Monday, September 05, 2005

Confessions of a Benny


I really do feel like I'm in a completely different world, one with its own customs and languages. I'm speaking not just of b-school, but of the east coast in general. For instance, did you know that I am a Benny? A Benny is someone who visits the Jersey shore and is not a local (I guess this would be the opposite of a townie specific to that location). Benny stands for "Bayonne Elizabeth Newark New York", which represent the main points of origin for Benny visitors to the shore. One could argue that being from Philadelphia, we were more accurately "Pennies", but there you are.

We lucked into an unbelievably phat beach house for the weekend. The 70 foot deck was a dream, the hot tub was seldom unoccupied, and the grill was a key component of our overall well-being. The nearby beach (a five block walk) was quite beautiful, even nicer than the one I visited last weekend. There were 10-12 of us staying in the house at any given time, and about 20 more came up for a BBQ we hosted yesterday.

Here are some of my favorite moments:

  • The Jello shot sampler (rank order of flavor preference: 1. Raspberry 2. Blue Mixed Berry 3. Strawberry Kiwi 8. Lime -- which was too disgusting to be ranked above 8th)
  • Being surrounded on the beach by people reading b-school books. The reality of classes is really starting to hit home. I read three chapters of statistics on the sand.
  • Helping to invent the game, "Warm Cup of Tequila".
  • Fun but Weird(tm) Dancing
  • Winning the beach football game
  • Watching a midwestern boy learn how to bodysurf, and then freak out when he realized there were hundreds of jelly fish swimming around us.
  • Spending four hours driving around Long Beach Island to finally realize that there is no supermaket there.
  • Two eggs over easy with extra crispy bacon at "Mr. Breakfast".
  • The WaWa (deserving still of its own post, there's just nothing this store can't do) in Ship Bottom, Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
  • Our new favorite catchphrase, given to us by a visiting outsider. He felt that he wasn't seeing the level of debauchery he expected from a group of 12 mixed-sex single twenty somethings spending a weekend sharing a house. He told his friend that instead of using the 'wah wah' Debbie Downer trombone sound effect, he was going to sing 'whar-ton' to that tune. It's become our new favorite thing to do. And to be fair, he was unaware of the game of "Warm Cup of Tequila" we had going on in the hot tub when he made this judgment.
  • Our neighbors calling the cops on us the first night, and then after we sent over the charm brigade to smooth things over on day 2, they brought us over a case of beer on the second night. No, I was not part of the charm brigade.
  • Pulling in to refuel my rental car in New Jersey and coming to the realization that there is no Self Serve in Jersey.

By the way, I just spent ten minutes trying to find a sound file on the web with the Debbie Downer trombone and failed. What's up, internet?


Below- I am concerned about getting my deposit back given the overcrowding in the hot tub-- AND Julie burned the ribs again..

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who's the dude you're leaning into in the hot tub pic? This must be the stuff of late night phone calls. In any event, looks like the game worked. I'm blushing for Marji's sake.

And what happened to diversity at business school? With the exception of the token Asian female, this could be a slightly older version of the OC. I'm pleased to discover business school isn't getting in the way of a fabulous social life. Enjoy it while it lasts!

12:51 AM  

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