Mall Walking

I haven't written much lately-- sorry about that. Though to be honest, compared to Abby, I'm a crazy frequent blogger. (Hooray for Abby finally posting again and proving she's still alive!) My life has just not been that exciting lately, and my last couple of posts were downers anyway.

This morning I had a change of pace!

In direct contradiction to my OB's specific example of what I shouldn't be doing ("I don't want to catch you wandering around the mall!"), I visited the mall this morning at the bright and early hour of 9am. Terence had an eye exam and the eye doctor's office is at the mall. Terence is still subsisting on minuscule amounts of sleep, so I was the one to drive him up there. We chose the closest entrance to the eyeglass shop and since the mall wasn't open yet, we scored a nice, close parking spot. So I figured, why not go in with him?

Now, I am anything but a mall rat. As a teenager I knew the mall as well as my own house-- I kid you not, I could name nearly every shop in the entire place, merely by following a mental map of the place in my head. (Our family ate dinner in the food court every Friday night & then my parents turned us loose for a few hours.) But nowadays, with nary a penny to spend on extras and very little care for anything trendy or fashionable, I rarely bother with the place, even though it offers an air-conditioned escape from our miserable summers. And even in my mall-going heyday, I never visited it first thing in the morning.

So I was rather surprised at what we found when we walked in the doors this morning.

The mall is a happening place before the shops open!

There are people walking everywhere. Literally getting in their morning walks, exercise clothes, jogging strollers & all. Though to be quite fair, I only saw one jogging stroller. The vast majority of the mall walkers seemed to be well older than my parents. The mall itself apparently encourages this-- they had upbeat (but not too edgy) music blaring over the loudspeakers, and the cleaning crews getting ready for the day made a point of staying out of the way of power-walking baby boomers and barely moving geriatrics alike.

I guess, according to the internet, this is not an unheard-of phenomenon. Some malls even offer official mall-walking programs to encourage people to come join in. Strange. Then again, maybe not so strange, I guess. The coffee shops and Paradise Bakery were already open, clearly catering to this crowd. And it looked like a fair amount of people finished up their walks by hitting the just-opening food court (seems kind of counterproductive to me, but hey, what do I know?). Maybe some of these seniors then pass away the morning browsing the stores. At the least, it must bring people into the mall who otherwise wouldn't bother.

K and I spent the long wait during Terence's appointment meandering back and forth between the pet shop windows and the gumball machine island, and during that time we saw some of the more serious walkers "lap" us time after time. I wonder how many loops around the entire mall is a mile. Would I be able to get in a serious workout that way? None of the people looked very sweaty-- and many of them were in jeans & t-shirts, not exactly athletic clothing. (Speaking of which, who in their right mind wears jeans during August in Phoenix????) Maybe they want to stay looking nice for their post-workout snack and shopping spree?

Nope, I don't think I'm going to be adding this one into my workout regime after the baby comes. Anyway, the nearest mall is 45 minutes away. On the hot days I think I'll just hit the treadmill at my local YMCA, thanks.