95th st / 96th st
4.88 miles
Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
'Cause you don't love me anymore
the end of the world, skeeter davis
the world did feel like it was ending a little bit this week.
i walked fast today, racing against the sun, which now sets at 4:44pm. dreadful, but this past week has been glorious (in terms of the weather). fall has decided to stay in new york for a while longer, and being the californian that i am, i have at least a hundred pictures of orange leaves on my phone. the seasons have yet to get old, nor do i expect them to anytime soon.
walking on a friday afternoon means many children and many dogs. i saw babies today, too, and my heart hurt a little. the playgrounds are full these days, normal-looking except for the older kids mostly wearing masks. parents have become more relaxed… parents are tiring. i see little kids bump into each other and fall on top of one another.
my apartment mate has been away this week, but i am more lonely walking outside than i have been alone in my room the past couple of days. it feels like a while since i have last talked to somebody who does not exist in my phone, though it hasn’t really been that long.
i’ve felt distant from … friends? myself? God? this week, but i think that is just a side effect of being a bit overwhelmed. i keep checking instagram and deleting the app. i neglect texts and sometimes wonder what would happen if i just put my laptop and phone in a box for a while. i am attached to my phone and utterly dependent on it.
the sights of today: a father pushing a stroller; sweet little children dawdling on the sidewalks; yellow cabs yellow buses; nannies (all women of color, all of the colors) and their children (curly haired white cherubim); an elegant chess set spotted through a window (i watched most of the queen’s gambit yesterday and quite enjoyed); a stick-and-bones tweenage girl walking her dog, as well as all of the dogs in new york it seemed; baseball, tennis, basketball, dance; a man hanging from a tree; a woman lying in the fallen leaves; a man playing air drums while riding a city bike; ‘2021, though, 2021’ i overhear; squirrels chasing each other through crackling foliage; a little girl with matching red gingham pinafore, headband, and mask; a TURTLE (stare hard at the blue below); a lime green ipod shuffle (remember those?); a man staring out of a half moon window (i may have stared up at him for too long); a mother cooking, also spotted in a golden window; a delivery man attempting to reach the deliveree upstairs; nurses (or doctors) in blue scrubs (thought of you, dad); nuts4nuts (is so much cheaper up here than it is in times square); street vendors closing up shop; bikers trying to run me over in central park (thought of you, nino).
today’s walk was mostly an excuse to meander through central park. the east end of 96th was interesting; it’s not quite upper east side definitely not harlem yet either… but something in between.
p.s. i have walked 91.16 miles! which means i am almost exactly on track with what i planned (10 miles per week). sometimes i do count parts of walks in the park, though, so in the end i will end up walking more than 508 miles (hopefully).
p.p.s. the month of november is the top of a rollercoaster, so thoughts will be shorter these weeks.