Of all the states in the country, that's not one of the ones I would have picked.
I, of course, did not get to count license plates this year because I was downstate during the week in which I usually do it. Out of force of habit, though, I have been checking out-of-state plates since getting back a week and a day ago, and I've made an interesting discovery.
People from New Jersey really seem to like us this year.
I'm not kidding; I've seen at least six different vehicles with Jersey plates in the last week. I have no idea why; I don't know if a newspaper or a website in that area wrote something glowing about us, or if we happen to be the location of a “Sopranos” look-alike contest I know nothing about.
All I know is that this year we seem to have become a suburb of Newark.
Every year when I DO count plates there seems to be one state that sticks out. A few years ago it was Missouri, last year it was Texas. I never have an idea why, but I do always seem stuck by the randomness of it. It's the same with New Jersey this year. The past few years I may have seen a Jersey plate or two during the week I'm counting. But to see six in a week when I'm not even counting?
That really IS random.
Of course, now one of two things will happen. I will either see another six Jersey plates in six days, or I won't see any. That's how it works. I have no idea which way it'll go; I just know, at least based on past experience, that that's how it'll happen.
No matter what, though, let me welcome our friends from New Jersey. Hope you're enjoying yourself, and hope you're appreciating the fact that you're away from your normal views of, uhm, warehouses and toxic waste dumps.
And if there IS a “Sopranos” look-alike contest about which I don't know, please accept my apologies. Had I know, I would have done my best to spread the word.
8-)
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