Meeting Folks, Murals, Walking-Pains

FRIDAY
The Walk: Around the neighborhood

Length: 12 blocks (about 2 miles)

Duration: 40 minutes

Thoughts: Walking along 1300 East I ran into an acquaintance...slightly more than an acquaintance, because I went to her wedding, but less than a friend and not quite a family member. She was pushing a stroller and walking two dogs...neither the dogs nor the baby were hers, though; she was babysitting. She told me she and her husband were moving to Texas, and I thought about how some relationships work like this: they move along by big events. Last time we saw her was likely at some event (perhaps another wedding) not long after we'd seen her at her wedding (a dreadfully boring one, by the way), and now they are moving along to another place, another time in their life. We are happy enough to see each other on the street and catch up on the big news, and we won't see each other again until the next wedding in the group. As I walked away (or, was dragged away by my two dogs) I thought about how she doesn't really exist in my mind until I see her. She exists only as an occasional update to the software, otherwise she's one of the programs that sit at the back of my hard drive and don't ever emerge on the surface of my screen.

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SATURDAY
The Walk: To a friend's house

Distance: 4 blocks (.6 miles)

Duration: 10 minutes

Thoughts: I want a mural painted on the back of my house. Why? The back of my house is ugly. A big boring slab of gray-green paint, with two glass windows, and three boarded in windows. It is not open, or alive like the back of my parents' house. It does not have any interesting architectural features, like the back of Molly's parents' house. It is drab and boring, and the cheapest way to liven it up, to my mind, is to cover it with bright colors and figures. I think it would make me happy. I think.

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SUNDAY
The Walk: From our house to May and My's house

Distance: 18 blocks (3 miles)

Duration: 1 hour

Thoughts: The heat. The heat. I think it has gotten to my brain already, because during this walk all I did was obsess about the pedometer and getting to 10,000 steps. Such thoughts are too boring to discuss in detail here. Just one thing I'm mulling over...I wish I didn't tire of walking the same route so quickly. I've walked to their house maybe 3 times? I usually walk along 800 East, because it isn't as busy as 7th and 9th, and 10th doesn't go all the way through. Yesterday, I felt bored with 8th, so I cut up to 9th. I guess there's no real problem with that, it's just that if I get sick of things so quickly, I'm going to run out of new routes to walk in my neighborhood. I remember when we moved here last July, the first walks I took were so fun because it was all new terrain (I had grown so sick of every walk in the old neighborhood). Now I'm starting to see the enjoyment tarnish a bit, and I haven't even been walking here a year yet. It just annoys me, is all.