Tonight I took a long walk in my hometown with a good friend. It felt great to get out of the house, talk, laugh, and burn some calories at the same time. She's not originally from here so I enjoyed pointing out landmarks and their importance and smiling to myself at random special places that I remember. As a kid, I rode these same sidewalks on my bike going to the liquor store where they had water balloons for a penny a piece.
We were dressed in yoga pants, sports bras, tank tops, and tennis shoes. I felt freer just by not holding somebody's hand and walking at the pace I wanted.
Just then, an older-looking gentleman in an SUV stopped at the stop sign to let us pass in front of him. I'm pretty sure he sat there a little too long. We continued babbling on about family, church, and whatever when there was another sighting. A guy on a bicycle passed us, nodded, and rang the bell on his bike. It begs the question; does he ride a bike because he lost his license from a DUI?
Although my friend is beautiful, I continued to be amazed that we were drawing such obvious attention. Don't people walk around this town in yoga pants all the time? In fact, don't most people around here wear yoga pants for everything but their own wedding?
It happened several more times. I wondered if we told these people we have seven children between the two of us, would they still be interested. Another older gentlemen on a bike (whose kid I graduated with) smiled rather friendly and three guys in a car yelled out the windows. My personal favorite for the evening however was the two guys on motorcycles who yelled at the stop sign. They said something about watching for three blocks. My friend reminded me that McDonalds is three blocks from there so maybe they were headed there. Unfortunately, they ended their loud comment with "babe!" I don't think boys talk to each other like that.
Is it wrong to smile even if it's false flattery? It made me laugh anyway.
I LOVE your retelling of this event! And although I still say it was YOU, that was causing all the fuss, Charlie is pretty sure it was the combined hotness factor that drove the local boys (ugh, some were men now that I think about it!) to distraction. In any case, the time with you was worth the weird oggling (is that how you spell that word??)
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