Jersey- bound

Well, I decided to drive up to New Jersey to see the family today. I decided this around 3pm yesterday. Yesterday morning, my boss asked me if I wanted to take today off. I wasn't going to, but I figured it wasn't a bad idea, since it's probably the last day I'll get to take off in a while - one of my coworkers will be out next week, and after that starts our "start of school" season, where we aren't really supposed to take off since things start to get hectic. I don't have a whole lot of homework for my marketing class from hell, since I've decided to choose the last possible case study to do so I can continue to procrastinate, so it seemed ideal.

There are a couple of reasons I wanted to visit the NJ. My older brother just bought a condo, finally moving out of my parent's house, so I wanted to see it. I also like to see my family a few times a year, since they won't be around forever, and I don't see another opportunity to come up there again until Thanksgiving. I missed my usual 4th of July visit, since I was painting the new Casa De Mad, and Labor Day is move-in weekend, which Mad Anthony will be spending working overtime to help him pay his mortgage and truck payment and insurance. Plus the 'rents will be able to see my new truck, and I can collect my birthday presents (my birthday is next Friday).

The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the cost of gas for this trip eating into my already-overdrawn budget. The PT neve got great gas milage, but the Ranger is worse - I'm getting around 15mpg in mostly city driving. Granted, it hasn't helped that MadAnthony has a bit of a lead foot, that I've done a lot of stop-and-go driving (I spent last Saturday morning going to yard sales with bsom), plus the 100+ heat index has forced me to run the AC to cool down the black interior.

Still, I guess family is worth it...