Yes, I Still Love the Rain

I love the rain, so I was very happy when it rained all day and I got to sit inside the teacher's office at my school with not much better to do than turn and look out the window at the rain falling while the little sparrows hopped around looking for sustenance or shelter. The weather continued to cool, so I was feeling pretty genki all around. When it came time to leave I grabbed my pink umbrella and set off in the light shower toward home praying I wouldn't come across any habu sneaking out of the fields as I walked past. Then the rain started falling a little harder, but I was still happy it was raining. Then a car drove by splashing the water out of a pothole and soaking me with cold dirty water just as I had been looking at the little rivulets running under my feet and wondering what was mixed in with the rain water run-off as I walked by the livestock yards I pass on my way to and from school everyday I go to my visiting school. 

So now I was walking through the rain, soaked with rainwater and who knows what, but I was still happy, not as happy as I was before I was drenched by the car driving through the pothole, but happy nonetheless. Then I started wondering  why I had to get drenched by that car driving through the pothole. (I guess that comes from watching too much My Name Is Earl and thinking about karma.) As I reached the top of the hill I was able to see out over the valley and the river and saw heavier rain...heavier rain headed straight for me. Perhaps that was why I had to be drenched so I wouldn't be

 unhappy with the rain. (I know. I'm weird.) So I continue walking and the rain falls harder and then I feel a drop of rain on my back, so I look up at my umbrella to find a leak in my favorite pink umbrella.

Now I'm getting drenched because the rain is falling harder and it's coming in sideways with every huge gust of wind that's also trying to rip my favorite umbrella out of my hands. My shoes are soaked because there are invisible puddles everywhere. I'm getting drips of cold water down my back from my leaky umbrella, and the only part of me that isn't soaked with rainwater is my head, which is soaked with sweat because I'm walking as fast as I can uphill and down to try to hurry and get home faster realizing that I need to go to the grocery store because I have no food at home.

Then I get to the 11, which is the street I live on. The 11. My 11. My street riddled with potholes that haven't been filled because they're doing construction to widen the road. I want to take off running to try to get to the part of the sidewalk further away from the street not that I really think it'll do much good seeing as there are A LOT of potholes on the 11 with lots of water to splash far as the drivers forget they're driving on roads made with coral making them extra slick in the rain so they're ignoring whatever the speed limit is and driving really fast giving the water in the pothole the extra energy needed to reach me way over on the other side of the sidewalk. So, back to the running part where I think about running home to avoid being splashed any further and I realize that's not going to happen since I live at the top of a hill. 

But yes, I do still love the rain.

(By the way, genki means fine or healthy and energetic. The habu is a poisonous snake here in Okinawa. There is an alcoholic drink here called awamori and one version of it is made with the habu. It's quite nice and spicy.)