08732

Not too long ago I found this blog about a guy's adventures in loving the United States Postal Service. More specifically, I found it when this entry was posted, and I thought, I love roadtrips and adventures, and I am also a chronic letter writer and package mailer! Certainly I have a story to share!

So I wrote to Evan, the blog's author, wishing him well on his final exams and letting him know of my enthusiasm for all of the things he writes about. The initial back and forth went something like this--

me: Hey, ohmygoshIlovetheUSPSandroadtrips, also here are some vague details about this place I lived for a while in northwestern New Jersey whose post office closed earlier this year
Evan: Oh, you mean here?

Evan knows his post offices.

I have probably driven past hundreds of post offices on my adventures, but I pondered a bit about any that are particularly meaningful to me. Aside from the aforementioned, now-closed Johnsonburg post office, I mainly do my USPS business at the Island Heights office, which aside being the most convenient location for me is probably also my hands-down favorite.

Island Heights is a teensy borough surrounded by Toms River, with lovely old Victorian homes and a short boardwalk along the river. The post office is located along the Barnegat Bay, which the Toms River empties into. It's big enough that they always have the breast cancer awareness stamps that I like to buy, but small enough that the lines are never overwhelming. The Toms River Post Office is always a lot busier and is also a pain to get into with all of the traffic pattern changes in downtown TR. Island Heights is about the same distance and is much more peaceful.

Some of that peace is probably because the post office is the waterfront location. It's very quiet, and the Barnegat just stretches out ahead of you as you walk up to the small building, which isn't particularly impressive or attractive but does its job. I believe the current building was dedicated under Eisenhower, though the USPS established itself in Island Heights in 1879. I love the view of the barrier island, with each beach's water tower creating the occasional blip on the horizon, and the view of the Mathis and Tunney bridges connecting the island to the mainland. I love the smell of the brackish to salty air and the consistent breeze. Oh, and I love mailing people things. It works out rather well.

counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike but not with that song

Last night, I drove my dear friend and former office mate Irene to the airport. She's heading home to Venezuela for the holidays. I know it's strange, but I enjoy airport runs, especially at odd hours. Hardly anyone was on the road, and I had a very peaceful drive.

I know there's a section of Turnpike that smells terrible followed immediately by a section of the Turnpike that looks pretty terrible, and I often complain that this is a large part of why so many people hate New Jersey. However, once past the smell tonight heading northbound, I kind of enjoyed the lit up skyline and the shadows of Newark Airport and Elizabeth Seaport. I don't necessarily find it beautiful, but it's what I see when I fly home.

The jazz station in Newark kept me company for most of the way (good range in the overnight!) and then I was fortunate enough that my CD player was warmed up and in a good mood for the drive back to Toms River. Since my CD player only works when it feels like it, my Tag Out mix was still in and I enjoyed it immensely on my drive back south.

1. Bon Iver: Woods- appropriately peaceful and interesting
2. DeVotchka: All the Sand in All the Sea- The part that always gets me? Leaving my Walden, or whatever other amazing places I've found myself in life.
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes: 40 Day Dream- "Yeah, I know I'm sleeping, 'cause this dream's too amazing."
4. Dawes: When My Time Comes- I've thought about it for hours but still don't know what to say about this song. It needed to be here.
5. Donovan Frankenreiter: Heading Home- Yes I was. Am. I like to think I'm on a constant journey for home.
6. Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime- "You may ask yourself, where does that highway go to?" Yes, yes I do. All the time.
7. OK Go: This Too Shall Pass- such a positive, hopeful song.
8. Bill Withers: Let it Be- I'm picky about my Beatles covers, but this one passes the test and takes a lovely song and puts it in a very positive, upbeat setting
9. Josh Ritter: Long Shadows- I'm not afraid of the dark, we've been here before... just as figurative as it is literal for me.
10. Eels: Fresh Feeling- reminding me it's time for something fresh
11. Florence + the Machine: Cosmic Love- I missed this during staff training, but it meant so much to everyone around me, especially someone in particular who means so much to me (that little sister I acquired, Abi)
12. Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel- the opening line "Headin' down south to the land of the pines" was geographically correct for the journey this was intended for (and many of my mini-roadtrips), plus was reminiscent of Noah and Diana singing it all summer, most notably during Licepocalypse
13. Loudon Wainwright III: The Swimming Song- Noah's choice, the opening song for the summer 2011 slideshow, and a very nice illustration of much that I do
14. Bruno Mars: Count on Me- Courtney's choice for the staff slideshow, which I initially whined about (come ON, Bruno Mars?) but was really happy with how perfectly it fit the situation
15. Josh Ritter: Lantern- my choice for the slideshow, a song I absolutely love for its positive words and sound, and how it uses a lantern as a love symbol when a lantern is a symbol of so many other wonderful things in my life
16. Dispatch: Out Loud- except I have the original Bang Bang acoustic version which I can't seem to find online... this closed the slideshow
17. The Low Anthem: The Horizon is a Beltway- It is a beltway, or some other road to somewhere... hopefully with better traffic than the Beltway I frequent the most (the one around D.C.)

I arrived home just in time for sunrise, but I decided to enjoy dawn from the bay in Island Heights, instead of by the ocean, just for something different.

Tree of the day: the pretty little holly tree growing next to the post office that I sat next to for the sunrise. It seems seasonally appropriate.



Good morning from the Jersey shore.