i had an adventure.
sundays they close the
deli, meaning i'm here for
eight hours and
starving when i get home. that, or i get into my car and drive somewhere. but
the evergreen state college is set way way back
in the woods and to drive is to spend twenty minutes (minimum) there and back. crucial to the equation -
cost benefit analysis - is the knowledge that once my car heats up, the
transmission begins to fail. it heats up in about 20-30 minutes, depending on how
hot it is and whether there are hills on the path i take. arrrgh.
thus, i turn to my colleague and say, 'i'm going on my
break. i may be gone a while; i'm going to walk to
exxon.'
he stares,
dumbfounded. 'you're going to walk. to exxon.'
'yep.'
'it's a
long way to exxon.'
'eh.. if i get
tired, i'll turn around.' lie. i'm too
stubborn for that. and i have nothing to look forward to at work. at least walking, i'll be engaged in some
activity besides
this. not that this isn't
fascinating. but
it's a gorgeous day.
i walked past the
apartments on the other edge of
campus and felt wonderful. it became almost immediately
silent, except for
the chirping of birds and maybe frogs. the
gravel on the road (overhulse) was fresh and hadn't been smushed into the tar yet. i could kick the
fog lines (loose pebbles painted white) out into the middle of the road if i wanted to.
i saw
women with dogs and old men on bicycles, but for a long time no cars. mostly, i was the only person anywhere. trees lined both sides of the road, but through them there were
fields full of purple
flowers and white flowers and
dandelions and
buttercups and other plants i'd hate if i had
allergies. the grass was waist-high and in the subtle breeze it whispered poetry.
butterflies and
dragonflies flew up from the ground seconds before i would have crushed them, causing me to mistake them for pebbles i'd kicked into the air by accident. and i walked past brush eight feet high and caught the
nostalgic smell of
blackberries grown warm in the sun.
i've always walked. it's what i do. when i was young, it was my only
recreation, when i was a teenager, it was
exercise, when i was a little older it was my
time to think because
motion is good for that. and i've gotten good at it, over so many years. not that i walk in a
perfectly straight line or my feet hit the ground exactly the same way (my steps are very
uneven), but i walk quickly without getting winded, despite being a smoker, and my
stamina is high. i must have walked a
mile, or a little more. perhaps even two? i'm not sure. my colleague says it's between three and four, but i don't think he means the
back roads.
eventually i got scared, because i'd never been where i was and was certain that by that time i ought to have
intersected with something. and my shoes are cheap and worn and were
blistering my heels. for the first time in a while, i felt
sweat drip down my back and the thought of how i would stink when i went back to work made me uncomfortable (though i don't smell too bad, as long as i keep my jacket on). i got to the
golf course and felt safe, knowing where i was, finally.
and the exxon came into view and i got my
paltry snack foods and a large large bottle of water. i realized i had a dull
headache and that trying to walk all the way back would do me
grievous injury. so i walked out to the
main road (evergreen parkway) and waited for the
bus, which came and was
cool and would have been
relaxing, had the driver known what she was doing.
i came back to work and my coworker looked at me like i was
nuts.