On a weekend in September, a friend had invited me to adventure with her casually in Malibu. But, when Saturday rolled around, I was tired. I just … COULD … NOT! Even as my heart said: GO! My body said: No.
But on Sunday, I awoke refreshed, and I wanted to adventure. So I opened my Yelp app and found two coffee shops of interest. My plan was to walk to one, then rest. Then walk to the other and rest. Then walk home. Overall, the trip would be about 4-5 miles.
I started off around 10 am and found much of interest. Being on foot means that you notice things more, and those things are also more tangible. Because you feel them on your skin. You hear them. You smell them. The ground against your feet. The heat of the sun. The sweat on your nape. The leaves that brush against you.
Also, you interact with others on their foot journeys. A nod to a bicyclist. Smiles to drivers at corners.
Your neighborhood becomes more than buildings. There are the firefighters playing racketball. The little girl in a puffy white skirt engrossed in a video but standing right in the middle of the sidewalk.
I walked for an hour until I got to my first location, which happened to be located in the community center of a mosque. It’s open to the public, and I had an iced latte. To order, you used a kiosk, and I had to wait patiently while two tweens kept adding to their snack pile of candy bars and chips. Then I sipped my coffee and read Roberto Bolaño’s Antwerp, which is …. basically or so it seems snippets of thoughts that have affected his overall fictional universe. Really, a perfect read.
Then, I got a call from my mother who asked if I’d help her buy a new computer. So she came to pick me up. First, we stopped at my second coffee shop. It’s not so much a shop as a place to buy beans. Then, we adventured from Target to the Apple Store on the hunt for her new device.
The day ended very far from where I thought I’d be. But hey, isn’t that life?