Dean D'Agati (dotcom)

Today I did something new. For the first time since I’ve lived in New York, I actually left the state of New York (other than to go to Florida, of course). Today I went to… NEW JERSEY.

Now, as a New Yorker, I’m pretty much, as Lily from How I Met Your Mother so beautifully describes, “programmed to despise and loath New Jersey and all that it stands for.” See this clip:

…but if you’ve seen that whole episode, you know that Marshall really comes to love New Jersey. See this clip:

I hate to say it but, I actually had a little bit of a Marshall moment today. I don’t by any means hate New York (I mean, come on) but Newport, New Jersey has stuff that Manhattan doesn’t! Like TARGET. I love Target, but what do we have here? K-Mart. Who shops at K-Mart?

And everything is so much cheaper! I got 10 pairs of socks for $10 and sales tax is only 3.5%!! It’s 6% in the FtL, 7% in Miami, and 8.875% in NYC!

There was also this ridiculous mall called Newport Centre that was big and spacious. Just ask Marshall, big and spacious doesn’t exist in Manhattan.

But hey, just because Jersey City (Newport) is nice doesn’t mean I can’t hate the rest of the state. You won’t find me in Newark anytime soon. NYC ALL THE WAY ;)

Check out some more pics below. Click for full size.

*Video clips property of CBS Corporation.

dean Pictures, Text, Videos cheap, hate, how i met your mother, jersey city, love, new jersey, newport, nyc, target

I’ve had this blog for a good ten or eleven months now, and over the past year of writing posts, I’ve always tried to write about things that are genuinely good, things that might interest you, or things that I’m just excited about. I never wanted this to be one of those MySpace, I hate everything and everybody hates me and the world sucks kind of blogs.

But for once, I actually want to talk about something serious.

No, this blog has no pictures, no bold words, nothing hidden in links or emphasized with italics. It’s just what’s been going on lately, and it’s really not all that great.

I’ve learned a lot this week.

One thing I’ve learned is how truly fortunate I am to have friends in my life. I have a lot of friends. And while it may be slightly disappointing that the majority of them are here in Florida and not up in New York where I spend eight months out of the year, I really respect and care for each friend that I make. No matter if you’re in college, you’re in high school, you know me through a friend, you saw something about me online, or anything else, I’m willing to be your friend.

Everyone thinks of friendship in different ways, but I think that a pretty universally accepted idea of friendship is a mutual interest and respect between two people. That’s why when a friend of mine tells me they want to commit suicide, I can’t just let that slide and pretend like it didn’t happen.

This week, I’ve gotten myself involved in some good ol’ Cooper City drama, which over the many years I’ve spent here, I’ve done a good job of staying out of. I lost some friends, and made some new ones, but most importantly, I made an enemy. With emotions running high and the anger building, this newfound enemy began threatening suicide.

Let me tell you this, and this goes for everyone. I don’t care how mad I am at you. I don’t care what you’ve done, what I’ve done, what she said about you or what I said about her. In the long run, it doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out. Let’s get through this together. I may be mad, but I still love you. Corny and cliche as it sounds, if you’re my friend, I love you.

Turns out in my situation this week, everyone’s okay, and we can all start moving on with our lives. But as I reach the end of my teenage years and get closer and closer to adulthood, I’ve learned through this experience and others that everything will always be okay. We can always work it out, and we can always laugh about it later.

dean Text cooper city, friends, life, love, respect, serious, suicide