TBT - My First New Jersey

Labor Day weekend 2006, I moved to New Jersey to start my first out-of-college job (and my current job) in New York. That was eight years ago this past weekend!



I remember my car was jam-packed with as much as could fit in it so that I could drive all my stuff from Missouri to New Jersey. My mom drove with me, and I remember stopping at a Country Inn & Suites in Ohio for the night and then continuing on to New Jersey the next morning and getting lost trying to get to my new apartment. (Getting lost became a theme for me in New Jersey. If you've never driven in New Jersey, you just don't understand.)

We ordered a mattress. No box spring or bedframe. I just slept on a mattress on the floor. We also bought a desk at Target and a folding chair to go with it. And I had my trusty Rubbermaid shelving units that had gotten me through college to get me through the next five years. (That's right. My husband and I continued using them as bedroom furniture even after we bought our house.)



I had a roommate who owned the place - it was actually a two-bedroom condo - but she was rarely around, so I often had the place to myself. However, there was one time when I wished she had been there. I came home from work one evening, and the alarm system in the apartment started going off. My roommate had told me that we wouldn't use the alarm, but I guess her mom had come in during the day and set the alarm when she left. So the alarm company called and asked me for the password, which, of course, I didn't know. And then the police showed up, and I had to explain to them what happened. Good times.

And the commute into the city was FANTASTIC! Half an hour at most every morning and evening. You bought a monthly pass that gave you unlimited bus rides. And the bus picked me up right outside the building.



The town was really cute, too, with a library that I could walk to, a train station, and lots of different restaurants. I didn't live there for too long, but I did enjoy my time there and the after-work walks I would take around town, just randomly turning left and right as I went to explore the area.

This was also the time when I realized how intricate scrapbooking could be. I discovered Scrapbook.com, I visited a local scrapbook store for page kits, and I really started to take my scrapbooking to a new level, as evidenced by the pages I've shared here. I love looking back at how my scrapbook style evolved.

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