Mall Walker

Have you ever seen those red-faced, usually chubby women powerwalking in the mall? I am officially one of them. I take Sam on walks in the mornings, but if he wakes up later than 6:30 it's way too hot and the sun is way too strong to walk outside. I have walked in the mall with Sam in the stroller twice, which is embarrassing, but kind of not-so-bad because I have him with me. It's like an excuse to get the baby out of the house or something. Today, however, I went walking in the mall by myself (after Devin arrived home). I was embarrassed for myself. I caught my reflection in one of the store windows and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle. I had on the Barry reunion tie-dyed shirt, ugly khaki shorts, a baseball cap (so no one would recognize me), and huge headphones. oh man. So this old couple stopped me mid-stride to comment on my speed of walking. Awkward, yes, but they were cute. Since they stopped me I had to take my headphones off so I could hear them. After our little chat I was trying to put my headphones back on, but it was impossible to do so since I was holding a water bottle in one hand (side-note: I heard teenage boys laughing at me as I was trying to put them on one-handed. rude.). So I set my water bottle on the edge of a potted plant by the walkway (it looked stable), and it tipped over, making a huge puddle of water. An employee standing in the doorway of Lenscrafters offered to call someone to clean it up. The teenage boys laughed some more, so I decided to do the remainder of my laps on the first level of the mall. As I was nearing the end of my last lap, I had to go back to the upper level (since that's where I parked). I got on the escalator, which stopped abruptly as I was walking up the moving steps (to keep my heartrate up of course). My body jolted forward, to make for one last awkward moment right before I exited the mall doors.