Me: Eden, since it is Mother's Day, can you give me the chills (as she got into my bed this morning)?
Eden: But I am not your Mother.
Happy Mother's Day to Everyone. Special Mother's Day wishes to the best Mother and Mother-In-Law a girl could have. I love you both.
After realizing that the weather isn't going to stay spring-like for much longer, and that both my metabolism and my mental well-being were in great need of exercise I decided to take a short walk this evening around the neighborhood.
Living in the same neighborhood I grew up in is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I know the streets like the back of my hand. I know which houses to avoid if I don't want to run into an overly friendly old lady *or* an overly angry barking dog. I know who usually puts on their sprinklers come the first day of spring and who is sure to have a skateboard lying on the sidewalk to trip me. I can wave at people who have known me since I was a child and I can feel confident that I truly belong on the pavement I walk on.
On the other hand, part of me wants to be able to walk and escape into a far away place. I don't want to think too hard or get caught up in memories. To me exercising is a way to move beyond the trivial aspects of every day life or the annoyances of my past. Unfortunately because I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in, I can't escape when I walk around it. Every piece of land my feet touches holds a memory. I walked over the bridge that was the first place my parents let me go to unsupervised to meet friends...it was also the same place where I had my first "Peter Brady Experience"(the same day as the unsupervised walk) of not having my friends show up. I walked passed my childhood best friends' house and marveled how we have both grown up and how we are both so similar and so different to how we thought we'd end up. I walked passed the bush that almost poked my eye out when I was a little child. I walked passed the house where I remember getting a bee sting and not saying anything until my mother came to pick me up several hours later.
All in all, living in the same neighborhood I grew up in: Good or Bad? I don't know. I'll let you know in 30 years.