The Rain

It's January and I live in Seattle. That means it rains. Every day. Yesterday the sun came out and teased us for about thirty minutes. Then the deluge started. As I've mentioned before, I'm not from Seattle. I did not grow up with a rainy season. In Seattle only tourists carry umbrellas. I am still a tourist. I carry my umbrella even in a drizzle.

To appear busy, the weather reporters show when you can expect light rain, medium rain, supersized rain or even rain and wind. This morning was supersized rain. The kind where you get soaked in 2.9 seconds. The kind where your kids get wet from the top down and from the bottom up at the same time. Lovely.

My kids were born in New Jersey. We moved here 4 years ago when they were 2 and 3 years old. They don't remember New Jersey. They think they were born here. They act like they were born here. They don't mind the rain.

This morning at the bus stop in the supersized rain I had my umbrella. It's not a wimpy $5 Walmart umbrella. Mine is a giant Seattle-tourist-sized golf umbrella. I can fit an entire T-ball team under my umbrella. (Yes, I've done it. Twice.) But, my kids wanted no part of my umbrella. They would rather be in the rain. I watched them play. They acted like they didn't even notice the rain. True Seattleites.

I wonder how many more years before I stop noticing the rain?

Thanks Uncle!

I got an unexpected phone call today from my uncle. I haven't talked to him in over 2 years since I moved to Washington from New Jersey. He's always been the uncle that I was closest too and it was great to hear from him.

He called because he ran into an old friend of mine (and yes, I did just call her old! :P ) at a bar in Kearny, NJ (that's pronounced CAR knee). He said talking to her made him think of me and he just had to call and see how I was doing. His calling really made my night!

I've made a lot of good friends here in Washington, but I don't have much of a past with any of them. The longest I've known any of them is 2.5 years! But most of my friends I met only a year ago. So we share a lot of common complaints about bills, traffic, kids and husbands. We share laughter in the good times and drinks in the bad times.

But there's no one here in Washington like my uncle who'll say, "remember that time when you were 5 and you refused to go to school because you wanted to the spend the entire day with me?" There's no one here who'll say, "your cousin is turning into you. She's so stubborn these days!" There's no one here who will say, "How ya doin?" and mean it. There are lots of people here who will say, "How ya doin?" just to mock my "accent." (I don't really have an accent. I don't know why people don't pronounce the "w" in Dawn or the "w" in talk like I do :P )

So it was good to hear from my uncle. It was good know that I can be the missing link for people meeting thousands of miles away. It's good to keep in touch with your past. Uncle, thanks for calling!