like one of those dogs that's so ugly it's cute

For the briefest of moments, I considered creating a series of posts (a la Reasons to Love New York) called Reasons to Love Jersey City. Then I promptly realized that, much like a hypothetical season of MTV's The Real World set in Memphis, there would only be one or two installments before they ran out of shit to do and the whole shebang was canceled. The Real World: Memphis cast would go to Beale Street and at least two of them would get stuffed in the back of someone's car, never to be seen again. You can't very well see what happens when seven strangers stop getting polite and start getting real when there are only five of them, and one of them is a "person of interest."

Much like the ill-fated Real World: Memphis, the Reasons to Love Jersey City series would likely peeter out, mostly because you can only blog so much about how your rent is dirt cheap, and frankly, that is one of the only reasons I can most ever think of to love Jersey City.

But today, as I was coming home, I decided that one of the bright spots about this decaying community of urban-suburbia is you never quite know what to expect. For example, just when you think you have tabs on the five different people who no longer reside in your apartment, but all still receive mail there, a new name pops into the mix. And today, I discovered that longtime non-resident postal target Jean Solano is apparently a subscriber to Motor Trend Magazine. Based on her previous mailings from insurance companies, medical supply catalogs and coupon quick-savers, I never would've guessed it.

I also never know just what the front entryway to my apartment building is going to smell like when I come inside on a given day. Will it be cat urine? Or perhaps, spoiled milk? Today it was quite a unique blend, one that I think (where it ever bottled, and sold as an eau de toilette) can only be appropriately called "Scent From an Overflowing Bathroom Trashcan." I see that doing well in your eastern European markets, mostly.

cheers,
elizabeth