This Story Starts with Walking

And how I think I should be walking more. I miss walking. I miss living in a city and *having* to walk. And I was feeling really guilty about how little I walk here. I live close enough to things to walk to them but I almost never do it.

And then I read "Walkable City," which everyone should read because it was *amazing,* and I learned all about how distance is only one aspect of walking, you also have to make walkers feel welcome and give them interesting things to look at, etc. Well, there's no sidewalk around my house and it's hilly so the car have no sight lines and came barrelling down making me feel unsafe, so that contributes somewhat to my lack of desire to walk. And then, when there are sidewalks? Apparently people believe their primary purpose is to give them extra space to park their enormous pick-up trucks on.



(I don't know, is that image not working? Whatevs, technology.)

The point is: as a walker? Not feeling very welcome.

But this didn't mean that I don't still miss walking, because I do. I use it as head-clearing space in a way that driving isn't for me. I am endlessly annoyed when I am driving, I do not find it relaxing at all. Fortuitously, I happened upon a park that is less than a mile from my house and has a pleasant walking trail, not too long, just enough to act as a brisk pick-me-up in the mornings. And it's within sight of lots of houses all the time, which I find reassuring, considering all the signs they feel it necessary to tell you that no guns are allowed, NOT EVEN IF YOU HAVE A LICENSE FOR THEM.

So I've been walking a few mornings a week, and to keep me company while I walk, I have started listening to podcasts. I thought I'd listen to music while I walked and plot out stories the way I used to when I lived in cities, but, I don't know, I was craving more structure to my walking. Podcasts are not something I'd ever been able to figure out before. I have lots of friends who listen to lots of them but I don't do iTunes and I couldn't figure out how everyone was finding them, etc. Then a friend introduced me to the concept of Stitcher Radio, which has been eye-opening for me. I poke around their top 100 podcasts until I find one that sounds interesting and not too long. This foolproof method of choosing has resulted in me listening to lots and lots of random podcasts hosted entirely by women, which I of course find fascinating. Is this true across podcasts in general? Is it more female-heavy? Is this because there are fewer barriers to entry so women can actually get a toe in the door?

No idea, but the reason I'm off on this tangent is because I listened to this episode of "Note to Self" the other day. It started out talking about this service called Invisible Girlfriend and then posed the question of whether you can have a relationship based entirely on texting but then there was a point made that so much of online interaction feels shallow that people actually crave deeper online interaction. This struck a chord with me because I had just been part of a fascinating conversation on Tumblr about fan dynamic that we--all of the participants--gave up on because Tumblr is such an impossible platform to have a conversation on. As I've been told many times--and as I understand--that's not supposed to be the point of Tumblr. But I guess I'm wondering: where *do* those deeper online connections happen these days? I hate to be the old person being all "In my day, on LJ, we could have real conversations," but, like, we *could.* No one uses Tumblr for that kind of thing. It doesn't work. I adore Twitter, but 140 characters isn't conducive to serious conversations. So where is it you're supposed to go? Does fandom these days not feel the need to have more in-depth conversations? Are they going somewhere else for them? I'm genuinely curious. I feel like every platform wants to be Facebook; where's the place where the interaction *isn't* Facebook-y?

Random thoughts from me. In other news, I volunteered to be the point person for a pretty crazy intense short-term project at work. I haven't done anything like that in a while. I've kind of just been going along teaching and grading and writing and presenting, and I feel like I've gotten the hang of that. It's been a while since I had to organize a *project.* I was surprised by how much I remembered from law firm days. I was a little annoyed at first because of how it took me a second to get back in the groove of it (guys, I am out of the groove of law firm days. RIGHT?????), but then I got my spreadsheets going and my color-coded e-mail flags organized and the whole thing worked like clockwork right to the deadline and I remembered that, actually, back in the day, I hated every second of it but I was really good at my job. Anyway, the difference between my life now and law firm life is that multiple people--not even people directly involved with my project--stopped by to tell me how impressed they were with what I was doing and they really appreciated me taking it on, etc., etc., and that was nice. TIP FOR ALL THOSE IN MANAGEMENT POSITIONS: THANK YOU IS TWO WORDS, TAKES LESS THEN A SECOND TO SAY, AND MAKES UP FOR SO MUCH. I don't understand what is so difficult to understand about that.

In other other news, I am still crazy insane over "Hamilton" and I have a lot of thinky thoughts about how the South is always the enemy in Revolutionary tales, not England. England never even really figures in "1776," the villain is Rutledge and the Southerners holding Adams hostage, and England is a little bit of comic relief in "Hamilton" while Hamilton has to fight his way against the Southern alliance. It's really fascinating to me. Especially in the week that we have had down here.