cats and dogs

it is raining in SHEETS. reminds me of:

1. the rain barrels at Grandma's house, and how soft her hair is from washing it with rain water
2. playing in puddles with my best friend Karen
3. after a huge rainstorm, finding a tiny baby rabbit behind a downspout at my university dormitory, and raising it for a month with the help of a kind-hearted Resident Assistant (we released it in my sister's backyard out in the country) (also remembering how it pooped all over a double-page ad of Madonna that we used to line its box - one of my favorite photos ever)
   
4. how everyone in Tokyo seems to have an umbrella and can even ride their bikes and smoke cigarettes while holding them
5. rain hammering on the tin roof at a cottage in Point Reyes
6. rinsing mud spatters from newly sprouted miniature iris and chionodoxia
7. the leak in the basement
8. going for midnight swims in summer, even in the rain as long as there wasn't any lightning
9. the smell of the forest after a spring shower, when we'd go mushroom hunting in the early morning and the mountains were still full of mist
   
10. getting drenched at a baseball game, waiting it out for two hours (hooray for ponchos!), and then cheering the home team on to a big win

i do love the rain.