I am terrible at running a single errand.
I can leave the house needing one thing and return three hours later with the thing, a used cookbook, a bag of lemons, someone's life story and occasionally a piece of furniture.
I've tried being efficient. Make the list. Choose the shortest route. Park close to the entrance. Get what you need. Go home.
It works.
It's also how you miss everything.
Some of my favorite days begin with very unimpressive plans. I need groceries. I have something to mail. I should probably get gas. Maybe I'll stop for lunch.
Then I see a thrift store I've never been inside. Or a handwritten sign. Or something sitting on a curb. I take a different street because I've always wondered where it goes.
Sometimes nothing happens. The thrift store is terrible, the bakery is closed and the interesting-looking road leads directly to a freeway entrance.
But every once in a while, there it is. Something I didn't know I was looking for.
These chairs were one of those things. I wasn't shopping for chairs. I certainly wasn't looking for vintage wooden chairs with chevron cushions and little wheels on their feet.
But there they were.
That's what I like about wandering. It leaves a little room for something you didn't plan.
Not necessarily something to buy. Sometimes it's an old building I hadn't noticed before, a neighborhood I've never driven through, a conversation with someone I wouldn't otherwise have met, or a place I make a mental note to return to someday.
None of these things are particularly important. Maybe that's why I like them.
There is no objective. No recommendation list to work through. No pressure to make the outing worthwhile. You simply have enough time left around the edges of your plans to notice what's there.
Had I been in a hurry that day, I probably would have gone straight where I was going and straight home again. Instead, I found the chairs.
They're sitting in my house now looking as though they were always supposed to be there.
There are certainly faster ways to move through a day.
I'm just not convinced they're always better.
More soon.