Historic Smithville

As promised, here's a link to the Smithville piece for New Jersey Monthly.

It's an interesting town. Both me and and my editor were perplexed about the addresses -- every store and restaurant has the same one. The only difference is the "shop" number, which explains why the addresses look a bit repetitive in this article.

You can read about the history of the town in the article, but let's just say that it didn't look this way when Fred and Ethel Noyes founded it. I'm not sure if I would recommend staying overnight in Smithville -- you could shop the place in a day. But it has a quaint, village-esque feel, and I liked watching the roosters roam the property like so many power shoppers. I loved the SmithvilleBakery (615 E Mossmill Rd, Shop 20, 609-652-6471). It was probably the most colonial looking thing in the bunch.

In another housekeeping note, I just signed up for Goodreads.com. I love it -- makes me think about what books I have and should maybe look into re-reading. If you'd like to check out what I've got, or want to 'friend' me, click here. I have a myspace page, too. That's here.

What I'm Listening to: A Different Light by Sherwood.

Housekeeping

A few housekeeping notes:

-I wrote an article about Smithville, NJ (which is right outside of Atlantic City) for the October issue of NJ Monthly. If you're a subscriber, you should have already gotten that issue in the mail. I'll post a link once the article is online.

-Irish Weekend was fun. It was entirely too crowded on Saturday night to get into any of the more popular bars (and I wasn't too jazzed about paying a $5 cover), so we ended up at Casey's on Third (301 New York Avenue, North Wildwood, 609-522-7759), which had a band and a lot of people watching the Phillies game. Then we headed to Owen's Pub (17th Avenue, North Wildwood, 609-729-7290), which allowed a little more breathing room, another Irish band, and plenty more people watching. I didn't see the parade, but did see the Clydesdales walk by the house where me and the boyfriend were staying. Damn, they're big animals.

-Not shore-related, but still cool: Rachel Weingarten, author of Career and Corporate Cool, is running a fab contest on her blog. If you buy a copy of her book on September 25 (that would be tomorrow) between 9 am and 5 pm, send your online receipt to backtocool@careerand corporatecool.com, and you'll be qualified to win a slew of cool prizes, including iTunes and Sephora gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, gift baskets from Phyto and so much more. Check out more info here. I'm not qualified because I already read the book -- highly recommend it to anyone looking to kick start their career, or give their own corporate life a kick in the rear (helped me out when re-evaluating my goals). And the book is not a boring business book, so check it out!

What I'm Listening to: The Weight is a Gift by Nada Surf.