About me

     You may be curious as to what the title of the blog means.  Well, I was born and raised in NJ but didn't stay.  I still have lots of family there because "why would you want to leave?".  Yeah, why would you?
    Well for starters, I never felt like I belonged there. I didn't feel true to myself while living there.  I felt that I had to be what people wanted me to be and not who I wanted to be.  I don't think anyone ever fully understood me.
     Then there is the small-mindedness.  My perception is that you are expected to be raised there, meet someone, fall in love, and raise a family there.  Your family needs to live close by to everyone else in order to meet up for weekends and holidays, except for the family that lives in Florida.  You are expected to vacation in Florida as much as possible, visit New York and PA, and when you are done raising your family, you retire to Florida to join the rest of the family there (if you have the money, otherwise you are doomed to live in NJ till you die).  There is no room to do anything different, and if you do, well... something must be wrong with you.
     Being from New Jersey, you deal with lots of jokes because you are not from New York.  You end up being the butt of jokes.  Jokes about the air, the toll roads, the water, your hair, your clothes, your accent....  You learn to laugh at the jokes, laugh with people, laugh at yourself, or you go crazy.  And that is while living there.  When you leave, it is pretty much the same but the jokes seem to be a little more malicious, a little more "I feel sorry for you" because you were from NJ.
     Regardless, I moved away, far away. The other side of the country far.  I've lived in California and Alaska.  I've been to Mexico and the Caribbean. I've vacationed in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Louisiana. I've driven across country to get my stuff from NJ and bring it to the West Coast, I've helped a friend move by driving from Chicago to the West Coast, and I've driven up and down the West Coast countless times.
     There are times I miss NJ  and others that I wish I was back there.  There are times that I hate being in the NW and others that I love it. 
I'm from NJ and living my life in the NW. 
I'm happy and content. 
I'm more myself than I've ever been. 
I'm a Jersey girl living in the NW.
I'm a Jersey Devil with an NW exterior.