is history. It still operates a 70 year old wooden roller coaster called Thunderbolt, and has another old wooden coaster called Cyclone. Cyclone had about a 25 minute wait as well, and after waiting for the front row it was decided that the ride was different than most wooden coasters I've ridden. It was big, and the turns were way intense. Yeah, it was a little rough, but I was okay with that. Fun coaster, not top ten worthy, but definitely better than most for how old it is.

I just need to interject that Air Force One will be our inflight movie today. This might make blogging more difficult. So badass. You rock, Harrison Ford.

I hit a milestone at the park last week. Not about how many coasters I've ridden (as it stands, 180, adding over 30 coasters this summer) but the types I've ridden. I have never ridden a Vekoma Boomerang or SLC until that very day. All coaster dorks know what I'm talking about, but they are the two most cloned coasters in history. They are everywhere, and somehow this was my first time riding both. Turns out the rumors are true, SLC's kick the living crap out of your head. That was a one and done. Boomerang however I found to be quite intense and fun. I'd ride it again. It's not Deja Vu, but its still fun! There was also a flatride made by S&S that I don't know the name of, but it was totally amazing. So intense! Wish I had pictures to show, but forgot the camera. Sad.

At one point we walked through a haunted maze. It was the lamest thing in history. This shows again the Six Flags attitude to the whole park experience. Scareactors were few and far between, and while makeup looked nice, I only saw maybe three actors the whole night. Couple that with the ridiculous prices to get into the real haunted houses, its ridiculous. On the upside, the park did have a B&M Floorless coaster themed to The Dark Knight before the movie came out. There were cool cutouts of Batman characters in the Queue which were fun to read. The ride itself was short but packed a punch. Rode it a couple of times during the day. Quite fun.

After riding all of the coasters in the park (including having a screaming contest with two random people on the wild mouse ride) we decided to ride Cyclone, Batman, and Bizarro a few more times. Bizarro the most. Cause its the best. While waiting in line for the coaster at the end of the night there was a twenty something year old who thought it'd be a great idea to start smoking AND drinking in the middle of the line. After 3 other guests asked the guy to put out the cigeratte (with him just ignoring them completely) security was called. After he ignored security for 10 minutes, 5 or so rent a cops showed up to get the guy out of line. He just kept walking until a security guard cornered him off. At this point everyone wants this guy out of line and out of the park. He pissed off everyone in line and had been taking too many pulls of Jack Daniels for anyone to care what happened to him. I may or may not have told him to stop acting like a third grader, which may have almost got me hit, but after that he went with the security gaurds. Who knows if they kicked him out, but atleast he didn't get to ride. It was just nice to see Six Flags actually enforcing policy.

This is getting a bit long, so I'm going to end by saying that Bizarro was even better in the front, its now my #4 coaster of all time, and I want to ride it more because I think its got potential to grow on that list even more. Great stuff.

Thats it for trip reports. For those of you who hate them, good news! I'll be blogging about life a little more often now. There are so many life questions that need to be answered, and this blog has to be it.

Infact, I've still got a good 2 hours on this Megabus, might as well start another now.

Six Flags Great Adventure

The day was that of Sir Christopher Columbus. It was absolutely beautiful outside for October, and since Columbus Day seems to be on on the scale of a national holiday in New York, Six Flags Great Adventure was open for business. Armed with a trusty season pass and my Canon Rebel xTI, I was off to a park I've wanted to visit for years.

Why hello there. I think I've ridden you before.

To begin, the park is absolutely massive. I don't think its quite as big as Cedar Point, but the layout really didn't seem to make much sense to me. More on that later. I started off by doing what I always do when I get to a new park, grab a map and put it in my back pocket, look at the skyline for the tallest coaster, and walk towards it. The tallest coaster was Kindga Ka, but what I found on the way to Kindga Ka was something far greater: El Toro.

 El Toro very large for a wooden coaster, and it has received rave reviews, so I was really excited to ride the coaster. I had no idea what I was in for though. Standing at over 180 feet the coaster will obviously pack a punch, but the airtime and forces delivered on this ride were un-freaking-believable. The most surprising thing? The coaster is smooth as glass. The bigger you get with wooden coasters, the more painful they become generally, El Toro is the exception to that rule. The ride really blew me away, and is easily my favorite coaster in the park, and favorite wooden coaster that I've ridden so far.

