Everyday Adventures: Selfie Walk

On a Sunday, I was hanging out at my local eatery and planning a walk to get my 10,000 steps in for the day. I told my server that I was going to go for a walk and needed my check. He asked if I was going to take my check for a walk, then suggested taking selfies with the check. I went for it, and took the first selfie before I left.

Having recently walked down Alabama and Elgin/Westheimer, I decided to simply go south on Main, where the first sight, a dead bird, greeted me before I had gone a single block.

I continued south and got another selfie in front of the sign for the South Main Baptist Church.

I went further, past some not-so-pleasant parts of Houston, including a doorway with what may or may not have been human waste. As I approached a couple people sitting out on stoop, the woman called out to me, "hey mama," she said, and asked where I got my bag because she liked it. I paused and told her that I got it in Berkeley, CA, and that the fabrics were African, then thanked her for the compliment and walked on. Then, I saw a building covered in little grey blobs that looked like they had googly eyes on them. I stopped here for more selfies.

This is my favorite of this batch.

Here is a wider shot of the building.

Soon, I found myself in a much nicer part of town because I was entering the Museum District, which also included several large, well maintained churches.

This is outside the First Presbyterian Church of Houston.

The oak trees in this area are quite spectacular. I continued to the Museum of Fine Arts, and decided that it was time for another set of selfies.

A couple blocks further, I came to the roundabout that connected Main and Montrose with a series of fountains in the middle. There was also a photoshoot going on with a young girl in a cute white dress. I took some selfies here, and this is where I should note that it was very, very windy.

In the first shot, I was facing one direction, roughly northwest. In the next, I turned around. I should also note that I look surly in these photos because of "resting bitch face". I opted not to smile for many of the selfies because I've observed that I end up looking too weird - sometimes cross-eyed - a lot of times when I smile for selfies. Also, it was hella windy.

From this point, I almost continued down Main under the canopy of oak limbs, but instead, decided to walk up Montrose. I stopped right away to take photos of the tree in the Museum of Fine Arts sculpture garden that must have been struck by lightening or otherwise split, then painted gold inside. Sadly, the selfie didn't capture the tree very well.

For the record, it wasn't as windy over here, so the selfies were easier to take.

I ended up crossing the street a little later because part of the sidewalk was closed off. I was then on the side of the Museum of Contemporary Arts.

This face is saying, "okay, I got the sign in the shot, now I push the button here."

Now, I was ready to walk up Montrose, walk, walk walk, until I found a place called The Jung Center. I had some friends in school with the last name Jung, so I decided to take a selfie there. I walked by "Prosperity Bank", then I grabbed a shot in front of the Christian Scientist Church.

Eventually, I reached the Highway 59 overpass and got photos from three different locations while crossing.

I really like this one.

In the photo on the left, I turned my head before the camera got the photo
because a guy on a bike asked me to move. Then I clothes-lined him, lol, jk.

At last, I crossed the overpass and was heading toward Alabama. I stopped for a moment in front of the University of St. Thomas for more selfies.

Selfies are taken at a lower resolution than regular photos, so I took a non-selfie version of the background too.

I contemplated walking to Hawthorne and Dunlavy to see if a very friendly cat was hanging out on the sidewalk, but it would have been another hour's walk there and back, so I opted to go back down Alabama in order to get a selfie in front of Pak's, which a convenience store frequented by a couple friends. My first photo is of the street across from Pak's, because I had the camera pointing the wrong way.

I refer to my face in the second and third photos as my "American Gothic" face. After this, I walked down the street to the east of Pak's and around some other streets to see what was to be seen and to get in more steps. I eventually made it back to my local haunt just as my Fitbit buzzed for 10,000 steps.