Spring is in the air

It's been a gloomy start to the morning: foggy...humid...dark... but I can see that the sun is burning off the fog and it's brightening up the little green buds on the trees...illuminating the blossoming fruit trees, warming up the ground and putting a spark into the daffodils and sending a message of an impending doom.

The delightful yet devious Dive over at a Small Glass Planet reminded me that soon...tourist season will be upon us. It is as dreaded over there as it is here.

Now...I know that New Jersey has a bad reputation. Unfortunately, most people flying into NJ fly to Newark airport which is in the middle of industrial NJ. It's surrounded by landfills, oil refineries and chemical plants.

Your senses are attacked by noise, ugliness and a smell...that I just can't describe.

Not great for first impressions.

But - being the "Jersey girl" that I am...I find there are parts of this state that are still absolutely beautiful. They are getting harder and harder to find with the onslaught of urban sprawl, but they are still there. (an I'm keeping them to myself thank you very much)

We're this tiny state packed with people. And for as small as we are...we are the 11th most populous state in the U.S. and have 1,174 people per square mile. We are the most densely populated.

In the summer time...that number must quadruple with New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians and assorted other tourists flocking to our beaches for a little fun in the sun.




Depending on where you live in the state tourists are either called a Benny or a Shoobie

Benny is actually an acronym for the train stations along the Jersey coast that the tourists came from:
(B)ayonne

(E)lizabeth

(N)ewark

(N)ew (Y)ork


If you lived anywhere from Seaside north, you most likely used this term.

I found a very good description of a Benny on the Urban Dictionary:

"Locals can spot a BENNY from miles away. They're usually of Italian decent, mostly from New York, they ask the dumbest things like "Which way is the beach?" and "What do you guys do during the winter?", they can't drive for shit, they think they're sweet, they crowd out beaches, malls, and basically our entire lives. They know only the major roads to get to the shore + home, they think it's cool to come down for the weekend, go to one of the 50 clubs on Ocean Av., trash the state and leave on Sunday. The cops all come out after Memorial day and hunt for the New York plates until Labor day, they pay WAY to much for a shack a block away from the beach, they can't handle a Jeresy Girl nor do they know just how good of a state New Jersey is."

South Jersey folks, which was anywhere south of Seaside where the GOOD beaches are...we called the tourists: Shoobies.

Shoobies was a termed coined for the flock of day or weekend travelers carrying their lunches in shoe boxes to the beach wearing big floppy sun hats, black socks and sandals, nose coated with zinc oxide, feeding the seagulls and generally being a nuisance.

They are usually from Pennsylvania...generally the Philadelphia area and they fit the same general description as a Benny pretty much.

Locals dread this time of year, and we've acquired rare survival tricks to cope with the 3 months of tourism:

• Hit the beach before 10:00 AM to get good parking


• spread out as many towels and chairs as you possible can to claim your spot on the beach before they arrive


• avoid the "popular beaches" that are filled with hormone raging teenagers...go toward the inlets and more isolated areas.


• to avoid being stuck in traffic...get all of your necessity shopping before 10:00 am otherwise it takes 20 minutes to travel 1 block


• if someone asks you how to get "to the shore", send them the opposite way. It will take them at least 30 minutes to figure out they are going the wrong way and by that time, they'll get stuck in traffic and will never make it back before sundown.


• Locals call it the beach...tourists call it "the shore".


• Avoid the Garden State Parkway if at all possible on the weekends. True Jersey folks always have alternative routes to go anywhere in the state.

:::sigh:::

Well...we may hate the tourists, but we LOVE their money!

Bathroom etiquette

This is one of my worst pet peeves - bathroom etiquette.

Especially when you share a bathroom with co-workers.

I work in an industry where the workforce is about 80% women.

There are about 100 people who currently work in the office, so that is roughly 80 women sharing a bathroom with only 4 stalls.

Men probably don't think too much about this, but if you are a woman reading this, you're probably thinking that isn't really adequate bathroom facilities.

It would be fine if everyone had the same levels of hygiene and cleanliness - but it's very obvious we don't.

Our office manager sent this e-mail around the office today:

"Also, without getting into too many details, I would appreciate it if better hygiene was practiced in the ladies room. There were a few things brought to my attention this morning that just should not be happening in an office consisting of adults."

Today - it was blood on the floor.

BLOOD ON THE FLOOR!

EW!

It just happened to be in the one open stall that I walked into and I needed to GO, so I grabbed a wad of toilet paper enough to clog the plumbing and wiped it up.

This is not the first time she has had to send an e-mail around like this.

There was an issue of a random turd just sitting next to the toilet.

Can someone please explain to me how this happens? How do you miss getting your turd into the toilet?

I know there are hoverer's - people too afraid to sit on the toilet, but still...you have to have some sense that you are over the hole and do your best to get the shit in the bowl!

We've had turd smears too! If a turd is smeared, that means YOU stepped in it and it's on your shoe!

We have those sani-seat covers if people are too afraid to sit on the seat - geez...can't you use one of them?

Do you have to pee, poop and drip blood on the seat, the floor and the walls of the stall and ruin it for the rest of us? There are only 4 stalls and 80 women!

I'm not even going to speculate how "stuff" gets on the walls, but ew, ew, ew. Gross.

This is not even about being a germ-a-phobe...this is about being inconsiderate, unclean and just downright DISGUSTING!

Back in another lifetime - I used to clean the bathrooms of a gas station that my ex-husband owned. The women's room was 10 times more disgusting than the men's room believe it or not. Some of the "things" I saw in that bathroom was just beyond your worst imagination.

I also cleaned the offices for a moving company I worked for to make extra money when I first got divorced. The bathrooms for the warehouse workers and the truck drivers was dirty, but I never, EVER saw shit on the floor.

Why are women so gross in public bathrooms?

I know it's not clean, it's not fun, but come on - show a little consideration for other people?

Remember that old ryhme:

If you sprinkle
When you tinkle
Please be neat
and wipe the seat!

My friend "N" once said: There is a special place in hell for women who sprinkle all over the toilet seats.

I agree.

It's just wrong.

I would imagine they must be getting themselves wet in the process. Think about this - liquids splash. They are probably splashing themselves with urine!

ew.

I just don't understand, if anyone can enlighten me, please do.

:::stepping off my soap box:::