A Great Walk Almost Home

True, I am tired after work. My feet hurt. I want to hop on the subway at the stop a few blocks from my restaurant.

I usually don’t. Why not?

I like to walk.

But Restaurant Gal, you are on your feet all day? Why would you want to walk after work?

* To keep my girlish figure.

* To get air in my lungs.

* To decompress after work.

* To marvel at the honeysuckle, roses, and the myriad perennials that bloom in small patches disguised as gardens in the middle of the city.

Not necessarily in that order.

I have about five routes I can walk. But I generally stick to two. Most often, I take the one that heads toward a bus stop on a route that drops me two blocks from home. (I have to carefully time this, or I miss the rush-hour schedule and it comes only once every half hour.)

The bonus of my walk occurs when out-of-the-ordinary sights present themselves.

Today I saw the following:

* Two exotic birds perched on stands, tied to nothing, screeching away, as their owner watched them from her front stoop. Neighbors, school kids, and workers on their way home all stopped to see these colorful creatures.

* One cat being walked on a leash, who actually looked like a well-trained dog, given the way she confidently pranced down the sidewalk.

* A set of quads being pushed in a specially-designed stroller. I don’t know if they were all boys or all girls or a combination, but they were so tiny and cute–and their mom (or caretaker?) looked beyond exhausted.

* A bizarre shrine set up on a concrete bench on the sidewalk of a bridge that overlooks a ravine in between two apartment buildings. It consisted on two propped-up random photos of nothing recognizable, one tarnished silver baby spoon pointing southeast, some blank papers in front of the spoon, and–this is the kicker–a St. Patrick’s Day button from the first restaurant ever opened in my company’s group, dated 1970. I was so tempted to snatch it. Was it a sign? If so, of what?

Geez, now I wish I had taken that button. My GM and his boss wouldn’t believe it.

So, yes, I love my walks. And today was one of the best.

Although in the end, I did miss my bus, it started to rain, and I had to lug two bottles of wine, a rotisserie chicken, and other miscellaneous groceries a fair distance down the road from the liquor store and grocery store to home.

But that button….