alpha! delta! mama!

          My husband had the bright idea a few weeks ago that, if I want to begin to lose my baby weight (six months post-partum), I should, drumroll please, exercise more! How revolutionary, my dear! So, I resolved to take a daily (unless absolutely impossible) walk around my little semi-urban city. In the mile-and-change I cover on my route, I encounter some interesting things, both external sightings and internal musings. These things come up during our regular commutes also, but as a pedestrian I have the opportunity to examine more closely, greet people, and think deeper for longer intervals as I go.
          For one, I notice that pedestrian ettiquette has deteriorated drastically as far as I can observe. I've read fun little news blurbs about the "friendliest" states or cities nationwide, and New York (usually NYC) often ranks dead last when it comes to the usual smile and wave to the passerby. Why is this? I personally tend to be stand-offish and socially analytic but this is usually in the case of first impressions and actual meetings. I like to be pleasant to the person I have no obligation to see or speak to beyond a two-second greeting and see no reason  not to be! I also noticed that the friendliest of my fellow pedestrians (today, at least) were some of the sketchiest looking dudes I've walked past, including a scraggly-bearded old goat with a funny gait and scungey clothes, and a member not of my own race (imagine that!) who was carrying a satchel in a strange way and searching the sidewalk for something he thought he'd dropped from it. Each of these men went beyond the now-common eye contact aversion tactic and greeted me with kind words and smiles as my son and I passed by. That was one thing that I really appreciated about my husband when I first met him; we'd go for walks (we didn't own any vehicles together until a couple years ago!) and he'd smile and greet everyone who passed us! If the person showed any sign of welcoming contact, they'd be treated to his sweet smile and a kind word of passing greeting. Simple as that! I was so amazed by this once basic piece of social behavior that I was moved to do my part and act in kind toward my fellow man. This includes being graceful when someone cuts you off in traffic or bumps your cart (or often, your car) at Wegman's, or in absolutely every instance in which you are a customer being served by another human being. One of these days I could write an encyclopedia's worth of words explaining just why I see no reason to ever be rude to a cashier, restaurant server, hotel worker, DMV clerk, or any other server. No reason whatsoever. But, that's for another day.

An added perk of the daily walk!

          As I went about my way, I was snacking on these funky little "Sea Sprinkles" I found at the store yesterday. Ingredients: Seaweed, Olive oil, Agave syrup, Sesame oil, Sesame seed, Sea salt. Calories per half ounce: 60. Your mouth is watering already, I know. The packet claims its contents are "strangely addictive" and after eating these little clusters, I can see why. This product is an import from Korea, how sensible to capitalize on a wild edible this way! The resource is totally renewable if harvested sustainably, the basic overhead costs must be very low (after all, it's seaweed) and it's a (rare these days) nutritious snack! But then I remembered that if the seaweed was harvested within the past 18 months it's likely to have been exposed to radioactive goodness from the Fukushima meltdown that seems to have disappeared from public memory. Oh, jeeps! Wouldn't it be great if American confectioners introduced lightly-sweetened dandelion leaf or lamb's quarter leaf clusters to the hippie food market? How's that for job creation! If you think outside the box and take a good look at your surroundings, you really can make more out of the components of your natural surroundings than you'd ever considered, and this principle applies to more things than just sweet, kelpy treats.