rain. it skews my thought processes...

so today . . . it rained. thank goodness.

when i left for school this morning, i knew rain was in the forecast. i had checked my weather app which shows the weather prediction hour by hour, and it said there was a 50 percent chance of rain during recess today. i thought those were pretty good odds, so i wore my lightweight raincoat because i knew i had to do a few errands after school and my raincoat would keep me dry. but it isn't very warm. which is usually fine, since our daytime temperatures rarely dip below 60 degrees, and i was already wearing a sweater and a scarf.

i left the house, got into my car in the garage, and went to school. i parked in my usual parking space, got out of the car, and was hit by a freezing cold wind. (this is the problem with keeping your car in the garage--you don't have to actually feel the weather until you get where you are going.) i immediately knew i was in trouble... there were hardly any clouds in the sky, probably because of the wind. rain did not look imminent. in fact, rain didn't even really look like a possibility. i was suddenly wishing i had worn my warm coat instead of my waterproof one.

i spent the morning praying for rain by recess...

fifteen minutes before recess i went to check the weather. it was raining! well, sort of... the ground was a little damp. there were clouds in the sky. if it wasn't exactly raining, it was sure looking like it was thinking about it... that was good enough for me. this is southern california after all.

we spent recess in our warm, dry classroom :) sometimes it is good to be the adult.

after school it was still threatening to rain. and it was still cold. at least i had on my warm boots, because i had to go pick up my new prescription. fortunately for me, my pharmacy is in the same building as my eye doctor. i have an eye appointment early thursday morning, but i will have to rush to work afterwards, which won't leave me much time to look at new glasses. so while waiting for my prescription to be ready, i ventured to the second floor and the optometrist's office.

there were a lot of frames from which to choose. a lot. and yet, i found that the frames i kept choosing looked a lot like the ones i already have, which i LOVE, which is maybe why i kept choosing similar frames! but i currently only have one pair of glasses, and i can't be without them for two weeks while kaiser sends them out to have new lenses put in. so i need a second pair.

i walked up and down the wall of frames more than once. i found a few frames i liked, but of course they were all over $300 just for the frames! and my lenses are not going to be inexpensive--that's what happens when your eyes get to be of a certain age. and then i heard the woman next to me mumbling. she was not happy. she was there to have her new glasses replaced, but she was there alone with no one to give an opinion. she was afraid she was going to end up with another pair of glasses that didn't work for her. pretty soon she turned to me and said, "what do you think of these?"

please don't ask me that! please, please, PLEASE don't ask me that! i mean, i have opinions about fashion and accessories, but my bubble tends to be a bit off level. i like things that are a little different, quirky, unexpected. my taste is not for everyone. but how do i explain this to a perfect stranger in the next 30 seconds. so i took the easy way out. "i think they look nice," i said.

let this be a lesson to you. don't ask a stranger what they think. they don't know you well enough to say, "that looks hideous! what were you thinking??" obviously she thought they looked pretty good or she would have already rejected them. should i be the one to tell her they weren't that great? i don't think so!

"ok," she said, "what about these?" and she put on another pair. "those are nice, too," i said. when she asked me about a third pair, i finally said, "look, i like glasses with a bold frame. i do not like half frames, skinny metal frames, or frameless frames. i want my glasses to say 'look, i have eyes!' so that affects my opinions. if you like something that blends in with your face, i am the wrong person to be asking!" and then she said, "i like your glasses!"

oh sheesh. now i had to help her. so we compared several frames, and i told her what i thought. and she chose the frames i liked the best. i hope she is happy with them...

and then i realized SHE CHOSE THE FRAMES I LIKED THE BEST!! now what was i going to choose?!?! because i'm pretty sure kaiser doesn't keep several pairs of that particular gucci frame in the back room! and my appointment is on thursday! what is wrong with me?? why did i have to go all gaga when she put that frame on?? why didn't i push her toward the guess frame so she would leave my gucci frame alone?!?!?! now what am i going to do????

maybe i am too nice...

let this be a lesson to me. don't talk to strangers. even ones who need help. i teach tiny children that lesson every year--you would think i would know it! now my only hope is that they will get some newer, even better frames in before i have to make a decision...

...yes, by thursday.

our dogs + rain = you don't want to know...

so today . . . it rained again.

i promised myself i was not going to blog about the rain today. i know some of you get as tired of my weather blogs as you do of my food blogs. but here are the cold, hard facts, people: food and the weather pretty much rule my days. i go to bed thinking about what the weather will be like the next day and deciding what to wear. because if i have to make clothing decisions at 7:00 in the morning, it is not going to be pretty--or i am going to be late. and even after i get dressed, i have to decide if i should wear a coat... or a sweater... or wonder if a scarf around my neck would keep me warm enough... because it may start out cool, but by 11:30 when we are out on the playground it might be hot! but by the time i leave to come home, it might be cool again. or really hot!! you just never know...

and the awful truth is, i think about food all day. what will i eat for breakfast? do i have time to run by mcdonald's and get cinnamon melts? or should i be good and just eat my usual hard boiled egg. will the lunch at school be something delicious like macaroni and cheese? or will it be that noodle-y stuff... or will i even eat at school?!? i could go to jack in the box... or 7-11 for a salad and a brownie... or now that i have an hour for lunch, i could even go home... of course then i would have to actually make something to eat, which would reduce my actual eating time, so maybe it is better to go to jack in the box instead. or 7-11...

and what about dinner?

you see, no matter what else happens during the day, food and the weather are always on my mind. and today it rained. real rain, not that sissy socal stuff. i even had to wear a coat. with a hood. and the only coat i have with a hood is a long, down-filled puffy coat with fur around the hood. i bought it a few years ago just before we headed to oregon for christmas, because they were expecting a big snowstorm. so yes, considering we were just having rain today, it was maybe overkill... but i don't like to carry an umbrella. or get wet. so i left the house looking like nanook of the north... in southern california... in october...

and then i spent the next hour telling parents to take the tiny, colorful umbrellas that they let their children bring to school, home with them. because what am i going to do with 15 drippy hello kitty angry birds spiderman dora the explorer umbrellas in my classroom all day?!?!? i've got my hands full with tiny hello kitty angry birds spiderman dora the explorer coats and boots! WET coats and boots...

rollie worked at home today, so once again i braved the rain to meet him for lunch. he said mia had spent the morning sitting on the floor next to his chair with her front paw on his leg. this is her signal for "can i please sit in your lap? please?? please?????" mia is not really a lap dog--she is all pointy elbows and paws. but she tries. especially if it is raining, because mia does not like the rain. at all. milo, on the other hand, had come in soaking wet... i saw this as real progress, because when milo first came to live with us, he would not go out in the rain unless i carried him out and stood over him with an umbrella. thank goodness it only rains two or three times a year here...

by the time i left school to come home for the day, it had pretty much stopped raining. as soon as i walked into the house, rollie said, "did you see the garage door??" well, yes, i thought, i had to open it to get my car into the garage. but i hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary... so when he took me back out to the garage to show me what he was talking about, it was clear that i was looking at the wrong garage door.
"when i got home from lunch today, mia was soaking wet!" he said. "she was so wet i had to dry her off with a towel. and then i saw this!" yes, our precious pooch had frantically clawed her way clear through the door!

in all fairness, this door was damaged when we moved into the house. we aren't really sure what happened here before we moved in, but there were some violence issues, and the side door into the garage was one of the casualties. it had been repaired with wood putty, i think, and our painters did a great job of trying to make it look good, but it was still damaged. we knew we were going to have to replace it, we just hadn't done it yet.

i think we will be doing it soon.

because for some strange reason, when rollie left to meet me for lunch today, mia went outside. in the rain of which she is so deathly afraid. and apparently she tried to get back into the house... through the side garage door. i don't know why she would do that! she can go in and out of the house whenever she wants to--we had a doggie door specially constructed to fit next to the french doors so she and milo could go in and out even when we aren't home. but clearly something spooked her. she must have really panicked! she was only home alone for an hour...

as we were sitting in the family room talking about it, i happened to glance out the french doors, and this is what i saw...
i'm pretty sure milo is the culprit in this situation. again, i don't understand it. our patio overhang covers about three feet of grass next to the patio. and he had clearly been out in the rain earlier in the day! i guess i should appreciate that he got as close to the grass as he could without actually going on the grass...but come on!!

this was a rough day for our pups. they are california dogs. they don't do rain.

but thankfully we've now had our two days of precipitation for the fall. sunshine is back in the forecast for tomorrow... right where it belongs!

maybe tomorrow's blog won't be about the weather...

a rainy day blog...

so today . . . it rained.

i know it rained, because when i pulled out of the 7-11 parking lot this morning, my tires skidded on the wet pavement.

you know that song, "it never rains in california..." well, it is almost true. almost. but not today. today it rained.

rain was in the forecast for tomorrow, but not for today. so when i looked out the kitchen window this morning and noticed that the ground was wet, i thought, "oh wow, it must be getting cooler. the water from the sprinkler hasn't evaporated yet..."

