walking in the city

Part of my class next fall is concerned with wandering around in cities, so it's fitting that I should have spent the last couple of days walking around and around my neighborhood. There's something compelling about watching the blocks go by, especially when I'm headed toward a specific destination -- certain stores or restaurants or just parks to sit in and read. And the weather yesterday was beautiful, mid-70s and partly cloudy, if I may use weather terminology. We ended up walking so far that we were exhausted by dinner time, and ordered take-out Indian food, which we hardly ever do but which was impressively spicy for restaurant vindaloo.

It's likely that in a year from now, I'll be living in an entirely different neighborhood in NY. I've grown familiar with various stops on one particular subway line over the past, say, 4 years, at least, and the possibility is looming ahead that soon, that line won't be "mine" any more, that the food deals and parks and locations of subway exits will have to be learned all over again for a different set of avenues and streets. (It's been very important for a sense of place, I think, that I now know exactly how far down to walk on the subway platform, depending on which stop I'm planning to exit.) So I'm partly reveling in these walks because I know that even though there are always stores opening and closing, or sections of sidewalk being torn up and replaced, I have them almost memorized; I can relax and take in the atmosphere.