This didnt actually occur in New York. A few years back, i met a chica named Ruthy on my fieldschool in Peru. She happens to live in New Jersey so we coordinated a day during my trip here to get together.

Carrie took me on the subway early in the morning on her way to work so she could help me get a ticket at Penn Station. Once that was done, we parted ways and I found myself in a giant train station without a clue as to what to do. But I managed, even if new yorkers are assholes, and made it to Woodbridge, New Jersey in one piece.

Ruthy and her bf Juan picked me up and we had breakfast at The Reo. Its one of her favorite diners so i had to check it out. I got a yummy yummy belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream.

We drove through Perth Amboy a little, because thats where she grew up. We stopped at a marina for a short time and got back on our way.

Next in line was the Jersey shore – we stopped at the Jenkinson’s Boardwalk and walked to the ocean. The beach was red flagged because of these monster waves coming in. A storm was due so the wind was pretty strong.

Then we went through an awesome funhouse. I had only been in the county fair type houses, so a full time funhouse was neat. We got lost in the plexiglass and mirror hallway for some time (its quite confusing to not walk into the glass!), and transported a cat into a skeleton. Oh and we thought we lost Juan at one point because he went down a tunnel slide that we werent sure was really operational – it looked like the whole thing was going to rip off the wall, and we never saw him come out. But once we got down the stairs, we found him. He had been slinking through some teeny tunnels.

After that, we grabbed some subs at Glory’s and went to Ruthys house in Jackson. There i got to see her family llamas, a goat, her kitties (including the six toed ones;), a ferret, a bird, and two sugar glyders.

Ruthy then drove us to the Grounds for Scultpure. This was a massive park with all kinds of sculptures and landscaping. It was truly a beautiful place! Even if it did rain at times, but it never poured, and we were each equipped with umbrellas. Check out some of the cool stuff I saw:

Next stop was New Hope, Pennsylvania. This was a pretty little town with lots of store fronts filled with unique boutiques. A lot of it was too expensive but it was still fun to see different things. One of the first things we saw was a sculpture by the same artist who had stuff at the Grounds for Sculpture! We also found this really really creepy shop that housed post-mortem things, like actual photos, caskets, funeral clothes, etc (more real bones and skulls). There was other stuff too, all things youd see in a horror movie.

Lastly, we went to New Brunswick to meet up with some friends of theirs. This is also where Ruthy went to school – Rutgers University. She showed me the campus and then we went to Stuff Yer Face to eat. I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to get back to a henna party!

I arrived about an hour later than planned, and was directed on how to get from the train station to the subway and then to the apartment. It was bad timing coming in, as a concert just got out when I got off the train and so there were zillions of people going every which way. But i managed the public transportation system alone, and made it back safe. Carrie had prepared the henna the night before so it was all ready to go. I learned some interesting things about it – its henna + sugar + water + eucalypcus oil. Theres sparklies you can add to it, you can erase it, you can do different colors or darknesses, and you can gently coat it with sugar water when its dry to help it last longer. These are the largest tats i had ever gotten (its like 30$ at fairs for the back of your hand so i only sporadically ever do it). They are also the prettiest!

While she was working her magic, she had given me my own henna to play with. I am not so skilled of course, so getting the right holding position and the pressure needed for squeezing  was not an easy task to coordinate. My designs are not near as lovely :/