And the two pictures below were sent in by my Mom up in the Lake Rogerene section of Mount Arlington. As you can see, one of the big trees in front of the lake was uprooted and portions of Orben Drive are totally under water.

I work in community development and one of the big discussions when considering how to best develop a community always revolves around the idea of smart growth. In other words, how do you arrange a community such that the people who live there also work there or very nearby. As a related side note – everyone who works in Trenton for the state has a similar discussion, yet most state workers live far outside of Trenton. Weird. Anyway, nothing would make me happier than going to work within a 5 – 10 minute commute of where I live.

For starters, I don’t like this part of the state. I’m not sure what it is about Trenton or this part of Mercer County, but I’m not a big fan of the area. I couldn’t see myself ever living over here. I could live in Morris County because I have family up there and I could live in Monmouth County because it’s where I’ve been for ten years and I like it down there. But Mercer County? No thanks. So moving closer to my office isn’t an option to eliminate the commute.

Also, there is a strong possibility that my office is going to move to New Brunswick in the next few months. I couldn’t live in New Brunswick, either. It’s too congested and the places where a guy like me could afford to live aren’t nearly as safe and secure as where I live now. At almost 30 years old and having rented in a variety of arrangements over the past 10 years, I can’t see myself downgrading my living quarters just to be closer to my 9-to-5. That would be completely ridiculous and a sure way to increase the misery level.

I like my job. My only issue with my job is that they unknowingly hold down young talent so I (nor anyone else my age or younger) have not been able to advance professionally at this place. However, the pay is good and the benefits aren’t bad. Plus, the flexibility at this place is phenomenal. It’s just the miserable commute that gets me – and it’s “getting” me in an increasing frequency it seems.

I’ll figure something out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point, but with less than 6 months left to my 30th birthday and having just “celebrated” 4 years working for this company, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to keep this silly commute up each day…

However, last week my time in Chicago was great! I was absolutely stunned at how fun and active downtown Chicago was while I was there. I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, which was a first for me, and it was a pretty cool place. It didn’t have any major “rock and roll” stuff going on while I was there, but it is located in the old Carbon and Carbide building which has this amazing art deco vibe throughout. It was pretty cool.

On Sunday evening I walked a few blocks from the hotel down to Millennium Park. This park was really the only “sightseeing” that I wanted to do while I was at the conference because when I was in Chicago in 2004 my group kept driving by the park without actually stopping at it to see what was up. It’s really a nice place and there was a ton of activity for a Sunday night. On Monday, I had a separate conference to attend that was about a mile from my hotel so I walked downtown (over the North Michigan bridge) to get to the conference place and it was fun. It’s been a long time since I walked around a city on a consistent basis and I forgot how much I liked it.

Anyway, I was really pleased with my trip to Chicago and my opinion of the place has changed. The city is clean, vibrant, and has amazing architecture. I’d definitely go back again – and soon! Here are some pictures from my walking and driving around Chicago:

If I had my way, I’d carve out some time to go back to that shit hole of a bar and do something to “get them” six years after the fact. Bunch of sleazeball scumbags…

Anyway, I’m heading to Chicago for the tenth annual National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference. On a personal level, I’m a big believer in the ability for charter schools to change the educational dynamic in highly educationally distressed areas of New Jersey and the United States. Professionally, I manage my company’s charter school programs so I’m obviously going to go to the national conference.

I went to this conference last year when it was in Washington, DC and it was pretty good. There are usually thousands of people at the conference so I’m looking forward to seeing some folks that I haven’t seen in a while. Also, the keynote speaker this year is Bill Gates so I’m hoping to catch up with him and hopefully get a picture (unlikely since there is usually a mob of people around the keynote speaker).

This will also be the first time that I am traveling by air with my laptop so I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m hoping that it will be easy going. No worries here, folks. I have some posts already lined up for the next few days and they should automatically appear on the site without any work on my part. Enjoy and I’ll be back next weekend!

The Sigma Pi Educational Foundation

Oh, and to wrap up the time frame for the whirlwind trip to Nashville, I was back in my townhouse in Tinton Falls by 10:15pm on Saturday night. No big unpacking and cleaning after the trip either since I only had a small carry-on bag with me for the entire trip. Quick and efficient!

Now that I’m back in New Jersey, though, I’m looking at my upcoming schedule and I didn’t realize how jam packed it was for the rest of this month. Actually, over the last few days I’ve been making plans as far ahead as November 2010. Not that I mind – I think it’s good to know your schedule well in advance (yes, even months in advance).

