Complex Numbers

Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ

...or close enough. Can't resist the Springsteen reference.

I'm just here overnight, and then it's back to NYC for a couple of days before I head home.

I really like beach towns in the winter. Well, to clarify, I despise winter. Too cold. But yesterday wasn't that cold, so I actually spent a couple of minutes (shudder) outdoors. Not walking on the beach, though. I hate walking on the beach no matter the season. You know how everyone's dating profile says "loves long walks on the beach?" Not mine. Well, if I had one, it wouldn't contain that line. There's not much that annoys me more than sand in my shoes. Walking on a New Jersey beach barefoot isn't recommended, either. In the winter, it's too cold; in the summer, it's too hot; and in every season, it's too used-needly.

Still, beach-adjacent is pretty cool. Last night was just a day after a full moon, which means that to a casual observer, it might as well be full. Also being a full moon, it hovered above the Atlantic after rising, and honestly, if you've never seen the moon reflected on the ocean, you haven't lived. Often known as the Wolf Moon, it's not, as most sources assert, necessarily the full moon of January, but the first full moon after the solstice. Didn't look like a wolf, though. Just looked like a moon.

One thing I particularly enjoy about beach towns in the winter is that restaurants tend to be less busy—the ones that stay open, anyway. It's more relaxed, fewer tourists (I'm not a tourist; I'm a visitor), and even if the food isn't as fresh, at least it's prepared with more care. Sometimes, if you're really lucky and hit it at just the right time, you're the only one there.

The one we went to yesterday, though, was damn near packed. Disappointing. Food was still delicious; it's been a while since I've had linguini with clams, and what better place than the shore? Well, okay, there are probably better places to eat seafood than the Jersey Shore, such as "anywhere else." I've even had good sushi in Iowa, and that's almost as far from the ocean as it's possible to get in North America. Anyway, whatever; it was good and barely tasted like mercury at all.