stomping grounds

In a very "up in my head" moment, I actually considered whether it would be too "weird" or "depressing" to have lunch at a sandwich shop in the area around my old office. Sure, I scolded myself silently for being so neurotic -- it's a damn sandwich!  There's only one person in line and they have good sandwiches. 

As you might imagine, it was a complete non-event.  I ate my food without having a psychic break because I occasionally eat there.

But there is something to stomping grounds -- your old haunts, your past pathways, your spent trajectories.  There was a feeling assigned to that space -- good or bad, stressful or relaxed. They exist, only in our minds.

Now, if you didn't do anything but eat above-average veggie sandwiches in those spaces, you probably won't notice.  But what if you were really excited and hopeful because you'd just gotten a fancy new job the first time you walked into Pop's Hotdog Barn or Finnegan's Alleyway, featuring Finnegan's secret-sauce BBQ ribs? How happy would you be to go back to those places?

Where am I going with this?  I dunno.  I think I made my (obvious) point.  I could have written about the crazy guy on the sidewalk today shouting "Thank you!  Good night!" to passing cars.  Kind of a short post, but that guy did add a bit of whimsy to my current stomping ground.