(this is how i know i am turning into a california person. an oregon person wouldn't even notice that the ground was wet! oregon's ground is wet most of the time in the fall! but rain doesn't even enter the mind of a california person--we immediately think "sprinklers!")

i finished gathering up my stuff and went out to the car. i opened the garage door and noticed the driveway was wet too. and getting wetter by the second. and then i saw it. rain.

to be clear, it was california rain--there was water in the air, but it was still safe to wear suede boots. i didn't know how long it was going to stay that way though, so we took the preventative measure of putting electrical tape on those two small cracks that have developed in the roof of my car. thankfully rollie was working from home today and could help me, because since we moved, i'm not sure i could find the electrical tape. i know it is in the garage (which is rollie's territory,) and so i know it has a specific place (like all of rollie's stuff.) i just don't know where that specific place is...

it took a little time to complete the rainproofing of my roof. thankfully i had the time. i have learned that if i set my alarm a little bit earlier and only hit the snooze button once, i have time to make a quick stop at 7-11 and still make it to work on time...

yes, i said on time!! i haven't been late to work once this year! of course, i've only worked seven days, but i think i have turned over a new leaf. apparently being docked 15 minutes of pay isn't enough to get me out of bed earlier, but the promise of a gigantic diet lemon cokesi is! of course, i wish i could survive the day without that infusion of a fizzy, caffeinated drink, but i've been so tired since i went back to work that i've NEEDED it. of course, maybe if i slept a few more minutes in the morning instead of going to 7-11, i wouldn't need it...

but i digress.

i walked in and out of 7-11 without the aid of an umbrella (you see, i am still an oregon person at heart,) but again, to be fair, i did get the parking space right in front of the door. my brain was still not really registering the fact that it was RAINING! how could it be raining?!?! just yesterday i was wearing tank tops and flip flops. i had acquiesced to the cooler temperatures today by donning boots and a sweater, but still... and then my tires squealed out of the 7-11 parking lot...

i was not going terribly fast. however, there were cars approaching me, and they were going terribly fast. so when i hit the gas and felt my tires spin but did not feel my car move, i knew it must be raining. i should have registered "rain" when i had to turn on my lights or use my windshield wipers, but it was early and i was sort of on autopilot (remember, i only hit the snooze button once!) my tires finally gained traction and propelled me toward the first of four stop lights that have become my arch nemeses...

i hate those four stop lights. really. if i could rat them out for their inconsistent and inconsiderate behavior and send them off to traffic light jail, i would. they are never green. never. i always have to wait. and sometimes i have to wait through two or even three rotations at the left turn light. this morning i had time to tweet and post to facebook about my squealing tires before i finally got through that light! (i'm pretty sure it isn't breaking the law to tweet while you are just sitting still at a stupid red left turn light. i think tweeting while sitting at a red light might be the only thing between certain motorists--who shall remain nameless--and road rage...)

i got to school with my diet lemon cokesi (which is no small task, considering that the cup is so big it won't fit in any of my cup holders, so i have to put it in the passenger seat and prop it up with my handbag. which i hate to do, because my handbag is cloth and i'm always afraid that when i turn a corner, my soda will spill on it. or worse yet, completely tip over and spill everywhere! that happened once. it was awful. so to try to prevent that, i put my right hand on the cup to steady it when i go around corners. which wouldn't be a big deal, except my car has a manual transmission which requires me to use that same right hand to shift. it's a good thing i am coordinated...) i knew it was going to be a long day. tonight was open house and i wasn't quite ready. it was also art day. art day on the same day as open house!! what was i thinking?!?!? AND since it was raining, we were going to be stuck in the classroom for recess, which meant energetic kids with nowhere to expend that energy...

i slurped my diet lemon cokesi and hoped for the best...

we got through the morning without any major catastrophes. and then this afternoon i went into the classroom next door to help a teacher who had a screaming, crying three year old who would. not. stop. so i was talking quietly to the child and patting him on the back and just generally trying to get him to calm down and be quiet. because sometimes crying is contagious--especially if you are three and were just awakened from a nap that was not quite long enough! he got a little quieter, but he wouldn't stop crying! and i needed to go back to my own class to finish getting ready for open house! but since i had come in to help, i didn't feel like i could just leave without accomplishing my goal of turning a wailing three year old into a smiling one... so i started talking to the other three year olds sitting at his table having their snack. we were talking about what they were eating, when one precious dumpling looked right at me and said, "i eat boogers!"

okaaayyy... not really information that i wanted to know, but it got the attention of the screaming child, who momentarily stopped screaming to see what was going to happen next...

here's what happened next. "did you see the rain this morning?" i asked.

yep, i deflected and redirected. and it worked. this time. because to a southern california three year old, rain is a BIG deal! he might remember the afternoon it rained last spring, but odds are he doesn't really remember it raining before today. oh, he's heard people talk about it, like they talk about snow and colored leaves falling in october and wide open spaces, but he has had very little, if any, experience with it.

and so, we talked about rain. and the crying child stopped. and the booger-eating child ate his crackers instead. and i managed to escape back to the relative calm of my own classroom...

...just in time for a birthday party. a birthday party in a classroom full of kids who have been inside all day because of the rain. i looked at the clock, breathed a sigh of relief, left my class in the capable hands of others, and headed out into the rain...

...only to be pleasantly surprised by dry ground and sunshine.

yep, it never rains in california... at least not for long :-)

my perfect vehicle springs a leak...

so today . . . it rained.

IT RAINED!!! does anyone know that it is already the middle of may?!?!? we should not be having rain. we should be having lovely sunshin-y days, the kind of days that make you want to skip work and lay in the backyard under a tree with a book. that's may! not dashing from the house to the car, juggling bags and drinks and car keys and trying to find an umbrella...

of course if my car was in the garage where it belongs, this wouldn't be such an issue. but right now, my car is living out in the cold.

my car is living out in the cold, because the hot water heater is leaking. it is a small drip, but small drips add up! and since the hot water heater is in the garage, leaking creates issues. you may remember the last time there was water in the garage... my poor car paid the price! so the first thing i did when i noticed the leak was to move my car out of the garage and onto the driveway!

the second thing i did was to move all of the boxes of stuff that had the hot water heater surrounded, out into the main area of the garage to dry out.

and that's about as far as i got. i thought maybe i would just start my sorting and packing and getting rid of stuff with those boxes. but then i got busy... and so the boxes still sit in the garage where my car belongs, while my car languishes in the driveway...

