Please allow me to introduce myself...

Let’s see…wealth? Nope. Taste? Get real.

But I’ve got a connection to Sharon that goes back almost 20 years (ulp!), and she has apparently lowered her standards just enough to let me limbo in under the bar anyway.

I’m Rob Staeger, a longtime friend of Sharon’s, and one of the people who was encouraging her to start this blog—and like anything she does, Sharon went at it with both guns blazing. But you know that.

Sharon and I have a lot of things in common, but there’s one crucial difference (for purposes of this blog, anyway). She’s lived in New Jersey all her life. I only moved here from Pennsylvania a few years ago, and the longest I’ve stayed in one spot since then is…(shuffling though my files to find the mortgage paperwork)…a year and five months. I’m here for the long haul, but the long haul has pretty much just begun.

Sharon knows so much more than I do about local and state politics. That comes with putting down roots in an area, and mine are just an inch deep. I’m afraid that any malfeasants will be able to malfease their malfeasances with impunity while Sharon’s away, although they certainly shouldn’t expect to get away with anything in the long run. She’s not going to Mars or anything.

What I hope to do is offer some snapshots of things I like about living here, and maybe some things that need improvement. And I’ll try not to drop the f-bomb as much as I do at Laughing at the Pieces, since I know Sharon uses it more judiciously than she did in college.

To make a long, plotless story short, I’m pleased as Punch* that Sharon invited me to guest-blog. I’ll try to make it worth your while.

Rob

*And who knew that such an innocent phrase could have such dark origins? Fun!