my thoughts take me for a walk

i like the idea that we can go on walks and then tell each other about them. i am blogging today to share some photos from another delightful walk i took about a month ago in north burlington, on the way to a cafe i don't like that much. i was going to meet a friend and do some work there, which i was really happy about, but the cafe itself is just too modern and clean for me. it is too shiny and full of cute plants. the average cafe is not dark enough in my opinion. it does not have enough art. cafes can be bright, but the light should come from windows or warm lamps. not (please god!!!) neon wall lights meant for instagram photoshoots. i like to think that i hate a limited number of things, but i do alas hold hate in my heart and being for: ugly fonts, my enemies, jd vance going skiing a few miles from my workplace this very moment, and those neon fucking wall lights!!!

this morning, i've been sitting in bed eating pretzels. i hope that today will be an interesting day. i have great romantic ambitions of finishing the movie Night on Earth, going to the Y, working on an art project, catching up in my journal. 

like all interesting days full of great romantic ambitions, this one has started off modestly, in that i have been laying in bed on my computer deleting thousands of old emails. this is actually a very fun and satisfying task. satisfying because sometimes you find a search term, like "appointment reminder" or "urban outfitters" that pulls up twenty or forty or a hundred emails at once that you can instantly delete in one big group. it is also fun because sometimes you rediscover old emails that are little signposts of your life when it was 2014 and you made a tumblr account, or when your peers started a big google+ chat about typing your name with your chin:

lizzy --
try to type your name with
normally:
your nose:
elbow:
eyes closed:
your chin:
NO CHEATING!! Buzz   Jun 23, 2011

Sabby rina --
wqh rcfjj n98junq
sab rfiknaz
sabhgruijnjhqw2
sabrina Jun 23, 2011

Sunny -- 
sunny
wwsju hhh
dsdu8iny
sunny
zxjuhy nn hgy Jun 23, 2011

Sunny -- This is really wierd   Jun 23, 2011

Ramya -- ikr   Jun 23, 2011

Sunny -- Are u really on gmail because it is not showing here.   Jun 23, 2011

Ramya -- I'm invisible, so I'm on, but it looks like I'm off.   Jun 23, 2011

Leah -- ?????   Jun 23, 2011

Leah -- Leah
Leah
Leah
Leah!!!!   Jul 7, 2011

Sabby rina -- wat about ur chin   Jul 7, 2011

Maceh -- leah i find it hard to believe you can hold down the shift button and the 1 button down with your chin at the same time   Jul 7, 2011

Ramya – i'm gonna try again, lol
ramya
ramyqa
rfAmya
ramya
rzmnya   Jul 17, 2011

Emily ! -- Good try Ramya. Your close in all of them!   Aug 7, 2011

i feel such sentimentality about this conversation and its existence in the strange digital junk drawer that is my email account. in honor of these funny eleven and twelve-year-olds, i submit the following:

ephemmmera --
emma
emma
wem ma
emma
dsm msa
<3   Mar 1, 2025

also a very fun somehow related thing happened recently: a burlington friend (t) shared a substack article with me, called "in defense of living vicariously: or, why i want to know what's in your bag." it is literally written by the one and only very same Ramya who is featured in that historic Google+ chat, and who it turns out is an absolutely gorgeous writer.

and speaking of email and gorgeous writers, i have enjoyed slowly unsubscribing from all the nonsense marketing emails i usually get, and turning my inbox into something that feels like more of a digital mailbox. that means that i get to delight at the occasional, unexpected arrival of poetry written by a craftsbury friend (lu), and also a few other newsletters and blog post updates, and emails from friends.

also: tomorrow, in honor of analog sunday*, i have decided that i will refrain from using my phone the entire day. so i am telling everyone to please email me instead, or show up at my house, if something important (or fun) is happening.

ok. i think it is finally time to share the photos from my walk a month ago:

a strip of light

a tiny baby in the window

i loved all the colors of this house and porch

i also thought this pumpkin was awesome and creepy

and this nest (not creepy just cool)

and this tree and the van in front

i almost didn't see this bell. i also loved seeing the telephone lines move through my field of vision with me as i walked

three yellow flags and a weird yellow smoking truck in the back.

a front yard near the lake

two frogs in the snow

a girl with her arm missing

a softball and a purple wheelbarrow

a craaaaazy plant

frost on the windshield of a car

two dogs in a house

on the way home from the cafe after doing some work, that fateful day in january, i bought some nepali soup dumplings and called my friend on the phone. i haven't done this since but i keep thinking about the dumplings because they were so good and the broth was soooo good! so maybe i will buy soup dumplings again this weekend. or maybe not. it would be nice to though.

<3

what is a nice walk you went on recently? and also, 

try to type your name with
normally:
your nose:
elbow:
eyes closed:
your chin:

NO CHEATING!!

*analog sunday: to be the subject of a different blog post..... :-)