...which might be ok, if we were having our normal weather. but it is RAINING!! which would still be ok, if the roof of my car didn't have a couple of tiny cracks in it.

oh yes, my most perfect car has two small cracks in the top. apparently there are two stress points on my convertible top. they have been reinforced, but i put the top up and down all the time. up and down and up and down. i noticed that it was showing some wear and tear, but i had no idea how bad it was, until a couple of months ago when i was sitting in the car while putting the top up, AND I SAW BLUE SKY THROUGH MY ROOF! it was just a teeny, tiny sliver of sky, but still, it was sky!

after the initial shock, i didn't worry about it too much. it rarely rains here and my car is in the garage most of the time. and then i realized that rain was not my real enemy (well, it might be my enemy, but it never rains in california...) my real enemy was the car wash. and when i realized that i couldn't take my car to the car wash with those two tiny little cracks in the roof, i decided i needed to get it fixed! i sure didn't want to drive around in a dirty car--black cars should be shiny and sleek.

so i called to see how much a new roof would cost. and then i decided i wouldn't be getting a new roof for a while. for quite a while.

my next move was the internet, because you can find a solution for anything on the internet, right? so i started searching for ways to repair a vinyl roof top. and i found some, but they all looked like they had the potential to go disasterously wrong! and it was going to take time, which is something in kind of short supply for me right now. i needed a quick solution, because my car was dirty and scattered rain showers were in the forecast. i thought maybe i could use that wide, clear packing tape short term, but i couldn't get it to stick to the roof! the vinyl on my roof has a pebbled texture, and that clear tape just wouldn't seal.

so i came up with another solution.

duct tape.

yes duct tape. it is strong, it is water resistant, and i already had some in the garage. i am of the opinion that you can fix just about anything with duct tape. so i got out my scissors and my roll of duct tape and headed for my car...

it was a pretty simple process to cut a piece of duct tape and cover the cracks in my roof. but as i surveyed my handiwork, i was not satisfied. my roof is black and the duct tape is silver. normally i like things that are silver, but this just looked tacky, tacky, tacky. this was not a perfect soution. i needed something else... something black... something like a black permanent marker...

did you know that if you want to color a piece of silver duct tape black, you have to move your black permanent marker slowly? because if you don't, it leaves little silver tracks...

well, it wasn't a perfect solution, but i thought at least it would keep the water out until i could decide what to do. it rained a little bit, and my car stayed dry inside, so i thought maybe this was going to work!

and then we had a sunny day. and another sunny day. and a hot sunny day. and then a whole week of hot sunny days. and that is when i learned that duct tape adhesive sort of melts in the heat, because it wasn't long before my customized duct tape had loosened enough to blow off my roof. so now, not only was my roof back to being at the mercy of any passing water, but as a bonus, there were big white rectangles of leftover duct tape adhesive on my roof!

i tried to get it off, but it was soooo sticky! and it had melted down into the spaces between the pebbled texture of the vinyl--not enough to seal the cracks of course, just enough to make a big ugly mess.

i gave up. it hardly ever rains anyway, and i decided i would just have to drive around with a dirty car until i could save up $2,500 for a new roof!!!

and then, a couple of weeks ago while i was at school, rollie somehow miraculously removed all that icky adhesive, washed the car, and temporarily repaired the cracks. with electrical tape. black electrical tape. black electrical tape that also eventually fell off the roof, but at least any adhesive residue is black. it was a brilliant solution.

so my car is once again waterproof. i hope. because while the rain is supposed to end today, i am thinking my baby needs a bath!

it's hot. it's cold. it must be spring!

so today . . . it was cold.

i knew it was going to get cold again, because i just put my winter clothes in the extra closet and moved my summer clothes back into my room. i did this because it was so hot last week. the week before that it rained. and rained and rained and rained. but last week was really nice. and it is april, so you would think the seasonal clothing migration would be safe. so i moved out the warm sweaters and everything with long sleeves, and replaced them with summer tops and lightweight jackets.

and so, of course, today it was cold.

usually my clothes don't migrate until easter weekend. easter weekend usually marks the start of spring for me, not the calendar. but last week was sooooo nice. and you know, sometimes easter is in march, and the cadbury eggs are already out at wal-mart, and there is a new movie out about the easter bunny... so i jumped the gun and switched out the clothes.

i felt like i had to do it, because on thursday it was so hot, i was worried about the kids being outside at recess. i don't know why, but our chinese parents tend to overdress their kids. and by overdress, i mean that on a day when the forecast says it will be over 80 degrees outside, those kids will come to school wearing a turtleneck long-sleeved t-shirt, another long-sleeved t-shirt over that, a short sleeved t-shirt over that, and a hoodie zipped up over them all!

ok. i tend to get cold. and so even when hot temperatures are forecast, i typically wear a lightweight cardigan over my short-sleeved shirt in the morning. but three shirts and a hoodie?!?! that seems just a bit excessive. so on thursday, as we were undressing kids (because we had to take off all those shirts so that they could just wear the t-shirt outside,) i was still worried about the heat. i was DYING, and i was standing in the shade!! but the kids seemed oblivious. they were running around and playing in that hot sun, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, only stopping for an occasional drink. i kept expecting them to drop from heat exhaustion, but our playground seemed to be inhabited by energizer bunny clones...

so yesterday i gathered my warm weather wardrobe (ah, alliteration...) and prepared for spring. and then today proved it was spring, as the weather changed once again.

fortunately, i do have cardigan sweaters and lightweight jackets still in my closet.

fortunately, my "ugg" boots are still in my closet.

fortunately, i did not replace my long pants with shorts just yet.

and fortunately, diandra's winter clothes are still in her closet, which is just down the hall...

march 2011. the month i will eventually forget.

so today . . . is the last day of march. this means my self-imposed exile from the land of blogging is almost over...

it has been quite a month. i have had ideas for blogs rolling around in my head, but i never seemed able to sit down and write...

there was the day rollie took me to the outlet mall to choose a birthday present, and the result was me sitting in a chair in the corner of the coach store with an armful of handbags, paralyzed with indecision...

there was the day i sent my pre-k kids across the hall to an empty classroom with a huge piece of butcher paper, toy cars, and paint... oh yes, and my teaching assistant... and paint shirts, which were of no help at all...

there was the day diandra and i zipped to the outlet mall after school and experienced deja'vu...

there was the day i discovered the top on my beloved convertible was 'letting the sun shine in'--even when it was closed...

there was the day my future son-in-law came straight to our house from kuwait... well, actually he went to germany and georgia and lax first... but then he came straight to our house!

and then there was the wedding...

and my wedding dress... which was nearly a catastrophe, but turned out to be something really special... and las vegas on st. patrick's day... and purple christmas balls, silver christmas balls, and clear, lucite jewels... and terrible wind... and a beautiful bride with a sparkly bouquet... and a groom with a temperature... and a dad who loved his daughter enough to step waaaay out of his comfort zone...

there was the day i took my mom to the las vegas outlet mall... and made her go into the juicy couture store... and the guess store... and the coach store... and she made me go into chico's... and the store with the elusive hush puppy shoes... and then i made her go back to the coach store... (and before you think someone should take all our credit cards away, we did not actually make purchases in all those stores...)

there was the day my brother called to tattle on my mom... which was also the day my dad had some kind of major surgery... which is why my brother felt the need to tattle on my mom... yes, some days we are still children!

there was the day i started walking the dogs again... and decided to walk them both at the same time... (let's just say, we survived, but it wasn't pretty...)

there were the days that rollie left the house at 8:00 a.m. and didn't get home until 10:30 p.m... and the hunt for the perfect couch for his new office... and the chairs that almost got away...

there was a whole week of rain... and not one single weather blog! (count your blessings!!)

there was the day i tried to play music on my iphone and couldn't figure out where the ipod icon was... (anyone with an iphone is now saying to themselves, "what?!?!? how could she not see it???" all i have to say is, you just don't understand how my brain works...)

there were days i laughed, and days i cried, and days i just felt like crying while wishing i could laugh...

and there were pink shoes with flowers that unexpectedly appeared...

and once in a lifetime moments.

yes, march was quite a month. and as i read back over this list, i am really sad that i missed all that blogging! because while i remember these incidents happening, i don't remember the small details, or who said what, or how i felt... because i didn't write it down.

i blog so that i can remember the small, funny things that happen to me... just in case, you know, my brain ever fails me. (EVER fails me?!?!? please. my brain fails me every. single. day.)

you thought i blogged to entertain you, didn't you. but i don't. i blog so i can remember my life.

april fool's to you!

