Sad Things About Being Female

Okay, so we went to visit my parents last weekend for my Dad's birthday and Father's Day and my nephew's baptism. And I've been trying to be better about eating healthy and exercising and I SWORE to myself I would exercise while we were there. So on Friday my sister-in-law (bro's wife) and I dutifully went for a walk and had a nice talk. It was fun and I was glad she came with me.

On Saturday, she was out at a movie with my bro and my dad (his Father's Day gift from them) so I had to walk by myself. Here are where the Sad Things About Being Female come in:

I was walking around the loop by my parents' house and it occurred to me that their house is in a pretty rural location - that the houses aren't all that close together, and it's heavily wooded, and the houses that are there are set way back from the road. It's hard to see them from the road and it would be hard to run to one if you needed to. The fact that I was even thinking these thoughts is Sad Thing #1.

As I was walking and thinking about the isolation and the woods, I started planning where and how I'd run if someone came at me. I was walking in the middle of the road thinking I would take a fast car over someone hidden in the trees that I couldn't see. At least in the middle of the road, I'd see anyone coming at me. Taking a speeding car over a hidden man, and even thinking that on my nice walk is Sad Thing #2.

And then as I was thinking that I was probably a little stupid to go out walking alone in such an isolated and forested area (horror flick waiting to happen, even at three in the afternoon), out of the trees walked a man. Nice. He was about 500 yards ahead of me and I stopped and stood really still when I saw him. He was far enough ahead that I don't think he saw me. Or if he did, he was sufficiently

a) considerate and realized I was a lone female in an isolated area and was smart/nice enough not to approach me.

b) savvy to realize that if he wanted to do something to me, his best bet was to get ahead of me and hide then come out at me when I was closer.

Which is Sad Thing #3, that these options were running through my head when some poor guy came out of his house to take a walk.

I walked really quietly and hung back from the guy, but made sure I went quickly enough to keep him in sight so I could see what he was doing. At one point, he crested a hill and disappeared and BOY was I alert and watching the trees on both sides, and enhancing my escape plan just in case, scanning for weapons etc, which is Sad Thing #4.

And then I finally got up the hill enough that he came back into sight and he kept on walking past where I turned to go back to my parents' house. Which brings me to Sad Thing #5 - I was having a hot, boring walk, and he was probably having a hot, boring walk. Were I a guy, when he walked out from the trees we probably could have chatted and had a hot, pleasant walk. Since I was female and alone, I had a hot, boring and eventually paranoid walk, and he just had a hot, boring walk. I feel like I missed out on an opportunity to perhaps chat with an interesting person but when you're female and alone and I don't care what age, it is unfortunately necessary that you have to be ridiculously careful. You have it drilled into your brain from a very early age (my daughter is starting to get there) and it kind of sucks that you can't even have a friendly walk with a random person on a hot Saturday in June.