Seaside Heights is a community sitting on the Atlantic Ocean and the Barnegat Bay and is aobut fifteen minutes from my home. They’re having free movies on the beach this summer. Two special movie events are also planned. Here’s the schedule, copied from the Seaside Heights PR blog.

07/11 -  Back-to-back triple feature Amityville Film Festival, featuring all 3
franchise movies filmed in Toms River: The Amityville Horror, Amityville II: The Possession, and Amityville 3-D The Demon. Raindate Sunday July 13th.

08/16 - Madonna Birthday Party and Film Festival. At 6:30pm cake and refreshments will be served in honor of Madonna’s fiftieth birthday. A special triple feature of Madonna films including Desperately Seeking Susan, Evita and Swept Away will follow. A Madonna look alike contest will be held. In case of inclement weather events will be moved into the Seaside Heights Community Center.

Children friendly nights (Thursdays)
07/17: Muppet Movie
07/24: E.T.
07/31: Uncle Buck
08/07: Annie
08/14: Bee Movie
08/21: Harry Potter #1
08/28: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Kids over 13 night (Sundays):
07/20: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
07/27: Talledega Nights
08/03: Jaws
08/10: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
08/17: Grease
08/24: Apollo 13
08/31: Gone With The Wind

All movies start at dusk at the Hiering Avenue beach. If weather interferes the movie will be rescheduled to a different night as soon as possible if it’s possible to reschedule. Check the Seaside Heights PR blog for updates.

If you’re a gambler and live in New Jersey you’ll be glad to hear this news. Law was passed yesterday that states casinos and racetracks will not be forced to close if the state government ever has a shutdown as it did in 2006. In 2006 a state government shutdown forced casinos to close for three days, which caused the casinos an estimated loss of about $55 million. The law now allows casinos to regulate themselves on a temporary basis if state inspectors are not available. State inspectors are not considered essential personnel so they don’t work during a government shutdown. Under the new law if certain laws are broken the governor could order the casino to close and fines of up to 10 times the normal amount would be issued.

It’s a bug museum. Ewwwwwwww. I actually got a flyer in the mail that a place called Insectropolis has opened on Route 9 in Toms River, the next town over. Their goal is to be the premier insect learning center in South Jersey. Insectropolis features 12 exhibit rooms that offer touch screen computer games, hands on exhibits, touch stations, live and dry displays, and a bug store. Insectropolis is owned by the owners of a local termite and pest control company. My eleven year old thinks it’s cool. I think it’s gross.

I got up at 4am this morning and took my parents to Newark Airport. Newark takes less than an hour to get to. They were going to Florida, then Indiana, then back to Florida, then home again. My parents seem to always be going somewhere. Even when they’re home they’re always going somewhere. They frequently take trips to other parts of New Jersey as well as other nearby states.

(map from Wikipedia)

I’m a Jersey girl, born and raised. I have lived in New Jersey for my whole life except for a period of two miserable years spent in New Hampshire. I live in Brick Township, which is in Ocean County, NJ. The county is the second largest in the state. My home is about an hour south of New York City NY , an hour east of Philadelphia PA and less than an hour away from Atlantic City.

Brick Township has a total area of approximately 32 miles . A little more than 18% of that is water. Brick has the second largest population in the county after Toms River, which is the next town over.

In 2003 and 2004, Brick was ranked as the second safest city in the US. In 2005, Brick was ranked the fifth safest city in the US. In 2006 Brick was awarded the title of America’s Safest City out of 371 cities nationwide in the13th annual Morgan Quitno survey. City was defined as having a population over 75,000.