;-)

the promise of sunshine :)

so today . . . it rained. again.

i know you are probably getting tired of hearing me whine about the rain, especially if you live someplace where you are buried by snow! but seriously, enough is enough...

the ground is waterlogged. my car is a mess. i am forced to wear my big puffy coat (because it has a hood.) the parking lot at school is one big puddle. we can't go outside to play at recess. i can't walk the dogs (ok, ok, i know i haven't been walking them lately anyway, but that was one of my new year's resolutions and it is just not happening in the rain!) the pups don't even want to go out! all this rain is just not normal!

but there is good news! i just checked the weather on my phone, and it looks like things are clearing up. no more rain is in the forecast until january 17th! by my calculations, that means two weeks of sunshine!! the ground will dry out. the dogs will want to walk. the big puffy coat can go back into the hall closet. life will return to normal...

and so, to celebrate the promise of sunshine, i am thinking that perhaps tomorrow i should take my car to the car wash. with the top down. just because i can :)

our sunshine goes a.w.o.l.

so today . . . rollie said, "i think maybe i will turn off the sprinklers."

we are drowning here. drowning. you know that song... "it never rains in california..." well, generally that is true. but the song goes on to say, "but girl, don't they warn ya, it pooooouuurs, man, it pours." and it is pouring! as my friend jessica says, "it is pouring pandas and lions!" (i'm not sure exactly what that means. i don't know if it is a cultural phrase or just her take on the rain. but it is certainly raining more ferociously than cats and dogs!!)

i try not to blog about the weather too often, and i have resisted for the last four days! but it is still raining--hard, oregon rain--and i cannot stay silent any longer!

AAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

rain is necessary. i know that. and california people are always complaining about water shortages. so we really shouldn't be whining about a little rain.

but we aren't having "a little" rain. we are having buckets of rain.

the streets are flooding. there is standing water in the grass. parking lots are mine fields of puddles. water is seeping through the cement block walls at school and leaking into some of the classrooms. it is a nightmare.

(on the positive side, the kids at school are napping really well!)

our dogs are freaked out! we just had a new patio cover installed, and the rain hitting that corrugated plastic is really, really loud! they do NOT want to go outside. for any reason. they go stand at the doggie door and wistfully look outside. finally, when they can't stand it any longer, they make a mad dash for the edge of the patio, and then race back in. and jump into our laps, wet feet and all!

i do not remember rain like this before. but when i went back and reread my weather blogs (to make sure i wasn't writing too much of the same thing,) i saw that we did have a storm last january. it lasted a week, and there are five blog posts to prove it! so maybe this isn't so unusual. maybe this is just our annual winter storm.

i don't mind a little rain. really, i don't. but we are getting ready to spend a week in oregon for christmas, and i have checked their weather. it is going to rain. the whole time we are there! by the time this is over, i will have had to wear my one pair of relatively waterproof footwear for almost two weeks. two weeks!! my feet are not happy about this. my wardrobe is not happy about this. my other shoes are not happy about this.

all this rain is just being wasted now, anyway. the ground is saturated! i am seriously worried that the palm trees are going to start falling over...

sigh. i miss the sun...

tan lines... what to do, what to do...

so today . . . i realized i am out of the habit of blogging every day.

but then, you already knew that, didn't you ;)

i'm not quite sure how this happened. i guess i can mostly blame it on my weakened physical condition, which weakened my mental capacities, which made it nearly impossible to blog!

i thought about it. a lot. but when it came time to put "words on paper," so to speak, it just didn't happen. but i did have a lot of thoughts, which even resulted in some blog attempts. which will probably show up in the future when my brain power is turned back on, and i can finish them.

but what worries me is being out of the blogging habit. i like to blog. i don't want to stop. but i am having trouble getting started again. so i am going to ease back into it by reposting something i wrote a couple of years ago on myspace, before i had a "real" blog. i chose this particular one to post today, because it was HOT! i know it is december, but it was over 80 degrees here. and let me tell you, when you are standing out on the playground, in the sun, waiting for your turn to go on a break, your mind kind of wanders...

this blog was originally posted on myspace thursday, march 13, 2008.

so today i am out on the playground, watching the kids in my class run around and annoy each other--because that is what they do. they call it playing, but it isn’t really--they just interact with each other until somebody does something unforgivable like touching someone’s hair, and then it begins: "i’m telling teacher" "sorry" "well, i’m telling teacher" "i SAID i was SORRY" "TEACHERRRRRR!!!" "SORRY! SORRY! SORRYYYYY!!!" so, you know, there are days that i just can’t listen to it, and i admit it--even though i am watching them, i mentally check out. There will be no help from the teacher today unless you are bleeding, so just go play! have fun! sheesh!

maybe i need a vacation.

ok, anyway, while all this was going on in the background, i was enjoying the sunshine. it was only supposed to get up to 74 today, but i am sure it was warmer than that, because even i felt hot. so i am standing there in my short-sleeved shirt (because it WAS going to be 74 after all) and the thought occurs to me "what if my arms get tan?" now normally you might think this would be a good thing with summer coming. but my shirt was not sleeveless--it had SHORT sleeves. so if my arms do get tan while i put in my time on the playground, my shoulders and upper arms are going to be white--and believe me that is the part that needs tanning the most! so now i don’t know what to do--do i just go with the lower arm tan and try to catch the rest up later, or do i go stand in the shade for now and wait until sleeveless shirt weather to hang out in the sun. you see, these are the sort of random thoughts that come to a person sometimes. i know there are other more important things i could think about, and maybe should, but sometimes i just don’t want to think about global warming (unless it is warming my face.) so my mind settles for dealing with the little questions that pop into my head, like should i go stand in the shade . . .

it is really easy for one's mind to wander when standing in unseasonably warm sunshine. there is just something relaxing (yes, even on a playground full of rowdy children,) and a little bit decadent about getting to wear short sleeves in the middle of december.

have i mentioned lately how much i love living in southern california...?

misc. midnight thoughts...

so today . . . it is almost midnight, and i haven't blogged.

i planned to blog today. one has been rolling around in my head about packing for our trip tomorrow. i've probably blogged about packing before, though, and as i said, it is almost midnight. so i am going to sleep. i will blog about packing tomorrow... maybe while we are sitting in traffic on our way to las vegas. i am pretty sure it will be a parking lot, so i will need something to distract me.

besides, i need my sleep tonight. tomorrow is our thanksgiving feast. there will be 44 people in my classroom for lunch. yes, 44. tomorrow we are not only feeding our students, but also their parents, grandparents, tiny siblings, and apparently whoever else wants to come along. i anticipate chaos. i don't do well in chaos. this is one of the few times i wish i had mood altering drugs--the kind that make you relaxed and happy--like nitrous oxide... i love nitrous oxide...

i am kind of wishing for a snow day. my mom had a snow day today. in fact, according to what i read on facebook, all of oregon had a snow day today! i think i should have a snow day tomorrow. then i wouldn't have to "feast" with 44 people in my classroom. i wouldn't even have to pack! i could just sit in front of the fire with a festive beverage and my book...

snow. in southern california. for thanksgiving.

it could happen...

i'm sure it must be fall somewhere...

so today . . . it is HOT! the santa ana winds are blowing, and it was over 95 degrees today. and in case you aren't paying attention, it is NOVEMBER!!!

i love southern california. love. it. and a big part of the reason is our moderate weather. we have about ten really hot days and five rainy days a year--the rest of the days are between 65 and 85 degrees. how can a person complain about that?!?!

oh just watch me... i have a whole list of complaints! ten, as a matter of fact :)

TOP TEN REASONS WHY IT SHOULDN'T BE 95 DEGREES IN NOVEMBER!

#10. the halloween chocolate will melt. it was just three days ago that tiny children (and some not so tiny children,) walked around after dark threatening their neighbors if they didn't get candy. i was at target last week, so i know that almost all halloween candy either has a chocolate coating or a chocolate center or is totally 100% chocolate with no distracting substances added. but chocolate doesn't respond well to heat. and since i can't believe that all that candy has already been eaten--although i am sure a lot of it has been--it is sitting on kitchen counters all over southern california, melting...

