On walking unfamiliar streets

One of the strangest recurrent sensations I have is this: When I walk down an unfamiliar street in town, I am often hit with the feeling that I could be living in a foreign country, that I might be residing in a town 1,000 miles away from my true home. I don’t know what this means. Sometimes it feels a little like déjà vu. Or as if I were walking through a set in some film I have already seen.

I like this sensation, inexplicable as it is. It is one of the surest ways that I think my brain tells me: You are on your own now.

♦ ♦ ♦

Things I have recently gotten into:

1. Italian mineral water.
2. Looking up words in the physical dictionary.
3. Twitter.
4. Keeping a planner (even though Google Calendar sometimes makes me feel redundant).
5. Reading children’s books out loud with Guion (currently: A Series of Unfortunate Events).
6. Wearing heels to work.

♦ ♦ ♦

This warm weather is freaking me out a bit. I love warm weather, but it is not supposed to be 70°F in Virginia in January. I’ve taken advantage of it, though, by walking Pyrrha at night when I get home. We see the neighbors, we stalk the cats, we daydream about houses that we’ll never be able to afford. Last night, another German shepherd almost jumped out of a truck window after us. Pyrrha paused and looked at him and I think she said, “Hello, distant relative. Bring it on.”

Horticultural learning curves

Inherited perennial beds.

How I have changed since moving to our mini-homestead:

1. I am no longer as bothered by bugs. There are seemingly a million different types of insects who reside in our fertile backyard (as in, slugs wearing the coats of leopards). Many of them often make their way into our home. Stink bugs, my former archenemies, are now low on the list of my concerns. I swear there are ten times as many insect varieties in Virginia as there were in North Carolina. Some of these bugs are so exotic-looking. We dug up the wild bed of mint last weekend and found cicada larvae, which are supremely creepy and ghost-like. We find brilliantly colored beetles, giant ants with wings, wasps the size of small mice. The yellow swallowtails that visit the butterfly bush (featured above) are the only ones who make me happy, though. Pyrrha is also our resident moth huntress in the evenings. While I have no particular problem with moths, I do enjoy watching her stalk them.
2. I want to go walking all the time, all day long, particularly now that I have a perpetually eager walking companion. Our early morning walks are the best, because the streets are quiet and the heat isn’t oppressive yet. We are still exploring this new area of town. Every new street makes me feel like I’m in a foreign country. This morning, we saw a hunky German shepherd walking a balding man and a rainbow hot air balloon dipping low over the street, gliding down through the neighborhood, looking as if it were about to land on our house. Pyrrha was as interested in it as I was; she’d stop and pause to watch it every so often.
3. I don’t read as much. This is a shame. I am trying to figure out how to amend this, but I don’t think I can keep up with my former pace. I am ambling through Proust, picking through Joyce, rushing through Covey.
4. I like sleeping without the A/C on, to a certain extent. It’s like a game. Almost every night now, we ask each other, “Can you sleep without the A/C on?” And the other replies, “I can if you can.” (The dog, however, is a diva and hates the heat. Could have something to do with her full fur coat. I don’t know.)
5. I don’t spend a fortune on berries anymore, because we grow all of the ones I’d want to eat anyway. Yes. That was not a humble brag; it is a full-out brag. (But one we can’t take credit for; all glory due to our landlord, the gardening goddess.)
6. I feel more grown up somehow.
7. I never want to go anywhere anymore.

Good things? Bad things? Qui sait? But they are things.

Week 12: Daily walks

In honor of my sister Grace, I am imposing a set of weekly challenges on myself. For 12 weeks, I will attempt a different “challenge” each week–to do one thing every day for seven days, ranging from serious to silly. At the end of each week, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Walking around town.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve completed twelve weeks of challenges. They’ve ranged from serious to silly, but they have all been fun and often enlightening. I’ve learned a lot of little facts about myself and about my process of making and following ritual. Some of the challenges have been incorporated into my daily life and I hope I’ll continue some of them in the future.

For this final week, I wanted to take a stroll. Now that we’ve skipped spring and gone straight into summer, a week of daily walks has been really enjoyable, if occasionally sweaty.

If I was a good blogger, I would have taken pictures from all of these walks, but I’m not, so you’ll just have to deal.

DAY 1.
Guion and I walked downtown to meet our Bible study friends Mark and Christina for Chap’s ice cream on the Downtown Mall. It was a hot and breezy afternoon and a little cup of Chap’s made it feel like heaven. I love strolling around the Mall and we walk there often. It’s less than a 10-minute walk from our apartment and it’s always packed with dogs. What’s not to love?

DAY 2.
I had to do some research for my boss at SNL Financial, which is also downtown. I parked the Jeep at our place and then walked over. Got there a bit early, so I strolled around the blocks behind the building and looked at all of the historic houses that now feature the offices of real estate agents or lawyers.

DAY 3.

Watching "Gosford Park" with my bestie.

My weekly walk with Bo turned out to be something of an exhilarating misadventure. I head over to Liz’s to pick him up and we chat about how silly it is that her team’s soccer game was canceled because of a thunderstorm/tornado warning. Yeah, absurd. I walk Bo downtown and we’re having a fine time until I feel a spattering of rain. Then I look at the sky. It is not gray. Or dark blue. It is black. Slate. Full of doom. Bo and I then run–sprint!–across the Belmont Bridge and make it back to my front porch right before the sky bursts open. We had amazingly good timing, because a second after we got inside… thunder, lightning, torrential rain, minor flooding, wind howling, the whole deal. Thankfully, Bo isn’t thunderstorm-phobic (like Emma was) and so he chilled with me in our apartment. He helped me do the dishes and then started watching “Gosford Park” with me until it cleared up enough to take him home. I think he’s the perfect dog. I confessed to Guion and Liz that I am now worried about getting a dog because he or she may not be as amazing as Bo is. I love him.

