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Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

It’s Friday night! I can’t tell you how glad I am! No, I didn’t get everything finished I had hoped to finish before I left, but now there’s not much I can do about it until after Labor Day. NIH might not be my idea of a vacation (even if we do call it Club Med.), but I’m just glad to have a week away where no one is going to expect me to do anything. Not that I won’t be checking on things from the road, and not that I’m not packing a backpack full of notes for stories I’m working on, and HPS projects that need to be completed – but I don’t HAVE to do anything I don’t feel like doing next week.

This evening it’s raining. I know I’ve blogged about this before, but I LOVE rain. I know most people see cloudy days as gloomy, and perhaps thunderstorms as threatening – but not me! Maybe it’s because on cloudy days I see a bit better. Maybe it’s coming of age in northern Germany where it rains constantly. I don’t know. But, there’s nothing like walking in the rain, feeling the coolness of the air (as rain always seems to cool off the hottest of days) and feeling the drops hit your face. I love the feeling when you’ve been walking in a heavy rain so that your clothes become so soaked, you might as well have been standing in the shower with your clothes on. When you get home, peel off the wet clothes, replace them with something dry and comfortable, and maybe get something warm to drink – there’s just no feeling like it.

This evening I took leave of my senses and all I was supposed to do and went walking in the rain. I had intended to take a mental break at Homers, the coffee house near my house. But then I toyed with whether I should go or not. Homers can be very crowded, and I’m feeling tired and washed out. But, I went, partly because it started raining and I wanted to walk in the rain.

When I got to Homers it actually wasn’t packed as usual. There were two folk singers playing acoustic guitars who were fantastic – so I even bought a CD! As they played lightening flashed through the windows behind them, and the thunder seemed to clap on cue.

And now, I’m sitting here listening to my new CD against the backdrop of the sound of the rain on the windows and the thunder clapping away – and I wish it would storm all night and lull me to sleep.

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