Picture it. Me--the person who scrunches out her shoulders, shrinking her head down like a turtle in its shell when the rain starts--walking in pouring rain at 9:15am on the way to work. I just got off the bus and am walking three or four blocks to my building. The rain is gathering in the sidewalk dips, and as it was when I was a child, the puddles are so tempting. When I see bodies of water, I just want to be in it, which I guess be a bit contradictory to my sentiments towards the rain.
I will learn to love the rain.
I'm a sucker for temptation. I look at my feet and decide to test out my rainboots. As I walk, I am always humming or whistling or scatting or singing. On this day, I decided to make up my own song, and for some reason, it came out in a British accents. With each step I reached my legs far enough to splash in small puddles. I walked carelessly and probably looked drunk. Each step splooshed and sent water upwards.
"Raiiin boots! Raiiiin boots! Splash-ing in pud-dles in my raiiin boots!!" I chimed in-time with my steps and an unbreakable smile on my face. I like watching the water's reaction to my heavy feet against its surface.
Of course, each day ends, and as I left that same day, I saw the much larger puddles that had gathered throughout the day. I reasoned: I no longer needed to look presentable. I took a running start and jumped up, propelling my body forward like a kangaroo.
SKLOOUSH!!
The water seemed to move in slow motion. It felt heavy in the air and reached my legs in thick splatters. I was soaked to my knees while other streams sporadically sprayed up my thighs. I fell forward in landing and laughing and kept walking.
As I arrived at a street-crossing, the light was red. I searched my iPod to fit my mood and put on "No Rain" by Blind Melon. I loudly started singing along and swaying. Then I caught motion on the sidewalk in my peripheral. I looked over and to my surprise, my co-worker, Marc, was standing next to me. "OH HEY!" I said too loudly as I pulled a speaker bud out of my ear. We then carried out a normal conversation, and I didn't even act sheepish about my outburst of song (Julia Child--NEVER APOLOGIZE, blog post #2?). This was our first actual conversation since I started work, so we were really only covering the basics: where are you from, where are you now, etc.
We walked briskly, and soon, the rain started again. We both ignored it and kept talking and kept walking. Oh yeah, I'm a Seattleite.
Tonight, I called my dad on the two-mile walk to my bus home. It's nice to have some company during the walk, and I had missed a call from him earlier in the week.
"I like to walk home to the Pike St. bus stop on nice evenings," I told him. "It's not even raining! Can you believe it?"
I spoke too soon. As I was passing Safeco Field, the rain started. I thought it would just be light and ignorable like it was when Marc & I walked right through it. Soon, waves of rain swayed in the wind. Oh boy.
I dug through my bookbag for my umbrella. The wind blew it open. OH BOY.
I was still on the phone with Dad, "I will learn to LOVE the rain!" I repeated. This mantra never gets old. He laughed. "You know you want to come join me in the rain," I said, laughing too.
Not as confident in rain AND wind, I shrunk my body against itself, huddled under my practically useless umbrella. I slipped my bookbag around to my front, though it was already soaked. The wind pushed the rain against me, urging me forward and soaking my entire backside.
I thought back to my trek across the Ballard bridge. I'm pretty sure I was ready to cry then, but here I was now LAUGHING.
Of course, I'm not there yet. I still have a long ways to go. I've been fortunate enough to only have puddles to maneuver on my runs thus far, and my waterproof sneakers seem to be handling that alright, but I'm still nervous for running in actual rain. I know it will be soon. Mostly, I just never know what to do with my eyes--they want to shut against the sharp, cold pellets, but I need to see! Haven't figured that one out yet.
Regardless, I have lived in Seattle for approximately fourteen weeks, and I'm not a total hermit. That's good, right?
I will learn to love the rain.
Like my want for health, I have to constantly be on myself about it. To be fit, you can't just try to lose weight and then quit when it happens. You have to keep up the hard work--constantly eat well and move much. Now, to make this rainy season part of my lifestyle, I have to constantly face the rain and appreciate the wet.
I will learn to love the rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment