Jersey Shore - Redux

Down in town the circuit's full of switchblade lovers, so fast, so shiny, so sharp
As the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers on the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York virgins by the score

Bruce Springsteen - Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

My previous post with regard to my Jersey Shore adventure ended with me crashing on the Ocean Grove boardwalk while heading north toward Asbury Park during my morning run. Confession: I noted in that post that the fall resulted in a gash to my eyebrow which bled profusely. Actually -- although inserting the eyebrow gash at that point in my tale was more exciting, more sexy in a way than what actually happened -- the eyebrow gash actually occurred elsewhere. Sorry, poetic license took over. The day before I was due to fly back to Denver, and after we had returned from Ocean Grove, I stayed in a Marriott about a mile from my sister's home. So, my last day in New Jersey, I arose about 6 a.m., put on my running clothes and, since there really wasn't anywhere else to do it, ran up and down the sidewalk in front of the hotel as well as some other businesses. The street on which the hotel was situated wasn't very long, so I would run to where the sidewalk ended and the street turned into a highway on-ramp and then back the other way where the sidewalk ended at a rather busy intersection. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And, then, whoops! Yes, I tripped over a curb, went flying forward and popped my head on the concrete causing the gash in my eyebrow. There. The truth is out. But, wasn't the Asbury Park version better? The real version just sounds like some doddering older guy who ought to be more careful.

Well, my tale was going to give greater detail on how the gay uncle/great uncle (me) weathered those four days with all those women and children (there were eleven of us ... I was the only adult male). But, now that I think about it; now that I've had some time to reflect on it all, there's no need to say anything other than how I began the prior post. Blessings abound. And, those blessings were my great nieces and nephews: Bella, Michael, Mischa and Aidan; and my nephew, Jack and my niece Kate; my little sister, Michelle and my nieces-in-law, Sarah, Shelley and Mimi.

I still think the Asbury Park/gashed eyebrow version was better.

Now the greasers, they tramp the streets or get busted for sleepin' on the beach all night
Them boys in their high heels, ah Sandy, their skins are so white
And me, I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades, bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk, where they all promised to unsnap their jeans