It's strange how walking around your hometown makes you realize all the ways it's designed to keep you away from the inhabitants in it. I've been walking around town trying to increase my activity level, in the hopes that I won't experience an early death, and I'm struck by the fact that I don't like seeing anyone I think that I might know from previous walks. I'm not a friendly person, at all, but I don't think the lack of communal gathering spaces near me helps. There are a few, I just don't go to them that often. I should change that. 

     Though I have to say that I've never felt at home in community centers, or any place where you're just supposed to reach out and talk to people. Making friends has never come naturally to me, and when I'm in a room with more than a few people I always wind up being the person who has no one else to talk to. That sucks. This could be different, but I doubt it.