I wanted to get to Kindga Ka before the line got too long, but it was actually fairly difficult to find. Each big ride seemed to be down its own very narrow path, and many of these paths weren't connected together. Case in point: Kindga Ka is still the tallest coaster on the planet, but it was about a 5 minute wait all day while other rides were 15-20 because it is situated in the middle of nowhere and takes forever to find. Just my opinion, but this was one of the parks downfalls. As for the ride itself, after riding Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point loads of times this summer, Kindga Ka seems to be just a slightly faster version. It's thrilling, but I really only needed one ride on it to satisfy myself.

Big picture just to give you a glimpse of how ridiculously huge this coaster is.

After riding Kindga Ka I mainly just walked through the park riding each of their coasters. Again, this park was pretty massive, and took awhile just to get to each ride. I really only managed to ride most of the coasters once, although I did manage to get on El Toro 9 times before the day ended. I sorta liked it. Here are some other highlights of the park:

The park had a coaster named "Medusa" for quite awhile now, and two years ago the coaster was rethemed to "Bizarro" which is a Superman villain theme. There is onboard audio (which I didn't think made any sense to the Bizarro theme, but was nice nonetheless) cool props to ride through, and even flames shooting at the train. The coaster itself was solid, and the effects made it all the cooler. Good addition to the park.

Enjoying their ride on Bizarro I'm sure.

The other coaster that really stuck out for me was the park's Hypercoaster, "Nitro." Standing at 230 feet Nitro may not be the tallest ride in the park, but it delivers a better ride experience than Kingda Ka could ever dream of. Tons of drops, lots of airtime, and smooth as glass. Nitro is one of those coasters that people will love for a very long time. One of the headliners for the next 10 or 15 years for sure. I only got two rides because of the ride's line, but I loved both of them!

As the afternoon wore on I had finished all the coasters in the park and wanted to grab my camera to take some shots of the coasters. Six Flags has this ridiculous policy that doesn't allow any loose articles to even come into the station of any roller coaster, so I had left my camera bag in the car rather than getting a locker in the park. I spent around two hours taking pictures before dropping the bag back in the Jeep and heading back into the park to ride El Toro more. All the pictures are up on my Picasa website. The more I experiment with the camera, the better the shots become. I love photography.

As for notes of the park in general: It was a Six Flags park in New Jersey, so not only was it Six Flags hospitality in the first place, but you had to throw some Jersey attitudes in there as well to form a place that didn't really care whether or not you were having a good time. I've come to expect that from Six Flags at this point. We can't all be Dollywood. (For any of you who don't know, Dollywood is a theme park owned by Dolly Parton that employs some of the nicest people I've ever met in the theme park biz. Everyone is there to make your day better. One of the best parks out there.)

I was very happy that I was able to get the whole park done in one day, and had a pretty solid day. El Toro is now my favorite wooden coasters and number 3 on my overall top ten. Here's an updated top ten after the trips this summer/fall:

1. X2- Six Flags Magic Mountain
2. Magnum XL-200 - Cedar Point
3. El Toro- Six Flags Great Adventure
4. Bizarro - Six Flags New England
5. Maverick - Cedar Point
6. Thunderhead - Dollywood
7. Alpengeist - Busch Gardens Williamburg
8. Evel Knievel - Six Flags St. Louis
9. Millennium Force - Cedar Point
10. Beast - Kings Island

When you add four new coasters to your top 10 in one summer, you know its been a good time. Still one final trip report to come, and you've already seen a preview of the best coaster at the park. Six Flags New England. Till then.

Dorney Park, a frightful night.

One of my goals being out east was to travel to as  many theme parks as humanly possible. That means getting a lot done in October before they all close for the season. I started my theme park adventure last Friday with a trip to Allentown, PA to Dorney Park.

First impressions were what I expected, a smaller regional theme park about on par with Valleyfair in MN. Although the longer I stayed the more I realized that this park has quite a bit more to offer. Crowds were a bit scary at first, as it took around 20 minutes to enter the park, but once I got inside I didn't wait it another line for a ride again. Longest wait was about 15 minutes for a haunted house, which I'll get into later. First up, rides:

The first ride you see when you enter the park is Talon: The Grip of Fear. It's a B&M invert that was a little different than other B&M's I've been on. I love inverts, I think they usually deliver more G Forces than most sit down coasters, and Talon was no exception. The lateral forces that were experienced on this ride were really, really good. The turns pressed you into your seat and the drops were great too. Good transitions and inversions. Just a really really good coaster. My favorite at the park. Ended up riding it 4 or 5 more times before park close.

Now is a good time to mention that this was Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park, meaning the park was transformed into a scare zone for Friday night. Another thing to mention is that ALL of the haunted attractions at Dorney are FREE of charge. That's not true at any Six Flags park you visit. The houses weren't lame either, some of them were really, really good houses. The first one I went into was the haunted circus house. This one was a little more kid friendly I think. Lots of neon paint and clowns all over. Was fun.

