Disguised Alley Stealth-walk

Today was my first "weekend" day. I worked the past five days at the brewery, which is fun, but exhausting with the commute and standing on cement floors all day. I went to Jen's house this afternoon, after a long morning and early afternoon full of lolling about the house. I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning, and couldn't go to sleep again for another few hours. Then I sat on the couch and read all morning til I couldn't handle the encroaching sleepiness and went back to bed for the third time. My day started in earnest at 1 p.m.--that didn't leave me much time to be productive.

I was overly optimistic about the weather when I walked to Jen's place, and didn't take a jacket with me--and I was wearing flip-flops. It was getting dark by the time I left, and the weather had turned very windy and cold, so she loaned me a baby-blue jacket to wear on the way home. Those of you who know me well know that this is not a color I normally choose to adorn my person. Pastels in general tend to make me cringe. However, it was kind of a liberating experience wearing her jacket home. I felt like I was in disguise wearing something so out of character for me. Nobody knew who I was! Maybe I was on a secret mission for the FBI. Could happen. Because it was so cold, I walked almost the whole way home through the alleys. Somehow, all the two-story apartment buildings in the neighborhood are clustered around alleyways, which forms a nice windblock for chilled women walking home in baby-blue jackets.

Here are a few impressions from today's excursion: Walking by a house with an open front door, I heard the reception of a woman who had evidently just gotten home; almost drowning out her affectionate voice was the maddened scrabbling of two large dogs' nails on hardwood floors and a symphony of joyous whining and barking. And then, bordering one of the alleys in a nondescript and humble spot, was a narrow strip of cement with the imprints of several leaves in it. Accidental art.

Only one thing infringed upon my happiness of walking home at dusk with the wind at my back and the darkening sky laced with wispy orangey pink clouds: walking down the alleys (Struttin' down the alley...) made that Stray Cats song stick in my head the entire way home and it is still there...Singin' the blues, while the lady cats cry.