Rain Week

(This picture was taken 3 years ago in NYC. Even though I am indoors and dry, sometimes I still feel like this)

It has been raining all week. Starting on Monday, the rain came in and washed our part of the world in a subtle, drizzling, grey tint. On Wednesday it turned darker. I was up at seven in the morning but it felt like 7pm it was so dark. Looking on the forecast, it predicted that it wouldn't let up until Saturday. But this morning it didn't seem to be coming down too hard when I left for school, so I left my blue plastic-bag-like poncho in the scooter.
Big mistake. I was soon pelted all over with big raindrops and the whole way down I contemplated how fast I could drive to try to get the least wet...although in my opinion, it's the same amount of wetness whether you drive fast or not. I did have a light, waterproof jacket, but it was only good for the top half of my body. The lower hem of my shirt and my pants were completely soaked through.

I got a lot of sympathy comments walking around at school all wet, and I decided after lunch that I had time to go home and change. This time I used my blue poncho. My roommate gave it to me from her trip to Niagra Falls this summer. It still says "Maid of the Mist" in the front. Probably a little tacky to be scootering in, but hey, it keeps me dry and I am not complaining. Maybe one of these days I'll get a real poncho.

I think one of the most comforting things in the world is being warm and dry after spending some time being cold and wet. Funny how you have to experience the one to know the other. Life is like that.

Coming out of the school I noticed the world was tinged with a color I had never seen before. It was kind of like I was standing inside a photo that had been splashed with melted butter. The clouds were still heavy and dripping, but the sun was still out there somewhere behind them, trying to sneak a few last rays in before the evening tide overcame him with its enveloping pull. The result was a diffused, dull glow, the color you'd imagine yourself to see in an old vintage movie or something. It was actually quite beautiful, the kind of atmosphere in which you'd like to take a leisurely stroll, arm-in-arm with your lover under an umbrella big enough for two.


I usually don't like when it rains. But lately the lack of rain has caused the city to choke on its own fumes--the smog growing thicker by the day. We are hoping all the rain will wash and cleanse, although we hide under our hoods and umbrellas from it so our hair doesn't fall out if we get rained on. (Because of the pollution, the rain is acidic.)

Rain washes...

reminds me of when I wash my hands in the bright, clean one-person bathroom sink at school upstairs in the ELL wing. I love the smell of the soap--it smells so lemony and juicy and yellow. If yellow were a smell, it would smell like that soap.
It makes me happy.