DAY 4.
Despite starting out rather rough, it turned out to be a very beautiful evening and so I took Bo for another walk. Guion joined me this time and we went wandering through the charming and eclectic Belmont neighborhood. We daydreamed about houses we’d buy and dubious ways we’d coerce current residents to move out and give us their gorgeous homes with manicured lawns and sprawling gardens.

DAY 5.
Guion joined me on a walk to the Downtown Mall to buy cupcakes from Cappellino’s for Cate’s royal wedding princess party. He was a bit astonished at the price of gourmet cupcakes. Aren’t we all.

DAY 6.
Our lovely housemate Hannah joined us on a late morning walk to the Charlottesville farmers’ market. We ended up buying delicious mint tea, baklava, and a babe in the wood, and therefore nothing really healthy or valuable for the rest of the week. Oh well! From there, we wandered over to The Garage, where Stephanie and Emily were hosting a tag sale. Guion went off to brew day for the rest of the afternoon; I went to Mecca, aka Target. When Guion got home, we walked downtown again to eat at Miyako for dinner. Quite excellent, if I do say so.

DAY 7.
Win came! We walked downtown with him and went to church and it was awesome. We’re crossing our fingers that he moves here…

That’s all, folks! It’s been a fun way to welcome spring. To be honest, it will be kind of nice to not worry about weekly goals, but I think I will try to keep some of these habits on regular rotation. Thanks for reading; talk to you soon.

Monday Snax

Angela comes to visit!

Angela came for the weekend and we had a lovely time together, talking, laughing, watching the unbelievably awful trailer for the Will and Kate movie… I wish she could have stayed all week!

Snax with a side of heavily salted fries:

Walk Score. One of the things I love about where we live is that we can walk practically everywhere! Post office, bank, drug store, church, a billion restaurants, you name it; we can walk there in about 10 minutes. This awesome website lets you type in your address and gives you a score on how walkable it is. It also allows you to enter your work address and gives you estimates on how long it would take you to walk or bike to that location. Really excellent resource to keep in mind, particularly as we’re looking for another Charlottesville home in about a year. (Walk Score)

Is Sugar Toxic? Answer: Probably. A terrifying article; it’s a long summary of various studies on the dangerous effects of sugar/glucose/fructose on our bodies. As if I needed yet another reason to keep up this (mostly!) sugar-free Lent challenge… (New York Times)

Ten People We Wished Had Used the Jon Kyl/Kobe Non-Apology. So hilarious. Public figures! They’re idiots and yet they can never be held responsible for what they say because of this new non-apology/”not intended to be a factual statement” clause. Stephen Colbert’s commentary on this was, of course, amazing. (Daily Intel)

You Have to Listen to Donald Trump Talk About Iraq. Are people SERIOUSLY considering this man as a viable candidate for the presidency!? This is just… incredible. (Daily Intel)

Look At It. Seriously. What photographer thought this was a good idea? (Awkward Family Photos)

Five Reasons Keanu Reeves Should Be the Next RoboCop. The. worst. actor. alive. (Best Week Ever)

Taxonomy of Teas. So pretty! So much tea to adore! (Wendy Chan)

Barnes & Noble Classics. Yet another reason why Kindles aren’t that great. (Wolf Eyebrows)

Pierre Trollier and His Tiny Sheepdogs. Even if you don’t like dogs, I dare you to deny that these tiny Pyrenean French sheepdogs are amazing. They’re the size of your average terriers and they OWN these sheep. Just watch that little dog keep a whole flock of sheep stopped at a stop sign. Just do it. (Three Border Collies)

Famous Authors and Their Dogs. Jill Krementz’s collection of photographs of writers and their dogs. (New York Social Diary)

A Girl and Her Room. A stirring and interesting portfolio of teenage girls and their bedrooms. Photographer Rania Matar jumps between Massachusetts and the Middle East and the distinctions–and similarities–are compelling. (Rania Matar)

Thoughts

- The only place you can go on the Internet and not read nasty comments–literally, the ONLY place–is The Daily Puppy. For realz. There are about 200 comments with every puppy and everyone just says a variation of the same thing: “Eeeeeeeee, you are so precious I want to EAT YOU UP!!!” or “OMG you CANNOT be this CUTE!!! LOLZ .” Stuff like that. It’s comforting, in this vitriolic world of totally crazy and aggressive online commenters; dare I say, it is a breath of fresh virtual air.

- Thanks, Twinings! I learned how to pronounce “rooibos” tea. Want to know? It’s “roy-BOSS.” Now I won’t sound stupid when I get it at the Tea Bazaar.

- I want to be friends with the cool girls at work.

- I am going to walk home tomorrow from work. This is because Obama is coming for a visit (stumping for Tom Periello), and all of the roads are going to be shut down near our house. He’s coming to speak at the Pavilion, which we can see from our bedroom window. We want to go hear him, but I’m worried I’m going to miss it. According to Google Maps, it’s going to take me 1 hour and 7 minutes to walk home. Adventure! I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.

- Have I mentioned that I can’t wait to see my family?

- Confession: I probably look at the “Pets” section of Charlottesville Craigslist and/or the Charlottesville SPCA once a week. Just to tempt myself with the love I can’t have.

- Hannah and I talked about Japan last night again at The Local and my longing to return was reinvigorated. I think I’d like to live there for a year. Teach English, maybe? We’ll reevaluate this plan after Guion gets his degree.

- Coworker: Calling yourself Jim Halpert would be inaccurate. We are not that cool.

- Hear me, ye Interwebs: I am NOT PREGNANT.

- I kind of want to be Very Mary Kate for Halloween. Anybody know where I can buy a sweet blond wig?