Day 1 (Saturday, July 26)

(10:30AM)

Right now I am sitting in our van, every inch of it packed with shit, in the parking lot of the Colliers Liquor Store. My dad and I are chilling in the shade, he reading a newly bought book, I typing on this infernal machine (oh how I love thee). We got into Cape May around 7:15 (actually about 45 minutes ahead of time) this morning, and we’ve been slumming around ever since. As of now I’ve been awake over twenty-four hours, and I should be crashing and burning soon.

The ride was a pretty uneventful one. We left the house a little after 2AM (later than that, because whenever we leave anywhere, for a significant amount of time my dad has to do a voodoo chant or something before locking up the house). I didn’t sleep at all on the way down, which was surprising, although I think when my mix tapes went in I got a fresh jolt of consciousness. (Indeed, around 4:00 I was wide awake with a second wind.) The mix tapes went over for the most part well. Deftones = bad idea. Some of the techno stuff didn’t sound very good in the car, which is to be expected. But otherwise I think everyone was genuinely surprised at the amount of variety in the mixes. (I think my proudest moment was after the third song started to play, my sister said that it was the weirdest mix tape she had ever heard. It does take either a madman or a genius to follow up the Groove Armada with the Rolling Stones.)

As I said, the ride was pretty uneventful. The best ride down to Cape May had to be last year. Instead of going straight down like we usually do, we went to my cousin’s wedding first in the Finger Lakes region, and then after went through Pennsylvania and Philly to get to the Atlantic City Parkway or whatever it is, which dumps you pretty close to Cape May. It was incredibly hazy that night; I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. Going through the outskirts of Philly was so beautiful, as the lights played off the haze so that a red light enveloped the city as we drove over bridges overlooking boat yards and stadiums. It was quite cool.

Anyway, when we got in we drove around the area looking at the houses until 8AM when we got out, and almost immediately we saw my aunt driving by so we waved her down and went to breakfast at this nice little omelet place overlooking the ocean. You could see dolphins playing in the surf. The breeze was cool. It was quite nice out. For some reason I had a craving for a Western Omelet, which was pretty good except for the fact that their ham looked sliced instead of cubed, which was just not cool. Otherwise very good.

My dad seems to have a problem with red lights in Cape May. He’s already almost run three, and we haven’t even been here that long. What’s really amusing is that twice (coming and going) he almost ran a red on Howard Street (that being funny because my mom’s pet idiotic name for my father is Howard.)

Then we did the annual book shopping. (We are doing all of this stuff before going to the house because the Realtor doesn’t open its doors till noon for check-ins.) On the Main Street of the shopping district (if there is, in fact, such a thing) there is bank that has since been converted into a discount bookstore. They have a lot of hard-covers that I guess they couldn’t sell other places that they sell real cheap, so every year we go in there and go nuts on beach reading. This year I guess we went really nuts, as my dad told me the total for all of them was over $175 and we came out with three bags jam packed full of books. We have since brought them back (my dad and I) and are waiting in the shade of the Liquor Store while the girls shop till noon. Then we’ll go on over to the house.

(12:50PM)

Ok, I was wrong. We can’t pick up the keys until 1.

Right now I am sitting in the living room of the house that my two aunts and their families will be sharing. They got their key early, since they aren’t going through the same Realtor. Right now it is just me, my cousin Matthew on the porch, and my dad in the dining room, since we were to come open up the house and put the food in the refrigerator while the girls (my mom, sister, and aunt “Snoup”) get more groceries and then get the key when the time comes. My aunt “Tiger” and her family (Tim, Thomas, and Susan) should be getting here around 3 or so.

Since last I wrote I haven’t done much of anything. I’m sooooo tired. I tried to lie down in the van to get some sleep, and did about the best you can do with about two feet of room to work with. Unfortunately there was no quality shut eye there. Then we got to the house and I almost immediately lay myself out on the couch, but even there, though there was temporary relief, there was no sleeping done. I feel woozy. My eyes have a tendency to go off into two different directions and do other weird things. It is difficult to read. Must…get…sleep…soon…

(2:05PM)

Ok, I’m doing a little better now. As long as I stay cool and have plenty of caffeine in my veins I should be fine. Now we are in our house, and have moved everything inside. Damn it’s hot outside. The heat combined with the lack of sleep almost did me in.

I have a little workstation set up for me in the living room now. I got the laptop on the coffee table with summer reading stacked neatly at my left, my optical mouse and pad of paper at my right, and below me the stereo is playing the new Cardigans album. (Which is quite delightful, I might add. You should all pick it up.)

[My sister just yelled at me for already having 6 pages of this journal, although she stopped when I explained that it is mostly track listings.]

Oh, the books that I got: Counter-clock World and Dr. Bloodmoney, both by Philip K. Dick, and an anthology of Arthur C. Clarke short stories. That and I’m sharing with my dad some war books, one on WWI, one on WWII, and one on Vietnam. That, plus this shit I already have packed with me should keep Jack a busy boy for quite some time. And then there is this little journal here. How soon we do forget.