My handicap ramp. No one in my house is handicapped.
How did I find this gem of a house? Last year, I was a hot bowl of stress. My roommate and I were living in Lake Grove, NY and our lease was about to end. My roommate had just received a promotion that involved her moving to Japan. I didn't want to live by myself and I didn't really want to live in that area anymore. There was nothing to do and all the friends I had made were living in Long Beach. It seemed as though everything was falling through. I thought I was going to be living in my Mustang. Then my roommate told me about a place another manager had available in Long Beach. I went to see it that night, and by the end of the weekend I was set to move in.
I'm so glad I made the decision to move here. I love that others my age live here. I love that I can walk to the bars and restaurants and not worry about how I'm getting home. I love that I have the beach just steps away but the city is only a short train ride away. I love running the boardwalk. I love the friends that I've made. I love the summers. Oh boy do I love the summer.
Living in Florida all my life, summer is just another season. Actually it's kinda hell down there. You lay out by the pool and after the first 5 minutes, you're already in the pool because your ass is sweating. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Florida girl at heart and love Florida, but you don't get seasons(well maybe 1 season. It's called Hurricane Season). You get kinda chilly, warm, hot, and sweatin' balls hot. I don't think I've ever in my life been more excited for summer than I am right now. Maybe when I was a kid waiting for summer vacation, but I actually loved school back then.
In Long Beach during the summer, by day, everyone is outside. People are walking their dogs, riding bicycles, playing volleyball, laying out at the beach, surfing the Long Island waves, getting fro-yo, sitting on the outside patios of all the restaurants getting lunch. Walking out of the door of my house just puts a smile on my face. No more winter blues! And by night, everyone is out at the bars. People come out of hibernation. City people take the train here, not the other way around. It is kind of nice to see new faces out, but at the same time it can be some what annoying when you're used to being the locals and having the whole bar to yourself. For the summer, you have to weave in and out of a sea of drunk people just to get to a line at the bathroom and have to wait at the bar just to get a drink. And since everyone comes here for the summer, there's no street parking. Sometimes I have to park several blocks away from my house. My roommate and I even talked about buying bikes to put in our SUV's so if we had to park far, we could just bike it back to our house.
Going out with my girls definitely out weigh the annoying parts of living here during the summer though. The nights spent out with the B to my S, my little wine guzzlers and hot commods I never know what's going to happen. It's never a "lets just go out for a couple drinks and come back home" kind of night, even when we say that's what we are planning on doing and give ourselves curfews(which we never make). It's "let's bring a football into the bar and throw it around while trying to hold on to our wine glasses and not spill a drop" or "Are they doing limbo on the dance floor? Yeah I know I got this!" or "Are those mannequins I see in some Kama Sutra positions? Let's steal their hands!" or "Um, so, what the hell happened last night?" or "Let's get shots of Jammo! Let's do another one! Can we do another one?(cheers, tap the bar with shot,take it)". Did I mention Jameson was a Long Beach staple? I had never even heard let alone tasted Jammo until I moved here. I used to hate it, but I have grown to tolerate it. Okay, so maybe it's kinda grown on me. But I figured when in Rome.
Jess, me, Laura.
Me, Sam, Bridget after stealing a couple of hands.
Jammo!
And then there's the boardwalk. The boardwalk has become my sanity when my world is going crazy. It's a place that I can clear my head and put together all the ideas that are floating around in this brain of mine and make sense of it all, until I tripped on a board and fell and bust up my knees, hands, and face. Yes this happened. I guess I had way too much on my mind that day and the boardwalk decided to really take my mind off things and just kick my ass. Let's just say after that, I paid a little more attention to where I was running. I also love watching all the volleyball games going on during the summer while I run. I'm not a volleyball player at all(unless they change the sport to kicking the ball over the net. Until that happens, you won't be seeing me play) but I love watching others play.
Sunset at the boardwalk.
On the weekends, the beach is amazing. Everyone is out with their coolers of beer, red Dixie cups, portable chairs that they can carry on their backs, volleyball nets up, a game of corn hole going, the lifeguards sitting up on their mounds of sand. When I'm there, you better believe I'm going to start a game of football and walk down to Cabana for a to go margarita. I love going into the ocean but the water is just a bit too cold for me(maybe not as cold as Polar Bear where I went in TWICE) until around the end of July. It's not like the bathtub water I'm used to in Florida. Everyone jumps and dives in while I put my big toe in, shutter and run back to my towel.
The other day, a friend called me a local and I almost disagreed but now that I think about it, I am a local. This is where I live and have lived the past year. This is where I plan on living for a while. This is my town.
Here's a few more things I love about Long Beach. If you're a Long Beach local too, you'll know what I'm talking about.
- Irish Day!
- Taco Tuesday. $1 tacos at the Inn and deadly margaritas at Cabana. You don't know just how strong the margs are until they hit you like a freight train.
- Sunday Funday. Followed by hangover Monday.
- To go along with Sunday Funday: Ricky Roach at Minns.
- Polar Bear Plunge. Until you get thrown in. Didn't know there was a rule stating it doesn't count if you don't get your hair wet.
- J.R. sushi at 1am.
- The 2 kids at J.R. sushi.
- Block parties(except Delaware doesn't have one! WTF).
- All the bartenders.
- 24 hour bagel(even though they don't toast their bagels).
- Indiana beach.
- Watching football at the Inn(these New Yorkers really get into their football).
I'm sure I'm forgetting other things that make LB such an awesome place, but this is all I can think of when I'm suffering from some major ADD.
Irish Day! Awesome LB holiday.
Freezing our asses off after jumping into the ocean on a February day.
Watching the Jets game at the Inn.
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