#9. it doesn't feel like fall. you know what i mean--that crispness in the air, a little bit of frost now and then, red and yellow leaves... ok, i can't blame the lack of colored leaves on the heat. probably. but it doesn't feel like pumpkin patch weather--it feels like water slide weather! and so...

#8. i can't use the fireplace. i love having a fire in the fireplace, but wood is precious here, so our fire is made from burning gas rather than burning wood. we do have trees, but you have to drive a bit of a distance to see wild ones. and since californians seem to prefer to let their trees burn naturally, you don't see too many wood burning fireplaces here. and that's ok with me. i would much rather turn a switch and light a match, than haul and stack wood. besides, can you imagine the spiders that would live in a wood pile?!?!?!? which brings me to...

#7. the spiders are confused. (this point is diandra's. she is somewhat spider-phobic. and when i say somewhat, i mean completely and totally, to hysterical proportions...) diandra says the spiders don't know what to do with this unseasonably warm weather. she says when it is warm they stay outside, but when it turns cold they migrate inside, looking for more moderate temperatures. and we did have a few cool days, so according to diandra, all the spiders have moved inside. but now that it has warmed up, they are coming out where we can see them--still inside, but out in plain sight. needless to say, she is somewhat skittish right now. she thinks the spiders are everywhere. and i have heard the screams to prove it!

#6. our tans have faded. and yet when it is this hot, you can't run around in long sleeves and tights and boots! there is a reason that arms and legs are bare in the summer time and not in the dead of winter. have you heard the term "winter white?" yeah, well it isn't just a sweater color--it is also the color of my legs by mid-october. these are the times i wish that the ethnic skeletons in my closet would make themselves known. i was sitting across the room from a filipino guy wearing shorts tonight at bible study, and i couldn't help but think, "i wish my legs were that nice caramel color in november..."

#5. my allergies are activated. the reason it is so hot is because of those blasted santa ana winds! and when the winds blow, it stirs up all sorts of stuff into the air--stuff that makes my nose run and my eyes itch. i don't like it when my nose runs and my eyes itch. when my nose runs and my eyes itch, all i want to do is curl up in bed and sleep--preferably in front of the fireplace. which i can't use, because it is too hot! (see #8)

#4. diandra is dying in her jeep. diandra has a very cool jeep wrangler. it has monster tires. the top and windows zip off so she can enjoy the socal sunshine. the boys are all jealous (which, as everyone knows, is the important thing about a vehicle!) it is the car of her dreams! unless we have unseasonably hot weather. because one thing the jeep does not have is air-conditioning. we warned her. she said it would be fine--after all, the whole top comes off! we tried to tell her that there would be times when she wanted a/c, but all she wanted was that jeep! so now she has it. and she still loves it. but when fall "arrives" and she zips the top back on, and then the santa anas blow, it gets kind of toasty inside.

#3. i can't decide what to wear. this might not sound like such a big deal, but there are issues here! (see #6) even though technically it is fall, if i try to wear fall clothing, i am going to die of heat! but summer clothing just seems wrong (although i saw several people in shorts and tank tops today.) and when you are a person that gets out of bed 15 minutes before you have to leave for work on some mornings, not knowing what clothes to throw on your body wastes precious time, making you late. my compromise (to deal with #6) is bare arms, covered legs. but it isn't as easy as it sounds.

#2. i feel the need for iced drinks, but the red cups have reportedly arrived at starbucks. that means it is time for seasonal drinks! i am not really a starbucks person, but a couple of years ago i discovered the joys of a peppermint white chocolate mocha. i even went out in a snowstorm to get one! (and not a california snowstorm either--it was an oregon "don't go out unless there is an emergency" snowstorm.) and don't tell me just to get my seasonal drink in iced form, because you cannot drink a pumpkin spice latte if there isn't some steam rising from it. really. (although an iced peppermint white chocolate mocha might not be bad... )

and the number 1 reason that it shouldn't be 95 degrees in november is...

#1. it's too hot to get into the garage and get out the christmas decorations. "what?!?!" you may be thinking, "wait, isn't this blog about ridiculously hot weather in november?? why is she talking about christmas decorations??" because, at our house we prefer to put the christmas tree up before thanksgiving, and this year diandra has requested that it we put it up extra early--like in a week or two. we do this for a couple of reasons, but mostly because we love our christmas decorations. and since december has been getting busier and busier for us, the only way we really get to sit and enjoy the beauty is to put it up early. but don't worry--it isn't like the tree is in the front window.

as you can see, this unseasonably hot weather is annoying me. thankfully we are supposed to be back to our regular fall temperatures (65-70) by the weekend--back to our sweaters, boots, hot drinks, and a fire in the fireplace.

maybe we will even brave the garage and get out those christmas decorations...

real, actual history was made today

so today . . . it was 113 degrees in downtown L.A.! yes, you read that right, 113 (sadly, there are no capitals for numbers) DEGREES!!!!!!

it was the hottest temperature EVER recorded in downtown L.A.-- not just for this date in history, but EVER. in the history of the world, there has never been a hotter day in L.A.

and i was here. i was a part of history. in the coming years, when people say, "do you remember that day that it was 113 DEGREES in L.A.?" (and they will say it with capital letters, because it was THAT hot,) i will be able to say, "yes, I WAS THERE!!"

(of course, by "there" i mean in my air-conditioned classroom, my air-conditioned car, and my air-conditioned house. stop rolling your eyes! i had to walk from the car to the classroom, and from the classroom back to the car... and THEN i had to get out of the car in my very NOT air-conditioned garage. i suffered, people!)

we are all complaining about the heat. well, except for that one tiny woman on the news who said, "it wasn't bad--just drink a lot of water!" i am guessing she spent the day inside an air-conditioned building. but the rest of us are complaining. i am 100 percent certain that everyone who is on twitter has tweeted about the weather at least once in the last couple of days...

yesterday i was complaining. loudly. yesterday it was about 105 degrees, and we had a commitment in the afternoon to attend a retirement ceremony. in a building with no air-conditioning. in our "church" clothes. i knew i was going to die. i knew i was going to be sick. i knew my feet and fingers were going to swell to heretofore unheard of dimensions.

i don't deal well with extreme heat.

for a place that really has no weather (southern california weather reporters are probably the most overpaid people in the country, considering that their job mostly consists of saying, "tomorrow the sun will shine and the temperature will be somewhere between 72 and 85 degrees." ) we spend a lot of time talking about it. i have written 27 weather blogs. today @briannaglenn tweeted, "every person in cal is tweeting about how hot it is. we do the same thing when it dips below 60. if it's not 75 and breezy, we aren't happy."

i think this is true--except for the breezy part. when you live in the shadow of hollywood, you come to expect perfection. i don't want to be cold, but i also don't want to be hot. i don't want to be wet, but i also don't want everything to dry out. i want it to be perfect. every day. and it is perfect often enough that i don't find that to be an unrealistic expectation. even if it is.

we are spoiled. that is why we complain on those rare days when it is too hot or too cold or too wet or too windy. that is why out of 534 blogs, only 27 have been about the weather--the other 507 days were perfect. or at least perfect enough. because you know, if they weren't, i would have been complaining about it. on my blog...

...where i can't actually SEE your eyes rolling...

the best laid plans . . .

so today . . . it was HOT!

it was so hot, i didn't want to go out to lunch, (and you know how i love to eat!)

it was so hot, the dogs stayed in the house instead of going outside and laying in the dirt. (i don't know why they do that--they lay there and squint into the sun...)

it was so hot, i loaned my car to diandra since she had to go shoot a wedding today. (not so good if your wedding photographer shows up drenched in sweat because she chose to buy the fun jeep wrangler with no a/c instead of the pt cruiser convertible her mother thought she should get... which i am sure would have had air conditioning.)

it was so hot, i waited until the sun went down to start the laundry (so now i will be up half the night finishing it. because since i don't iron, our clothes have to go straight from the warm dryer to their hangers.)

it was so hot, i drank a whole 2 liter bottle of pepsi one. by myself. (i know i should have been drinking water or iced tea, but it was so hot and the pepsi was so refreshing.)

