I haven't posted in a few days because I have been so busy exploring the city. It's so funny how you can live in a city for years and still be finding new and exciting things!
On Tuesday, I left the house around 11 am and started walking. I tried to follow my instincts just to see where it would take me. First, I took a left and then turned right. I wanted to get lost and then find myself back at my apartment again. Sure enough, I did! Every time I thought I was lost for good and started to get nervous, I'd turn a corner and find myself somewhere that looked familiar. I found myself window shopping on Newbury St, wandering through the Public Gardens, and strolling through Faneuil Hall. I ended up back at my apartment around 4 pm...exhausted.

As I wandered around the city, I saw so many different types of people. Maybe everyone is just playing a character. I know that I lie and take on personas that aren't myself but, from what I have observed recently...so does everyone else. It has made me see my problem in a new light. I have recently decided to try my hand at fiction writing. I was so inspired by my walk through the city the other day that I am beginning to see everything in a new light. Instead of feeling the social pressure to act a certain way or take on a character, I am reading other people as playing characters themselves. I don't have a solid plot for my novel yet but I have an idea. I guess all it takes is an idea and then things can spiral on from there.

My idea is to write a story about different people interacting in the city. Some of the characters will be based on people I see and situations I witness but, of course I'll have to fill in. I am going to have to do a LOT of people watching! I think I already have a first character beginning to develop. It is based on an older lady that I saw sitting on a bench in the Boston Commons. She was talking to the pidgeons as they nibbled at bread she had strew about by her feet. She wore an all black velour jump suit, too tight and stretched over her bulging curves. A bright purple scarf was twisted and wrap around her shoulders and head but, I could see frizzy grey curls jutting out beneath the scarf. She didn't look particularly crazy but the way she kept muttering about birds (most specifically vultures and pidgeons) made me nervous. I wanted to know more about her but now I can use my story to fill in the blanks! I think that she is a paranoid bird lady that lives in a reality in which large birds are out to get her. She wants to protect the smaller birds but she has an impending feeling that she won't be able to. She goes to the Commons every day to make sure that vultures don't swoop down and attack. I'm not sure what will happen to this lady or why she has created this reality for herself yet...but I'll let you know.

Update soon!
-L

Ps...there are a lot more crazy people out there then I initially thought!