I walked in to work this morning, for the first time since I moved. One of the things I knew I would like about the new place is the garage/free parking, because it means I don’t have to park in a damned city-owned lot anymore. However, today was the first time I actually got out of bed and got ready fast enough to have time to walk.

Or so I thought.

Turns out that walking takes all of 5 minutes more than driving from where I live now, so really I don’t have an excuse. Good to keep in mind for the future (when I will undoubtedly run late again).

But I thought this would be a good idea – wear my Nike cross-trainers on the walk, and carry my dressier shoes with me. I have a couple pair that I only wear to work, so I’m thinkin it’ll work just as well to leave my shoes here and change when I get in. Sitting at my desk changing my shoes at the start of the day does make me feel like Mr. Rogers, of course. Maybe I should start wearing sweaters every day, too. Hmm…

Something else that goes along with this walking in: I am a member of a culture that seems to require a soundtrack at all times, so like everyone else that walks anywhere these days, I packed my CD player (most of you have an iPod, this I know) and earbuds so I could listen to tunes during the walk. Really didn’t seem to be worth it to me. Maybe it’s the short length of the walk, or the fact that I never really was one of those people, but I walking in silence seems just as agreeable to me.

If you ask me, there’s an extent to which being plugged in to your music player all the time is a way of saying, “Hey world, piss off—I’m busy…” But hey, whatever you wanna do… I give myself three days or so of this walking with music before I tire of it.

However, if you do need to walk somewhere and must have music to do it, I would highly recommend Wilco’s ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.’ Seems quite conducive to an average walking pace…

Oh, and I googled my route-by-foot to work to see if the Googlators would do the same thing as me. They’re going all the way up to Algoma for some damn reason, but I changed it a little with a highlighter. In case you’re interested.