(perhaps i should mention here that we do have air conditioning. and it was on. and working just fine. but i knew it was hot outside...)

we have had a lovely, temperate summer, but it is looking like we are going to have a searing hot september. when it gets over 90 degrees, i prefer air conditioning to fresh air. so we had decided to just stay home today. i was settled in with my computer and scanner, digitizing old negatives, and rollie was watching sports or something. we were perfectly happy.

and then the phone rang.

yesterday rollie took his car in to have the oil changed. when it was done, he came and picked me up from school. he hit the button to open the trunk so i could put my stuff in, and nothing happened. we quickly discovered that the electronic locks weren't working either. so the car had to go back in so that they could fix whatever they broke while changing the oil.

it was just a burned out fuse, but it required an overnight stay at the mazda dealership--which required us to go out into the 95 degree heat at 2:00 this afternoon to pick it up. at least, that is what they said when rollie answered his phone.

i drove. i got to the mazda lot and slowed down just enough for rollie to leap out of the car. because you know, if i had stopped, the air conditioning would have quit cooling. i made a quick turnaround and headed home to the air conditioned cool of the interior of our house. but as i pulled into the driveway, i remembered that i had not taken my handbag with me--i had just grabbed my sunglasses and my wallet when we left. this meant that i did not have a house key and was now locked out. in the heat. we have a key hidden in a secret place in the backyard, (go ahead stalkers--just try to find it! even if you do, you will never make it past our vicious attack dogs. and even if you survive being licked to death, we do have an alarm system. and the police do come. even when the house is a mess...) but it was so hot, i didn't want to go all the way around the house, make the dogs bark, come back to unlock the door, go back around to replace the key... it all sounded like too much trouble. i decided i would just sit in the shade and wait for rollie to come home. he should be right behind me. he should be home any minute...

and then i thought, wait. what if there is a problem? what if his car still isn't right, and i need to go back and get him? what if he has an accident on the way home? what if the repair cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and he can't pay for it until after i get paid at the end of the month? (because my paycheck is soooo huge!)

after i sat there in the shade for a couple of minutes, thinking these terrible thoughts, i realized that not only did i not have my house key, i also did not have my cell phone... which meant if any of those terrible things happened, he would not be able to reach me.

so i trudged around the house, made the dogs bark, retrieved the key, came back to unlock the front door, and returned the key to it's hiding place... and then rollie drove up.

maybe we should have just gone to lunch...

vacation: day 6

so today . . . i am freezing! like a popsicle!!

yes, it is the middle of summer. yes, i live in southern california. but today i am in oregon, and it is cold. even in the middle of summer.

when we come to oregon at christmas, we know it is going to be cold and probably wet. we pack all the sweaters we own. we look for the elusive snow boots. we hope our pathetic california coats will be adequate. we dig in boxes in the garage for stocking hats and mittens.

in other words, we plan for it.

but in the summer we are thinking shorts and tank tops and sandals. which is foolishness, i know, because the last two summers we have arrived with our warm weather apparel only to have to make a mad dash to old navy for jeans and a sweatshirt! (not that we mind, of course, it's just that i don't like being forced to shop.) so you would think i would learn...

apparently i don't.

this summer when i got ready to pack for our trip, i went online and checked the weather, again--even the extended forecast! i was ready! i was prepared!! the forecast said hot, hot, hot, followed by pretty warm--maybe a few clouds, but still warm. so i packed sundresses, tank tops, shorts, and sandals. as a concession to possibly cool nights, i threw in a light, thermal, long sleeved hoodie. when diandra asked what i was going to pack and i told her, she said, "you are only taking one pair of jeans?"

i'm pretty sure we have had this conversation before.

"yes," i said, "i am wearing my jeans on the plane, because the airports will probably be cool. but it is supposed to be sunny and warm the whole time we are there!"

"well, i'm taking two pairs of jeans," she replied, "just in case..."

it turned out to be a wise decision. the first two days we were here were almost unbearably hot. then there was a fairly pleasant day. and then oregon realized i was here and turned her chilly face toward me...

in self defense, i put my warm bathrobe (which i leave here for just such occasions) on at 4:00 this afternoon! i got out my polar fleece blanket, which i almost didn't bring (since it was supposed to be hot, hot, hot!) and i managed to weather the cold.

according to the news, it is supposed to get hot again. in a couple of days. about the time we leave.

next year i am bring three pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts!

of course, that is probably oregon's evil plan. next year every day will probably be in the 90's...

a day of discussions . . .

so today . . . was an exciting day at school. we talked about earthquakes, rain, and new glasses.

yesterday we had an earthquake. well, technically WE didn't have an earthquake. the earthquake was in mexicali, mexico, but we felt it here. it was a very strange feeling. i have been so excited to actually feel an earthquake, and yesterday i did. and then i promptly forgot about it.

this morning i had other issues on my mind, until the first little dumpling came into my room. he was so excited to tell me all about the "earfquake." this pattern repeated itself all morning, which led to a discussion about what to do if we have an earthquake at school.

midway through the morning, we were interrupted by the sound of rain on our windows. this is not small feat, since we are in a basement and our windows are at ground level. it was raining hard! and since we rarely have rain like that during the day, it was distracting. but i knew that it was supposed to clear up by late morning, so that led to a discussion about rainbows. we watched for a rainbow all morning, but with our small, ground level windows we didn't get to see one . . .

and then . . . new glasses came to school today on the face of one of my little boys. he came in so non-challantly, like "yeah, i'm wearing glasses, and now i am even more cool than i was before!" and yet, i could see a little bit of hesitation too, like "are they going to buy it? will they think i am cool? or just dorky?" so to diffuse the situation, we talked about it. i told him how cool i thought they looked and asked if he could see better when wearing them. he tilted his head to the side, thought for a moment, and then said, "no, everything looks smaller!" it was funny to watch him adjusting to them. he was having some problems, because he is korean and the bridge of his nose hasn't developed much yet, so trying to keep his glasses up on his nose was a challenge! they kept sliding down to the end of his nose, but he didn't really know what to do about it, so he would look out over the top of them. until he remembered that he was supposed to be looking through them, and then he would tip his head way back so he could see through the lenses. it was hilarious!

and that about sums up my day--pretty low key and uneventful. but you know, sometimes low key and uneventful is preferable to stressful and full of drama.

goodness knows i've had plenty of those days lately . . .

storm watch. 2010. day 5.

so today . . . is supposed to be the last day of this big storm. thank goodness!!

i'm tired of my umbrella. i'm tired of my "ugg" boots. i'm tired of mia quivering in my lap. i'm tired of rollie snapping the furry end of the tie on my hood at me (even though he has only done it twice.) i'm tired of the rain . . .

all i want to do is sleep--curl up in front of the fire with my book and my blanket and sleep. which i could do tomorrow, but tomorrow the sun is supposed to shine . . .

i will be glad for our sunshine's return home, but if only it had waited one more day . . . i would have loved to have a lazy, cozy day on the couch watching the storm.

this is purely selfish. i know there are couples planning to get married, people with disneyland tickets to use, and vendors with stuff to sell at the orange county swap meet--all of whom would like tomorrow to be a lovely, sunny day. and luckily for them, it is supposed to be nice.

but curling up in front of the fire with my book and my blanket is not quite the same when the sun is shining.

perhaps i should start working on a new plan . . .

storm watch. 2010. day 4

so today . . . i didn't see much rain. that doesn't mean it wasn't raining--i just missed it.

