Funny how...

... everything's the same, yet everything's different.

I went for a walk with the dog today. We went around the neighborhood, walking down Dad's street and around the bend, back along the parallel street. I didn't leave enough time for a complete walk, and had to decide whether or not to run along the road, dragging the dog behind me the whole way, or cut across the yards as I used to do when I was 10.

Given the time crunch, I decided to cut across the yards.

Up the driveway I walked, looking up the hill in an attempt to decide which yard to trespass on. When I actually started walking through the neighborhood backyards, I couldn't help but think there are a large number of activities 10 year old girls can get away with that, well, women in their 30s really can't do so easily.

Trespassing through unfamiliar backyards is one of them.

Fortunately, the neighborhood is much (much, much) smaller than I remembered it being, and I was across the yards in no time, back home in time for my phone call.

So much of the neighborhood is the same, though. Sure, it's smaller because I'm bigger. And, hey, there's a really cool playground in the back of one neighbor's yard complete with a really cool merri-go-round and swingset and awesome tree house (oh, to be 10 again!). But the houses are as I remember them. The hills are as I recall them being. The yards are still way green, the road still rough and interesting.

Bharat and I often talked about how cool it would be to have all of our friends living together in one neighborhood. As I walked with the dog I couldn't help but think that this is the neighborhood I'd like all my friends to be in. This is where I'd really enjoy being able to walk to my neighbors, my friends, to see if they wanted to come out to play a game of ultimate, or for communal dinner, or bridge, or Carcasonne.

Not gonna happen, though.