Not a ton of pictures from this trip. Wasn't a lot of time to take them and it was very, very dark at Dorney. Check out pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/w000dland

After taking some pictures, it was off to ride Hydra: The Revenge. Interesting side note: All of the locals call this coaster Hydro. They are wrong. Hydra is a Floorless coaster with 5 inversions that was built about 4 years ago. It's the only coaster I know of to feature an inversion before you make it to the lifthill. Its called a "jojo" roll and twists you upside down at a very slow speed. It was neat. A different experience on a coaster. The rest of the ride was pretty forgettable in my opinion. First drop was good, but after that the coaster just seemed to lose a lot of its speed and then ended really quickly, even the cobra roll didn't feel right. A bit of a letdown, but its okay. There are other floorless coasters out there that blow my mind still. cough, dominator, cough.

As I was walking to the back of the park I noticed something familiar. Demon Drop! This ride used to sit at Cedar Point until it was taken out and moved here. It's an old Intamin drop ride before Drop Towers became popular. They are super fun for some reason and always give me that true feeling of falling that gets me in the pit of my stomach. Once again, Demon Drop delivered where no S&S tower (think Power Tower) has been able to.

It was time for some haunted houses at this point. Always worth trying them out if they are free, right? The first house I tried out was themed to the Saw movies, and it was really well done. You could tell that Dorney put a lot of money into this house, as the props and sets were very gory and all around creepy looking. They remade a lot of the death devices made in the movie, and the actors were great too. I went in expecting another half assed theme park haunted house and got something that was better than most haunted houses I pay 10 bucks for during October. The best part? There were still 2 others that were BETTER than this one. Very cool.

Rode Dorney's newest coaster, "Possessed." It's a recycled impulse coaster that is an exact clone of Steel Venom at Valleyfair and V2 at Great America. It delivered a predictable ride. I've never been a fan of those coasters. Moving on.

Steel Force. Now I've been on a lot of coasters that are a lot like Steel Force, and made by the same people who made Steel Force, and they have all been pretty lame. Steel Force was surprising, because it didn't suck. Steel Force is a hyper coaster that is made by Morgan and is the brother coaster to Wild Thing at Valleyfair. The first drop was very similar to that of Wild Thing's, but the turn around and 2nd half of Steel Force was what set it apart. Instead of just a little boring figure 8 where the train loses all its speed, Steel Force had a little helix action where the train seemed to be flying, and after the turnaround, there was real honest to god airtime that I experienced. No joke. Insane, right? It wasn't the most incredible coaster out there, but it wasn't bad, and that was a victory for me.

Zoooooom!

After Steel Force I had hit everything at the park other than the Wild Mouse, which I planned to hit later in the night. I felt like another haunted house (hey, they are free, why not?) I was told that the "Mansion House Hotel" house was quality, so I jumped in line. This was the longest line of the night, but it was well worth it. The sets and actors in this house were incredible. There was interaction the entire house. Instead of just jumping out at you in the dark these actors tried to get inside your head and mess with you that way. It was brilliant. They were sarcastic, but also a little scary at the same time. The sets reminded me of the Hollywood Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror) at Disney. Just really great stuff. By the end of this trip, I felt like the Haunted Houses made the $23 admission price totally worth it, the coasters were just a bonus.

Headed back to the front of the park and snagged a ride on the Ferris Wheel for some pictures and a rest. Once I got to the front of the park I jumped on Talon twice more, cause it rocks, then hit the Wild Mouse which was mainly painful. Not the best experience. Grabbed another ride on Hydra, then was told that the park was stopping ride operations an hour early but the haunted houses would stay open until close. That was pretty lame, but I had ridden everything, so it wasn't the end of the world. I went into one last haunted house called Asylum. This house was obviously themed to a Psychiatric ward, and it was probably for the older kids instead of the younger ones. Lots of loud music, strobes, people jumping out of corners, etc. Another solid house, although this one didn't rely on props as much as it did the actors. I enjoyed it.

Overall, I had a really great night at Dorney Park. The coasters were solid, and the Halloween event was way better than anything I was expecting. I'd visit again in a heartbeat, although I can't imagine I'd ever need a full day there. Not the biggest park in the world.

I love roller coasters. Up next: Six Flags Great Adventure....

Three Theme Parks in One Week

One highlight about the north east is the abundance of theme parks in a short distance. I mean, no matter where you are in the midwest there is usually a theme park within a 3 hour drive, but two or three would make 6 hour journeys or longer. Next week, I'll be going to three different parks, and I won't travel more than 2 1/2 hours for any of them.

Friday October 8th: Dorney Park. Located in Allentown, PA Dorney Park isn't the biggest thing in the world, but for a Friday night in October it should do the trick just fine. Looking forward to riding Talon, Hydra, and Steel Force. I've yet to actually enjoy any Morgan Hyper coaster to date, but maybe this one will be better?

Monday October 11th: Six Flags Great Adventure: Here's a park I've wanted to visit since high school. Home to Kingda Ka, El Toro, and Nitro among others. Some of the biggest and baddest coasters in America live here, and I'm very thankful that Columbus Day means that this theme park is open on a Monday in October. Crowds might be big, but hopefully I'll be able to get on everything.

Sunday October 18th: Lake Compounce: I love smaller parks, and Lake Compounce is just that, plus a couple awesome coasters. Balderdash has been rated very high in wooden coasters since it was built, and I've always wanted to ride the thing at night. Sunday the park is open from 5 till 10 for its Halloween event, and I'll be there for the coasters. Very excited.

That's my preview, detailed trip reports to come as I attend each park.

Moving to New York

It surprised even myself, but a 16 hour drive in one day really wasn't that bad. Yeah, Illinois and Indiana are miserable states to drive through, but then things could only go up from there, and they did. After passing Cleveland, Ohio was very pretty, and while the Pennsylvania turnpike may be the road from hell, I-80 was quite nice. The mountains were beautiful, and there was virtually no traffic whatsoever. Made it in one day, and felt like a champion.

I think one of the biggest differences between Wisconsin and New York is transportation. Say goodbye to your vehicle. I've honestly used the Jeep (not including for moving purposes) twice since I've been here. Once to drive to RI, and once to drive to a grocery store. That's it. Once you take a train into the city, you can walk to take the subway virtually anywhere. It's really fantastic actually. People don't use a car because it isn't economical to do so. Parking in the city is a giant pain and usually costs 20 bucks or more per day just to park, that doesn't include the tolling of the bridge or the tunnel to get into the city in the first place. (Just so everyone is aware, it's currently $8.00 to go over the George Washington Bridge. No joke) It's actually pretty amazing how all the public transit works together so well. Subway, trains, busses, ferrys, everything works in sync the majority of the time. Obviously if there is terrible weather or mechanical problems certain things will slow down, but that's the case with any method of transportation. While there are drivers here, I have to think that transportation here is far more efficient than most places on earth. Trains to and from my stop in Newark are usually full, and they run on electricity. It works because everyone uses them, and everyone uses them because they are cheaper than the alternatives. Economics at its finest.

When I first got here I was staying in Montclair, NJ at Laura's grandma's place. Noone lived there anymore and the house was waiting to go on the market, so I had the house to myself for the most part. Montclair was an interesting place. It's only around 5 miles away from Newark, one of the less beautiful places in New Jersey, but Montclair was lush and beautiful. For my Milwaukee friends, think of it as Brookfield, except the North side is much closer. While Newark may not be the happiest place on earth, I've noticed some of its quirks already. I live very close to downtown Newark, which resembles Milwaukee quite a bit in terms of size and number of buildings. I'm looking forward to exploring downtown as there are museums and other fun things to be done down there. No matter what, living on my own for the first time in my apartment is a very rewarding feeling already. Never would have guessed it'd be in Newark, NJ, but that's half the fun of it. I'm going places I never thought I would, and I'm excited to see where that is going to take my next.

One thing I was told is that when you're a New Yorker, you stop looking up at the buildings. I still do.

Well, that was deep. Here's a random connection. Cost of living. Everything is more expensive out here. I was expecting that, but certain products are a bit more random than others. For example, being from Wisconsin I love cheese. I believe that cheese makes just about any food better. Cheese is very expensive here, and there is very little selection. Think two small shelves instead of a whole section in your grocer's freezer isle. The weirdest part though is the different prices between different cheeses. American cheese is still the cheapest, which is no surprise because its terrible. Mild cheddar comes in second, with a relatively low price between $3-4 for a small brick. But then jump over to sharp cheddar, which doubles in price to around $7 for that same size brick. I love sharp cheddar cheese, but not at that price. Shredded cheese is more expensive as well. The value packs that are near 6-7 cups go for around 12 bucks. Compared to 7 or 8 at home. It hurts. I love cheese.

