Walk 4 of 5 — Week of September 13: Nostalgia and Great Music

Sometimes a walk turns into a little trip down memory lane.

Today was Walk 4 of 5 for the week, and apparently my soundtrack decided we were going to take the scenic route through several decades of my life.

I headed out this morning with my coffee tumbler, my ridiculous Medusa shirt, my cassette tape earrings, and a playlist that bounced all over the place. Rodney Atkins came on with “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)”—one of my absolute favorite songs—and honestly, everybody needs an anthem like that.

Sometimes life gets tough.
You just keep on truckin’.

That pretty much sums up my philosophy these days.

I made my usual Starbucks trek, where I got my coffee and my beloved egg bites (because YES, they are protein 😂), and I got to see Anna, one of my favorite baristas. It was good to see her back at the usual Starbucks.

On the way home, I noticed all kinds of little things that made the walk more interesting: a crowd waiting outside the newly opened Verizon store, cactus flowers and prickly pears, a beautiful eucalyptus trees providing a little shade, and my favorite neighborhood pine tree.

I call that particular tree The Aquanet Tree.

Why?

Because it’s wonderfully floofy, and if you take a selfie with it behind your head, it gives you instant 1980s hair. 😂

And today, with my Medusa shirt—which features a bubble-gum-chewing Medusa with hot-pink snakes for hair—I decided that perhaps I’ve found my official Bad Hair Day Shirt.

It was certainly appropriate by the time I got home.

Because while the temperature wasn’t that terrible, the Arizona sun was absolutely determined to cook me. By the end of the walk, my shirt looked like it was experiencing a minor flood.

But I made it home.

And that’s what matters.

This walk also had me thinking about younger me. Earlier today I posted a side-by-side photo of fifth-grade Christy and current Christy with a little message to that kid:

We didn’t become a runway model.
We did a Dillard’s ad.
We took some cool pictures.
We raised a family.
We played a ridiculous amount of pinball.
We built a website.
And we’re still out here taking pictures of ourselves and our cats while walking to Starbucks.

Still counts. Always. 💜

And then, because apparently nostalgia wasn’t finished with me yet, I found myself thinking about my first pinball machine: a Bally Fireball that my uncle moved into my mom’s garage after his fiancée decided the giant devil artwork absolutely did not belong in the house.

My Pinball Origin Story

So while the adults were debating the theological implications of a cartoon devil on a pinball machine, kid-me was learning to flip, trap the ball, and keep it alive.

Turns out that was the beginning of the Silverballs part of my life.

Funny how the little things stick with you.
A song.
A tree.
A childhood memory.
A pinball machine in a hot Arizona garage.
A cup of Starbucks.
And a walk that gives you enough time to remember all of it.

Walk 4 of 5: done.

Walk Receipts