Sparks and Rain

NOT Snakes on a Plane! (Not yet, anyway. Anyone seen it?)

It's a Tuesday night, and the rain has come in, bringing not only the interest--and contentment--of changing weather, but also the blessed relief of finality, of normalcy. Seattle is just happier in the rain. In Norfolk, I was struck by how beautiful the people were, which was partly about me being on vacation and already being in a positive frame of mind (because I have definitely spent some quality time in the South before, and not noticed this) and partly about watching the natives relax in the sunshine. It's easy to be beautiful when you're relaxed and not stressed out--my skin cleared up in three days, just being on holiday--and Norfolk deals well with sunshine. They like it. They know it. It's familiar. And when it's sunny and warm--and humid--which it was all three days the LT and I were there, they relax; it's what they're used to.

Not so Seattle! We like sunshine, of course, but we feel pressured by it. Get out! Enjoy it! It'll be gone soon! Don't waste a second! Etc. CAE once said, "You guys are OBSESSED with the weather here!" And we are.

So, with the rain comes...peace. Relaxation. It's what we're used to, after all.

Titan and I went down to the dog park, were pleasantly surprised by all the dogs, and then got rained out ten minutes later, which was just fine. We came back to the apartment and listened to the rain fall in the twilight. I fed him and fed myself, and then left in the damp open-topped Jeep to run errands, and was pleasantly reminded that it's not too cold yet to have the top still open, especially in The Land Of Underground Parking Garages. I bought vegan noodle bowls, and all kinds of asian sauces (sesame oil, rooster sauce) and a few toiletries and nothing fancy, but things that I needed.

I thought about cooking, with the damp breeze blowing in with the dark, not cold enough to close the sliding door but getting there, but didn't. I ate corn chips with gourmet guacamole and called my mother and drank a Sparks. I thought about things I needed, like measuring cups, and things I wanted, like everything in the Museum of Useful Things, and some things on the MoMA store site. I mused on the fact that I currently own FOUR pairs of jeans that I wear regularly, which is a record for me, and what that means, and how many dirty dishes I have and how little I care about that, and how great that was, trying to hang on to the vacation frame of mind. I called the LT and thought more about cooking, but got nowhere, and played around with iTunes and bought vitamins for myself and Titan online and brushed my teeth and let Titan out and went to bed.

And it was good.