Finally discovered the secret benefit of my weird morning routine

For the past 8 months ive been walking to this bakery thats like 2.5 miles from my place every saturday morning. Started doing it cause my neighbor who owns it mentioned they put out day old pastries for $1 each at 7am and I figured why not, good excuse to get some steps in

But heres the thing I didnt expect… ive gotten to know basically everyone in my neighborhood now?? Like the older couple with the beagle always waves, theres this guy Marcus who runs the same route every morning and we do the head nod thing, the lady at the corner house with all the garden gnomes actually invited me to her bbq last month. Even found out about a tool library 3 blocks away that I had no idea existed (borrowed a tile saw last week, wouldve cost me like $60 to rent elsewhere)

The pastries are honestly just okay but walking there has become my favorite part of the week. My fitbit says im averaging 15k steps on saturdays now and I actually look forward to it even when its drizzling. Plus having that $20 I set aside for weekend coffee runs just sitting in my savings now feels pretty good