i had opportunities, my timing was just off. it was dry on my way to work--well, when i say dry, i mean it wasn't currently raining. although, the streets were wet. i think it must have rained in the night, but once i am asleep it takes a LOT to wake me up. rollie can wake up and turn on talk radio--i am oblivious. diandra can come home late and set the house alarm--i don't hear it. milo can walk across my chest to get to rollie--ok, i am kind of aware of his 16 pound body pretending like i am the ground beneath his feet, but i don't really wake up. so rain at night? doesn't faze me.

about 11:00 i started thinking about lunch. and i thought i might like a soda with my lunch today. and i thought i might like to go get it without risking drowning, so timing was going to be important. the only problem was, i had just two times from which to choose--my 15 minute break at 11:45 or my lunch half hour at 1:00. and since the rain has not been following the schedule i have laid out for it the last couple of days, i wasn't sure which would be the better choice.

and then i remembered--accuweather!

accuweather is an app that rollie showed me early this week. i had downloaded it to my phone, but hadn't used it yet. so i tapped my fingers on the screen of my cool new phone, and a radar picture popped up. cerritos was marked on the map with an X, which was very helpful as i could see where the rain was. but it kept moving! at first the worst of it was headed toward san diego, and i thought a soda might be in my future . . . but then when i looked half an hour later, it had moved back up into our area.

clearly i needed more information. and guess what? accuweather has LOTS of information. in addition to the real time radar map, it also shows the current temperature, what direction the wind is blowing and how hard, and also the humidity. then it takes those factors into consideration to give a "real feel" temperature. it has a daily forecast for the next two weeks, AND it also lists the weather conditions for each hour of the day.

that is the feature that i consulted in making my decision about a soda run. according to accuweather, it was going to be raining in the 11:00 and 12:00 hours. but at 1:00, it just showed a cloud with lightning! i decided that was my best bet. i was so excited about this information, that i texted rollie about my decision. his reply? "i can see how you would rather die from a lightning strike than drown--quicker. :) btw, i think that symbol means lightning storms, i.e. harder rain."

shoot! i hadn't thought of that. but he was probably right, as lightning is usually accompanied by rain in the winter time. so i decided to stay in where it was warm and just drink tea at lunch. who knew accuweather could also assist in encouraging healthy eating?

i noticed there was one button i hadn't yet pushed. it was on the lower right hand corner of the screen and was marked with three stars. i had ignored it for quite a while, because i just figured it was some kind of rating scale. but as i continued to play with the app, my curiosity got the better of me, and i pushed it.

and started laughing.

onto my screen popped a fairly extensive list of activities that were rated according to the weather conditions. for instance, today the rating for barbequing, beach going, biking, golf, hiking, kite flying, lawn mowing, outdoor concerts, stargazing, tennis, and travel was poor. it's a good thing i had an app to tell me that. otherwise i might just have decided to get out my kite after school . . . it was also poor for the flu and arthritis. however, it was fair for asthma, colds, and sinus. good to know, considering my doctor thinks i suffer from two out of three of those conditions. could the weather today be rated excellent for anything, you ask? oh yes it could--grass growing, migraines, mosquitoes (i am assuming that means excellent because there aren't any!) and uv exposure! no sunscreen needed today!!

i am in love with this app. i showed it to ms. martha, and she immediately downloaded it onto her iphone. i know that it is entertaining today because we are actually having some weather. when this storm system passes and we go back to living in the land of eternal sunshine, it isn't going to be nearly as interesting.

and yet, i am glad to know that i can always look to accuweather to see if i should get out the mosquito repellant . . .

***note to mom--download this app if you do not already have it. i think you will love it too :)

storm watch. 2010. day 3.

so today . . . at 3:45 p.m. the rain ceased to be entertaining.

the day once again started out dry. i even checked with rollie about the forecast, because while my phone said it would only get up to 58 degrees today, it said nothing about rain. he assured me that the rain was coming . . .

i've come to hate the look of a cloudy, gray sky. and my closet full of dry weather clothes.

when i am at school, i am oblivious to the weather. my classroom is in the basement with narrow windows at ceiling height, and all we can see is the top of the building next door. we have heat and air conditioning and nice bright lights, so our temperature and visibility are unaffected by the weather. until we go up to the gym for recess, we have no idea of what is going on outside. which usually doesn't matter, because usually the sun is shining! but today when we went upstairs for playtime in the gym, i noticed that although the sky was cloudy and gray, there was still no rain.

so on my 15 minute break, i made an uneventful (this time) dash to 7-11 for emergency supplies (you know what i am talking about!) i noticed that one part of the sky was significantly darker than the rest. oh good, i thought to myself, maybe the storm is going past us today. yeah, well, i believed that little fairy tale until i realized that the dark part of the sky was to the west of us, and that crazy jet stream is traveling east.

now that i had supplies, i was able to stay inside during my lunch break. my plan had been a nice lunch with my book at chick-fil-a, since i had a whole hour today. but after seeing that sky, i could just imagine myself having to dash back to my car in the flooded parking lot with pouring rain drenching me and then spending the rest of the afternoon cold and wet. no thank you!

i fully expected the rain to be over by the time i left for home. that is what happened on monday. that is what happened yesterday. and our weather is nothing if not predictable. in fact, we rarely see the rain, because it almost always rains at night here. i don't know why, it just does . . .

so i put on my coat, picked up my handbag and computer bag and umbrella, and headed for the door. i could see that it was raining, so i adjusted my bags so that they were both on my shoulder and would be protected under the umbrella. i put my hood up. (don't ask why, i have no idea. i had an umbrella, but it just seemed like the thing to do.) i pushed open the door and started up the outside stairs. when i got to the top of the stairs, i stopped. i couldn't believe my eyes. the wind was blowing, and rain was coming down in sheets! you could see walls of it moving across the parking lot. this was more rain than i had seen since the day it rained something like 15 inches in one day when we lived at the coast. and that was ten years ago!!

i stood there for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. then i realized that even though i was kind of protected by the building, i was still getting wet! ok, make a dash for it, i thought. so i did--over the flooded grass and through the really flooded parking lot. i decided against opening the trunk in favor of trying to stuff my bags into the car, over the driver's seat, and into the passenger seat--yeah, that is why i usually use the trunk! i opened the door ready to fling my bags in . . . and discovered a major design flaw with my perfect little roadster--when sheets of rain are blowing across the roof and you open the door, the water falls in a stream straight down into the driver's seat! uh huh . . .

i didn't know what to do. i just stood there and watched my bucket seat fill up with rain water. should i put my bags in? but i would have to put them in the wet driver's seat first before i could bend down and lift them over the emergency brake into the other seat. and i couldn't bend down, because i was holding my umbrella (for all the good THAT was doing) and it was stuck between the roof of the car and the car door. should i just get in and try to pull them in after me? sit in that puddle?!?!?! are you kidding me?!?! maybe i should just open the trunk after all. but then all my eco-friendly cloth shopping bags would get wet. oh, and btw, THE PUDDLE IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT WAS NOT GETTING ANY SMALLER! i needed to do something!!

so i slammed the door closed and ran back into the school building.

you might think this was counterproductive. after all, i was already at the car. i was already about as wet as i could get. and now i had just doubled the amount of times i was going to have to slosh across the flooded parking lot. and maybe you would be right. but all i could think was my car is filling up with water and i don't know how to make it stop!!

so it was time to regroup. i needed a plan b. first things first--i walked down the hall and told ms. martha what had happened. i needed some sympathy and understanding, and i needed it fast! and then i started looking for the paper towels. because i figured that with all the rain around our school in the basement, real, dry, cotton towels were going to be scarce. but it was my lucky day (really?!?!?) because one was located.

ok, both bags on my shoulder, hood up, soda dumped (oh yes, i forgot to mention that i also had a soda in my hand before . . . ) umbrella in position, and towel in hand. i was ready to give it another try.

