Walking the dog

Today I went for an afternoon stroll with my best friend.  We walked and she sniffed stuff while I breathed in the fresh September air.

Walking the dog is good for me.  I'm not just talking about the physical parts (although I do become quite winded if there is a slight slope), I am talking about the social aspects.  Walking the dog reaquaints me with normal society.  I walked past an elderly woman who was suspiciously out on her porch.  She greeted me as if I were any other ordinary person.  She didn't know my secret.  Another woman smiled as I walked past her minivan and said a kind "Hello".

When I'm walking the dog on a Sunday people assume that I am a nice person who has things to do during the week.  They don't know that I walk the dog every day at about the same time and it is a highlight to my life.

I also experienced the joy of youth.  As I walked, there were three kids racing on the sidewalk on their scooters.  One of the kids, a nerdy kid with glasses, happily exclaimed two things that actually made me laugh out loud and I am pretty sure he heard me.  I fear that these two things will not be funny if included in this blog but I will write the two quotes anyway.

In order to appreciate what the child said, I need to set it up properly.  The nerdy kid was racing two girls that were significantly smaller and younger looking than him.  He had the biggest smile on his face as he rode down the sidewalk at a speed which a grandmother could easily outrun.  First he said:

"So long suckers!"

This caught me completely off guard.  First, because he was taunting little girls and second because he used that exact phrase.  I did a small chuckle but it was his next proclamation that made me sputter at an embarrassingly loud level.

"I've never felt so alive!"

The way in which he said this was full of passion and pure joy.  I knew that in that moment, this exclamation was completely sincere.  He had never felt so alive.  Sure he was only probably 8 years old and he was going 1 mph, but it didn't matter.

I probably shouldn't have laughed so hard and long and loud.  Kids say the darndest things.  Especially when they are nerds.