Day 3,704—Summer Stories VII: Big Steppin’—

Today, I ran towards the river on Watson. I was running on the street and enjoying it. I wish we had days when there were no cars allowed on the street, like in Indonesia. I ran through the park and thought about playing soccer there when I was a little kid and one game when I was late because I couldn’t remember the soccer field we were playing at. My dad asked me if it was that one, and I said yes, but I wasn’t sure, I was pretty sure that was not the right answer. It always feels like I played soccer for such a long time, but it was most likely closer to 5 years at the most, but I wish I couldn’t remember for sure. In my first year, I played with the older kids and then they made two different leagues so I could play with kids closer to my age.

Yesterday, my family went to a birthday party for a one-year-old. It was my wife’s friend from college’s first child, and she hadn’t seen her for years. It feels weird being the age where the only parties you go to are for your young kids, but it is relaxing, too. Normally, the parties start early and are over before dinner. My daughter had so much fun running around with the other kids and jumping in the bouncy house. When we got home later and I was reading a book to her, she told me how she cleaned up her room this morning. She pointed to the blue plastic thing that I lay on when I put her to sleep each night and said, “dada, I put that for you right there. Do you like that?” She is always asking me if I like that.

8 years ago, I was in Indonesia visiting my brother and his family. One of the most memorable moments of the trip was walking on the busy highway on a Sunday when it was closed to cars. I remember my nephew, who was around 4, running as fast as he could on the road while my brother and I cheered him on. It was a unique challenge to keep running every day on this trip because I had to run in the airport and run on a layover in Japan, but it was so much fun.

On the way back, I remember using my translation app to figure out how to get into Narito. I loved the airport there. One of the first things I tried to do when I started using a VR map app was to go back to the airport and walk around, but it didn’t work. It is weird that when I first started using a travel VR app, I thought I would go to places I had never been before, but I found myself trying to find places that I had gone to years ago.