blame it on the rain

if you've ever browsed my other blog (my creative alter-ego), you might notice that i seem to have an undying infatuation with the rain. i fully admit this: i have been this way for a very long time. i adore the smell of the rain, and sometimes i feel like i have a sixth sense about the prospect of rain. i can feel it in the air. i love wearing flip-flops in the rain, walking without an umbrella, and watching rain drip down my nose during particularly heavy rainstorms. i love morning thunderstorms and daytime rain where the sky sits thick with clouds and yet backlit by the sun; green-gray days that are dim and bright all at the same time.

i have but few persistent qualms with the rain: nighttime thunderstorms (they still scare me, even though i'm a "grown-up") and driving in heavy rain (that, too, scares me).

but today, the rain was out to get me.

i pull into the seminary parking garage at 1:21, just in time to make it to stuart for my 1:30 class. it's not quite drizzling when i shut off the car. i step out of the car, make it ten feet, and the sky opens up enough to drench me within seconds. seeing as i already look like a drowned rat, i trudge onwards to stuart, not bothering to seek shelter. i show up to class wet but amused, and only mildly frustrated that the rain stops immediately upon my entrance into the building.

after class, seeing hints of sunlight and only the threat of a drizzle, i walk into downtown princeton to visit work. i'm nearly dry when i walk in. i get lulled into a false sense of security that comes back to smack me in the face when i walk out into another surprise downpour as i continue down the street to the post office. i know from experience that my flip-flops get sort of slippery when they get wet, but they don't pose much of a problem on normal (read: rough and grippy) sidewalk material. funny thing...the princeton post office boasts a set of beautiful and lethally smooth marble steps. i make it into the post office just fine. i come out of the post office, slip on the first step, smack my leg on the corner of the step and fall to my butt. insta-bruise. and, of course, i soak the butt of my skirt. (there's a man approaching the post office who sees me fall and backs up a few steps to avoid helping me/asking if i'm ok. meanie.) i pick myself up, attempt to brush any mud off of my skirt, and assume that i have no chance of leaving the scene with any dignity whatsoever.

i hobble into parking garage on the other side of palmer square and hide out there for a while. time to attempt to dry off, to wipe the dirt from my ankles, to assess my bruise, to hide my wet backside from the public. the rain slows to a slight mist, and i make my move - better get back to the seminary and my car before the skies open up again! as i leave the parking garage, the sidewalk is totally flooded. i try to go around, to walk in the wet but seemingly stable mulch/woodchips that border the sidewalk, but find myself immediately sinking into a muddy puddle. i shrug it off, decide to walk through the sidewalk puddle to rinse off my muddy feet, and find out the hard way that this innocent (though gigantic) puddle is really a four inch deep wading pool littered with more woodchips and general dirt. i almost lose a flip-flop. i make it through without falling or losing a shoe, hustle the best i can with my sore leg, miraculously make it to my car without falling, and close the door just in time to miss getting drenched by yet another round of insane downpour.

i drive through that blinding downpour (the rain was spiting me by this point, i know it!) and finally make it home, having to leap over another huge puddle to get to the sidewalk outside the apartment. i am the picture of grossness: wet, stringy hair; drenched clothes (i don't have the heart to check and see if my bra has become visible through my wet shirt); legs splattered with mud; huge bruise under my left calf...

the rain hates me and it's not fair.