New Jersey

So last week I headed out of town for a business trip to New Jersey. I took off a couple of days early so I could hang out with ThreeL. We headed out to Virgil’s for lunch and so I could get my peanut butter pie fix for the year. Wow, that stuff is so good. We followed that up with a trip around the corner to Sephora. From my perspective it was a pretty awesome weekend.

During the week, I had to deal with boring business meetings and torturous shoes. I swear I went through almost 4 boxes of band aids before the end of the week. The shoes I was wearing weren’t even new; it’s just been a long time since I had to wear any of them.

On Wednesday, the group decided to go out for a bonding activity and headed to the Liberty Science Center. It really was a lot of fun. We started off with a trip in to the IMAX theater to see some story about mummies. Those kinds of things always mess with my head, so from the moment I walked in to the place, I was having trouble with my eyes and then my stomach. Once the movie started, I kept having to find a fixed point to stare at otherwise I would have been in really bad shape.

From there, it was off to see the different exhibits. In one area they housed a bunch of insects and lizards and snakes. I think the title of the exhibit was “Eat or be Eaten.” One of the girls in my group called me over to see an exhibit of gigantic cockroaches and asked me if they got that big in the desert. I took one look and told her, “those are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.” She looked over that the little plaque on the wall and saw that I was right. She asked how I knew what they were. TV. What else? There was an episode of CSI New York that had them on. These are the bugs that people glue jewels on the back, stick a tiny gold leash on them and them pin them to their jackets. Ugh!! So disgusting! It makes my skin crawl to think about it. Try and Google them and you’ll see what I mean.

The poor kid that was there to answer questions tried to defend them and tell me how clean they were. Yeah, whatever. I still don’t want one as a pet let alone walking around on my chest. Jesus, I want to go take a shower right now.

So after that we headed upstairs to another move theater, this time for a 3-D movie about the Sun. Ho-Hum. I think I saw it on the Discovery Channel (although without the 3-D effects.) We moved on to another exhibit, this one about different types of Fear. It was really fun. There was a booth where you could get strapped to this gurney looking thing while standing and then it falls back and catches you on a mat. There is a camera that records your expression the entire time you are falling.

Next to that was a booth set up for fear of loud noises. Again, there was a recording device to record your startle response. For this one, you just sat on a stool in front of a mirror and waited. At some point a noise that sounds like a gun shot goes off. After that, the mirror that you are facing turns into a screen that allows you to see your startle response.
We spent a couple of hours there and it really was a lot of fun once my stomach started to settle down. The last stop was the gift shop, of course. I ended up with a coffee mug. I think I have decided to try and stay away from t-shirts and hats from now on. I never seem to wear either one, and I don’t plan on giving up coffee any time soon, so it makes more sense to stick with the mugs.

I left town on Thursday super early so I get home in time to meet my sister Autumn at the airport. This was her first visit to see me since I moved. We were both beyond excited. But that’s for the next blog.