No matter what, the hardest part about moving to New York and working at Madame Tussauds, which is open 365 days a year and busiest on weekends, is the fact that I'm on a train right now heading into the city instead of watching the Packer game. I need to go to a bar just to get the Packers here, but I'll only have that opportunity a handful of times this season anyway. So remember Wisconsinites, to tweet about the games often so I can live through you until January.

More later on New York and roller coasters.

11 Minutes Late...

Lets talk about England.

They drive on the left side of the road. They have fantastic accents. Their bacon is really half bacon and half ham.

Chessington is really beautiful.

Leaving the country for the first time in my life was a bit stressful and nerve wracking, but now I want to travel way more. I was in Bournemouth, England for the majority of my week away for training for my new position in New York. Even though there was a ton of things that needed to get done, I still had many exploration opportunities. The first of which was getting from Heathrow to Bournemouth, nearly two hours away. My first day was actually spent in Chessington with my fellow graduate from America, Kent. We went into Merlin's Chessington theme park/garden/zoo and had a really great afternoon after a really long night of travel. It was certainly a family park, but it was beautiful. It had a very different feel from the corporate parks we see in America. No high fences, beautiful theming, and general work put forth into the look and feel of the park, instead of rides just slapped into big concrete jungles. I loved it.

Then there was the challenge of driving in England for the first time. Left side of the road was weird, but easily adaptable, the real challenge was maneuvering our station wagon (which is a big car for England) through the tiny streets of Bournemouth. I felt like I was going to hit something all the time for the first couple days of driving. Luckily I was able to drive the whole week back and forth from Poole, and got used to it pretty well. I wanna go back and drive some more, its more challenging. The only pain is directions, nothing is square like over there like we have here. Its all curvy roads, and if you get lost you lose direction quickly. GPS is required if you aren't used to it.

We were lucky enough to get an entire day devoted to heading into London to tour all of Merlin's attractions in the city. Called the "London Cluster" the attractions included the London Eye, the London Dungeon, the London Aquarium, and Madame Tussauds. Getting through all these attractions in the few hours we had was a challenge, but great fun at the same time. Favorite was probably the London Dungeon. It wasn't just a haunted house, there was plenty of history involved as well, so I was entertained and educated at the same time, which was great.

Me infront of the London Eye. 

One thing I found most amazing was the fact that being surrounded by English accents I slowly found myself changing the way I spoke toward the end of the week. It wasn't the accent of my voice as much as it was my sentence structure and vocabulary choices. They have common phrases over there like we do here, and I started using theres more. Just the sociology minor in me being amazed how surroundings can have an effect on people in their 20's.

One of the best memories to take away from the week was walking on the English Channel with some of the coolest people to meet in a different country barefoot. That was incredible.

More to come. Lots to catch up on. Next up is New York.

Driving in a Tank

So I went to Rhode Island on Wednesday to see the Goo Goo Dolls, see Natalie, and buy a Lovesac. It was a wonderful time, unfortunately the night previous I hit a bump in the Jeep which knocked the rust right out of the Catalytic Converter. This also meant that there was a giant hole in the thing which created two problems: 1st, the Jeep went from being loud to being like a jet engine. You can hear this thing coming from 4 miles away now. That's not that big of a deal, and is almost a little funny, albeit illegal. 2nd, and most importantly, it also meant that exhaust is being forced through the vents inside the Jeep. On the way up to Rhode Island this wasn't the biggest problem it was so loud it was tough to hear the music, but with the windows open it ventilated the Jeep well enough to not cause any problems. On the way back however, it poured rain most of the trip and I hit over an hour of traffic in the middle of Connecticut. Without movement meant bad ventilation, which meant a really bad headache.

So, moral of the story is that you should always fix a catalytic converter if possible.

A new blog, four weeks too late...

This summer was full of change and excitement. I was lucky enough to get the job I had wanted all spring, and have been on a busy adventure since the beginning of September. When I got the job, I told myself I would blog my adventures so a few people could see what was going on in my life. Apparently I haven't done a very good job, as it's currently October and I'm only starting this now. Better late than never, right?

I plan on updating this blog as often as is possible, and I'm even bookmarking it on my browser's toolbar. If you know me, you know that I only have email, twitter, banks, and roller coaster stuff bookmarked, so it's a big deal. It also means that hopefully I won't forget. I'll also be doing a few older posts to give some updates on what has been one of the craziest months of my life. Crazy. and incredible.

From NYC, Chessington, and London

This is mostly a test photo embedded from my picasa account, but I also love this photo. It's from a wall of New Year's wishes/resolutions in Times Square. I can't wait until New Years this January...