Spring has arrived in New Jersey. Today I saw a woman wearing a pair of sky-high black pumps with a pair of denim shorts.

I have seen Bach remedies lurking about the shelves of various health food stores and my favorite grocery store. I read some positive things online about their products so today, on somewhat of an impulse, I bought the stress relief “rescue” spray. The box prominently extols the virtues of the ingredients including Rock Rose. Impatiens, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem and Cherry Plum. But it was when I read the inactive ingredients that I got a good handle on why it just might work, it’s 27% alcohol.

I drove home through some weird weather this morning. Rain is not so strange in Spring, but the clouds were patchy with big fat drops and I could see snippets of blue sky, but also lightning flashes in the distance. In the last few minutes the storm has become a full blown thunderstorm. After my years in the Midwest I’m not sure I will ever be used to thunderstorms in the morning.

Tomorrow night I am going to the Franklin Institute to attend an event celebrating 400 years since the invention of the telescope. There is to be a documentary about the history of the telescope shown as well as one of Galileo’s original telescopes on exhibit (for the first time outside of Italy, apparently). I’m pretty excited.

And just that fast the thunderstorm has moved on.

I have managed to return both to the East Coast and my usual life. In the past twenty-four hours or so I’ve had several ideas for a return entry, so here goes in no particular order.

• My parents want me to move back in with them and be a slacker for awhile. This is preferable to being made to feel like a failure, I do that quite well on my own thank-you-very-much, but I still find it kind of funny to be told in all seriousness that I could move in with them for a few months until I found my own place and get a job at a bookstore. I wish I could say this was a wholly unappealing option, and frankly if they lived somewhere else I might be jumping on it. As it is, I’m not sure what I should do. I hate my job. I hate this state. I should leave, but I’m not sure that’s where I should go. I mentally composed some trite poetry about siren songs and crashing on the rocks regarding this offer, surely that can’t be a good sign.
• I shouldn’t be, but I’m surprised by the reaction Gov. Sanford of South Carolina has received from other ostensibly conservative politicians regarding his stance on the Federal stimulus money. Whether this is the right decision for his state at this juncture or not, the fact remains he is clearly acting on the stated principals of his party, and yet his own party members are criticizing his decision pretty harshly. Some have pointed out that it won’t be lessening the amount the Federal government spends, but it will simply reroute the funds. Still I’m pretty sure when one is found in possession of a stolen television telling the cops that someone else would have bought it for that price if you hadn’t isn’t an acceptable defense.
• The new Neko Case album arrived while I was away and it is pretty good. In fact it is so good I haven’t made it to the new Decemberists album which also arrived.
• I exchanged two one-dollar bills for a two-dollar bill I came across recently. I really like two-dollar bills if only because their failure to truly take hold demonstrates something fundamental about numbers and how they work. In a similar vein, movie theaters should almost always have an odd number of seats in each row. Which brings me to …
• I saw “Monsters Vs. Aliens” in 3D on Monday and I loved it. The numerous allusions to other films kept my father and I busy. I particularly enjoyed the much talked about nods to one of my all-time favorite films, “Dr. Strangelove”. Yesterday, I went to go see “Sunshine Cleaning” and I’ll say what most other people have said about it which is that the performances turned in by Amy Adams and Emily Blunt more than make up for a somewhat thin plot.