How are your schedules coming along? Does anyone else out there plan themselves weeks and months in advance or do most of you just wing it? I always wondered about how most people plan their days, weeks, and months. Hmmm… I bet there’s a study out there somewhere that I can download to read some research about the issue. Of course, I’m not sure if I have the time for that…

Before I finish up for the day, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that if anyone is looking for a great, extremely efficient nonprofit organization to donate any amount from $1 to $1,000 (or more) to, the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation is the right choice. I know many of my readers are financially savvy and know the tax planning benefits of making tax deductible donations to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, so consider the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation the next time you’re putting together your tax planning donations. And don’t worry, we have a variety of funds that you can donate to that benefit folks outside of Sigma Pi Fraternity, including a fund for disabled veterans that awards some great scholarships to even better people each year. Something to consider…

I’ve been running around like a crazy person since last weekend. In fact, when I look back at my schedule, I’m amazed at how fast the week flew away. I spent last Sunday at my Grandmother’s husband’s wake, last Monday at home in Tinton Falls where I researched and wrote a twelve page paper before heading to the class that I’m taking at night, Tuesday and Wednesday catching up on a variety of work building up at my office, Thursday and Friday at the New Jersey Charter Schools Association’s annual conference (which was AWESOME – stay tuned for more posts about the conference), and yesterday up in New Brunswick having dinner and good times with my coworkers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t briefly mention an odd coincidence during dinner last night. I was in the middle of telling a story to my coworkers when I noticed a familiar face out of the corner of my eye. Turns out that my doctor was at the same bar/restaurant – Old Man Rafferty’s – that my coworkers and I were at! And what’s even weirder is that of the six of us who went out for dinner, two of us use this doctor as our general practitioner! We didn’t draw the doctor’s attention because I was eating fettuccine alfredo and my coworker was drinking a beer – both of which our doctor told us we shouldn’t be doing (we each have different health issues – long story). But it was definitely weird to see our doctor hanging out with his buddies when we were all about 40 minutes from our home area.

Maybe it was God trying to send us both a message about doing what our doctor tells us to do!

Anyway, my happy announcement today is that my latest student loan payment check has been processed by the people at the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority. Thus, my overall student loan debt has fallen from $90 thousand to $89 thousand. If you ask me, that’s a pretty happy announcement – especially since it means that I’m getting closer to the next milestone in my student loan repayment plan.

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $89 thousand, which breaks down to $34 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $55 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Okay, everyone knows that all of a sudden we went from a deep, frozen winter season to a sloppy, gross wet season, but come on! How is there a damn monsoon hitting Tinton Falls two weeks after a massive blizzard?! What is going on?!

And I’m sorry, but in 2010 there is no excuse for power outages in high tech areas like the northeast United States. Put the friggin’ power lines underground already and get on with it!

So that’s what I’m doing today. On a day when I have way too much shit to do to be sitting around in the dark, I’m sitting around in the dark. This is crap. Someone put the damn lights on already!

A few comments. First, I hate when there is a home game for Monmouth that I can’t attend. I really enjoy going to the games, hanging out in The Varsity Club before and after the game, and watching the Hawks compete against their competition. It’s a really good time (or at least I think so). Second, it’s amazing that the game wasn’t canceled (at least it hasn’t been canceled as of 10:00am today). And third – what’s the deal with all of the snow?! I heard from some of my friends in North Jersey that there are spots where the snow isn’t that bad at all. Meanwhile, down here in Tinton Falls we’ve got a foot and more to come!

My cousin was actually going to come down for the game today so he and I could celebrate our respective birthdays (he turned 29 yesterday – Happy Birthday, cousin!). Unfortunately, though, the pending snow storm canceled those plans for us. For those of you looking for some coverage of the basketball game today, you can check out the official online home of the Hawks by clicking here or check out Tony Graham at The Hawks Nest.

Anyway, since my plan for the blog today was to add a bunch of pictures from the Monmouth game that I won’t be able to attend now, enjoy some pictures from outside of my townhouse. The green arrow in one of the pictures is pointing to my car.

Merry Christmas!

I’ll be spending the day with my family up at my Mom’s house, but I’ll be back in Tinton Falls by tonight. Remember to check back at JerseySmarts.com throughout the coming week as I have a great deal of content that will be uploaded between now and New Year’s Day.

Until then, though, enjoy the rest of the day and have a very Merry Christmas! And in case you didn’t get a chance to read them, be sure to check out some of the poems posted at JerseySmarts.com over the last few weeks: Here Comes Santa on Christmas Eve | It’s Christmas Time in New Jersey | The Real Meaning of Christmas