i went out the door and up the stairs. i peeked out into the parking lot. ok, good. the rain seemed to have slowed just a bit, and the wind had died down, so at least the rain was vertical now instead of horizontal. my feet and pants were already wet, so i took the shortest route to my car, even though i didn't have my water wings handy. i opened the car door, and without the wind blowing the water across my roof, the rain followed the little gutter around the door and down the side. yes!! ok, now just maneuver the bags in, and . . . then the wind blew, gustily!! the water coursed across the roof and down into the seat, and right INTO my handbag and computer bag!! i frantically tried to fling them across into the other seat, but the handles caught on the emergency brake. i couldn't reach far enough in to free them without letting go of the umbrella. and if i let go of the umbrella it would blow away. and, oh yeah, now there was more water in the driver's seat!! AAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!

i collapsed the umbrella, threw it onto the floor, put the towel in the driver's seat, threw myself into the car, and slammed the door shut! and the rain continued!

ok, well at least i was in the car. i was soaked, as was my seat, my carpet, and both the inside and outside of my bags, but we were all safe now. i hoped. all i had to do was get home and into the garage.

i started home, and knew i was in trouble when i saw the cars coming toward me on the road. great fountains of water were spraying high into the air. that is fine if you are driving an suv (rollie) or a jeep (diandra) but if you are driving a mazda mx-5 . . .

great! i survived the sinus rinsing only to drown on my way home from work . . .

i only live a mile from school, and i did not know if i was going to make it home. there was water across the road, but there was no where else to go. so i pretended my car was chitty chitty bang bang and plowed on through. i was afraid that if i stopped, my car might stall. (of course, i have no idea how a car works, so i don't know if that was a real danger or not.) i was trying to figure out how deep the water was, when i saw some high school kids running across the street. and the water was almost up to their knees! i turned into our neighborhood and couldn't see the road. it was completely flooded. the water was up over the sidewalks. i aimed my little car for the center of the road and tried to make it home without hydroplaning. i wasn't completely sure that my car was going to respond when i slowed down to turn into our driveway. but it did. and i coasted into lovely dryness.

i'm thinking maybe i should spend day 4 of storm watch 2010 in bed. warm and dry. with a book . . .

storm watch. 2010. day 2.

so today . . . it rained some more. really, really, really hard. and there was thunder and lightning too!

but it didn't start out that way. when i looked out the window this morning, it was mostly cloudy, but it was those smooth, high, white clouds with a tiny bit of blue peeking through. hmm. maybe that dumb jet stream had settled back into it's normal path and was sending the rain to washington or oregon where it belonged!

but just in case, a shoe decision had to be made. they were still predicting rain, which kind of affects footwear choices. i looked in my closet. bad news. my closet is filled with shoes--suede shoes, canvas shoes, open toe shoes, high heeled shoes--none of which were going to keep my feet toasty warm and dry. the best thing i could come up with were my black "ugg" boots. (notice the quotation marks--because real ugg boots are just slightly beyond my budget. but my boots are made from real suede, and i thought if cows can wear it in the rain . . . )

AND it was cold enough for the new sweater i got for christmas to finally see the light of day. it is big and soft and cozy, and i felt like i was wearing a snuggie all day--except i didn't trip over it!

when i got to school, i could see through my tiny little windows near the ceiling--yeah, my classroom is in a basement--that as the morning wore on, it was getting darker outside. and then, about noon, the rain began . . . gigantic drops were flung from the sky! the ground was soon flooded! the storm drains couldn't keep up! there was thunder. there was lightning. there was even a tornado warning!! i was thinking, where are we? kansas?!?!?!

since it is tuesday, rollie brought me lunch. he even braved the storm and went into an actual restaurant for food (well, panda express) instead of going through a drive-through. and then he parked in the closest parking space to the door of my school. he texted me, "wow. thunder. lightning. heavy rain. feels like oregon. be sure to wear something on your head when you come." thank goodness i had the sense to wear my big, puffy coat with the hood--even though (gasp!) it didn't match my outfit. i raced from the school to the car, which probably took all of 10 seconds, and i was drenched! we sat in the car munching our orange chicken and watching everyone else slosh through the flood to get to their cars. we listened to the rain pound the roof, and watched for lightning. and then, we noticed that we couldn't hear the rain on the roof anymore, even though it was still raining. and then it stopped.

the clouds dissipated, the puddles drained, and the sun fought to shine. all in the half hour i call my lunch time . . .

i walked back into the school without my coat, collected my students and finished out the afternoon.

at the end of my day, when i took my kids over to the other building for chinese and spanish classes, i saw joshua--remember? from last year? and he said to me, "i love the rain." so we talked about the rain for a few minutes. and then i said, "do you know who does not like the rain? milo!" and i told him the story about how yesterday i had to go out into the backyard with my umbrella and stand out there with milo until he would finally poop. and how milo didn't want to be out there in the rain, but i made him stay out there, because i knew he had to go to the bathroom.

joshua just looked at me for a minute. and then he said, "don't you have a toilet in your house?"

i guess he had forgotten that milo is a dog . . .

storm watch. 2010. day 1.

*disclaimer* we are supposed to have very wet weather for the next two weeks. and having spent a large portion of my life in the pacific northwest, i find a lot of humor in this situation. however, the reality is that many people whose homes were spared during fire season, will now lose them due to mudslides. this is not funny at all. so when i mock the socal response to rain, i am speaking of my little corner of the world, where the ground is flat and covered in concrete--NOT the areas where people are standing in the pouring rain, filling bags with sand, and stacking them as their only hope to save their homes . . .

so today . . . it rained. i knew it was coming, so i was prepared. well, partly--my gas tank was full--which meant i wouldn't have to battle the elements to keep my car on the road. and i was finally going to get to wear my warm sweater . . .

i had to go to work today, even though it was a holiday. rollie and diandra both had the day off, so i was not totally thrilled to be leaving the house before 8:00 this morning. but by 9:00 we only had 7 children between the three pre-k/kindergarten classes. hmmm, i thought. perhaps someone was going to get to go home early. and maybe that someone could be me!

by 10:30 more children had arrived--i guess the rain didn't keep them all home, it just slowed them down--but we were still well under our teacher/student ratio. hope gleamed brightly in my "oh, i want to go home early" brain.

and then there was chocolate cake!! yes, even on this cold and rainy day there was a birthday. and the best part is, it wasn't one of my students!

(i hate birthdays in my classroom, but that is a topic for another day . . . )

AND there was macaroni and cheese for lunch! with peas!! could there be a better lunch on a rainy day?!?! i think not! but as it turned out, i missed out on lunch . . . BECAUSE I GOT TO GO HOME EARLY! yes, yes, yes!!

it was like a snow day (except i had to get up and to go work for four hours.) rollie was home too, so we ate our lunch and watched the rain pour! we watched a movie. i stood in the rain in the backyard for several minutes (while rollie laughed from inside) until milo finally did his doggie business--he did NOT want to go outside! (i was going to have rollie take a picture for the blog, but he would have had to open the patio door, and then milo would have raced back into the house, mission UNaccomplished. so this photo will have to do, to prove that i am not making all this weather stuff up . . . ) and then the rain slowed down and finally stopped.

that changed my plan for the afternoon. my plan for my bonus afternoon off was to take a nap. but after experiencing the pouring, blowing rain today, i decided that maybe i should go out and get supplies during the eye of the storm. so i refilled our water jugs, and then went to costco.

apparently everybody else had the same idea that i had, because the costco parking lot was packed! i filled my cart with food and then stood in the shortest check-out line--which of course was also the slowest check-out line.

while i was standing in line, i noticed the people around me. and their shoes. i was wearing my snow boots--not the most fashionable choice, but i did not want to have wet, cold feet. several other people had made similar decisions. usually i am surrounded by fancy footwear, but not today. there were still those holding on to style whose boots had high heels, but i feared for their safety on the wet, slippery floors and sidewalks. and then there were the young men. they were not giving up their sneakers, but you know how they wear their pants! so they were all walking around with jeans that were wet clear up to the knee, but hey! they looked cool, i guess . . .

so now we have food and water and full tanks of gas. i think we are well prepared for whatever weather comes our way. which is good, because it sounds like today was just the tip of the iceberg. we have a whole series of storms just waiting to pummel us! it is going to get messy, people . . .