Rainy Days and Tuesdays

My sister and niece are doing the "100 Days of Happiness", and I've been updating my "Jar of Happiness" file fairly regularly, but I thought I'd post here today instead.

It's raining outside. Pouring. I mean, cats and dogs - which always confused me when I was a kid. I mean, why would people say it's raining cats and dogs? It sounded really cruel of God to make the little animals fall from the sky like that!

Anywhoo - raining a lot. I'm a bit of a pluviophile, so I rather enjoy this weather, but it really is coming down in buckets! It's finally gotten warm here in DC -- i.e., supposedly, Spring has sprung -- but the temperature is supposed to drop about 40 degrees by this evening and possibly turn this precipitation into snow. But currently it's just raining. A lot.

Rain, rain, rain...
http://nowiknow.com/making-it-rain/

Did I mention that it's raining?

It's gray and dark, and people are bundled against the rain, blindly following their broken umbrellas down the sidewalk, paying no heed to the people walking toward them. My favorites are the ones with the giant golf umbrellas: I mean, really? You can house a family of four in one of them, so you really think it's appropriate to hoist one up to cover your teeny self while smacking lesser mortals into the street or poking them in the eye?

Sometimes you see some really modern person (usually Japanese tourist) with a new-fangled umbrella, but mostly, you get the umbrellas from CVS or Target, usually black, with one broken rib, with occasional breaks of color or a pattern sneaking in. None of them are nearly as cool as this one:

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant (aka Amazon.com)

That's not my umbrella. I just wish it were!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I had a physical therapy appointment this morning, so I got to walk down K Street a few blocks to catch a bus to walk a few more blocks to get to work, during rush hour in the rain. So I got to enjoy this unremitting deluge along with quite a few other members of the proletariat. Trudge, trudge, trudge. I got some coffee and breakfast on the way, so I was weighed down with my laptop in my backpack, my Washington Nationals purse hanging off my shoulder, umbrella (broken, of course) in one hand and my coffee and breakfast in the other, as I lugged myself just one more block to the office.

I looked up and saw a Mom telling her little girl, dressed in a brightly coloured raincoat and wellies, to "Come onnnn!"

But the little girl had a mission in life: There was a puddle. It required stomping.

STOMP!

And then there was another.

STOMPITTY SPLASH!

Giggling, the little girl looked up in absolute delight and saw me smiling broadly, and she giggled some more. I caught her Mom's eye and smiled, saying, "Thank you! You just made my day!" Her mom sighed and gave a tired smile.

I'm sure that Mom was having a hard enough time with her daughter trying to wrangle every puddle in the sidewalk, but I hope the fact that they made my day just a little bit brighter helps her day get better too!

And I hope I never get too old to find puddle-stomping fun! 

(Plus, I want kid's rain gear fashions!)

Spring Sprang Sprung

Yep, I was awoken by VERY loud birds on Monday morning (apparently the chick on the next block is SUPER HOT!), and lots of the trees have begun to bud, but we had cold rain Monday afternoon and Tuesday, and my allergies are going haywire. Must be Spring in DC!

And I say BRING IT ON! My toenails are painted paink, my fingernails got the deep purple treatment, and I'm ready for the sun!

Coffee and sunshine

It was supposed to snow/sleet/hail this morning, but it is really more of a cold rain. I'm OK with it, but I was among the thousands of people hoping for a huge block-all-roads type of storm so that we didn't have to go to work today. BUT, it's not all bad: I only work 1/2 days on Fridays anyway, so I just have to go in for four hours and then I'm done! And this way I don't slip all over the place... much. ;-)

But today started off extra nice: My normal commute is cross-the-street, take-the-bus-to-the-end-of-the-route, stop-at-Corner Bakery-for-coffee*, walk-three-blocks-to-the-office. It can be made into a bad commute by watching the bus fly by my stop as I'm stuck on the other side of Connecticut Ave because the light hasn't changed. Today, the light changed and then the bus pulled up to the stop RIGHT as I was walking across the street! PERFECT! I scrambled on, and waddled through to a seat in the back (trying not to hit anyone with my bags), and waited until the metro stop when everyone else gets off (just about). Then I slipped over to the empty seat and got comfy. I read my magazine since I didn't have time to pick up the Express, but it was good because I finished it - and I'll get a new one this afternoon anyway!

Then I get to the end of the route at McPherson Square, and I'm walking across the square, headed to the Corner Bakery. Another passenger had gotten off the bus from the front door and so was walking straight toward me at an angle and we almost ran into each other. I stopped and let her go first with an "Oops!" and a giggle and she walked forward, but turned back to say, "You're so pretty!"

I was a bit stunned because that's not something you hear too often after letting someone pass in front of you, but ... and this is key ... I smiled and said, "Thank you!" Sometimes, you've just got to take a compliment, eh?

So yes, it's a gray, rainy, cold morning, but I got a little sunshine this morning. And it's going to be a good day. It might not be like last summer in Kitty Hawk, but it sure feels nice anyway!

*Best coffee in town, I do not lie!

UPDATE: Edited to clarify that the picture posted above is from my vacation last summer in Kitty Hawk, and here are more of them. Yes, I took it. And yes, I really want to be there now. REALLY!