The other day I was eating lunch at one of my favorite cafés, & I was pleasantly surprised by what I witnessed. There were two high school girls sharing their sandwiches with each other (it was a National holiday, so no school for kids). What surprised me was one of the girls said to the other girl, “Let’s put our phones away, so we can have an actual conversation.” That truly shocked me, that there are kids in the Millenial generation willing to put down their smartphones & talk face-to-face with another human being.

Today, I’m back at my local big box coffee shop, writing this blog. I have a difficult time writing at home; mostly, I don’t feel any motivation whatsoever when I’m at home to write anything. I come out to my neighborhood coffee shop, buy an adequate cup of coffee & a less-than-filling pastry, plug in a pair of headphones I confiscated from Jian into my iPod, & begin my mediocre blog writing. Usually I would say that the heavy foot traffic, loud noise, & warm atmosphere coupled with my iPod’s music is what gets my creative juices flowing, but I’m not sure if that’s entirely true. My house is rarely quiet, mostly cold & drafty, but I’ve got a great portable radiator heater to keep me toasty, & I’ve got an immensely larger music playlist on my home computer compared to my small iPod. Somehow, amongst all this outside raucous, I feel most at peace, quiet, isolated (but not alone), & happy to escape for an hour or two.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

I am so excited for this year’s rainy weather. I am not even going to bother with seasons. I can’t even tell what season we’re in over here on the West Coast. We had no rain at all during last year’s winter, hardly three or four frosty days, then got slammed right into spring, which quickly evolved into summer. Summer was impossibly long this year. What is especially true for the area I live in is that we hardly have any sweltering hot days during our summer months. Real summer weather arrives later for my area. We get approximately two weeks of true Indian Summer between September and October. Then, autumn falls down on us like a ton of bricks. The thick marine layer & fog blankets my area quickly throughout the day & turns into windy, chilly nights.

Over the past few weeks, my area has experienced a few rain showers, & one thunder storm, which caused one of my neighbors (two streets down from mine) to have their backyard tree get struck by lightning. The tree got hit by lightning & split in half with one half hitting their roofline. I remember that day clearly because it was raining heavily in the morning, then a thundercloud clapped so loudly that it rattled all of the windows in my house & shook our house a bit. The sound was so loud that I freaked out & hastily ducked under my bed sheets (not that hiding under blankets would’ve done any good). Jian ran out in his pajamas to check on the rest of the house. I’ve never seen him rush out of the room faster. Later that night, we heard about our neighbors & their lightning struck tree on the evening news. The whole experience was both frightening AND exciting at the same time.

I can’t wait to experience more rain storms with thunder & lightning again. I enjoy watching lightning when it rains. The sound of thunder initially startle me, but I enjoy it once I get used to the sound. I also enjoy going out in the rain. I like being in the car when it’s raining, although I do not like driving in the rain. Driving in the rain, especially by myself, practically terrifies me. I don’t mind if it’s Jian driving though. He has nearly impeccable driving skills (& manners)…especially when it’s raining. I can’t say that I enjoy the frizzy hair part of going out in the rain. My hair gets frizzy the second it encounters anything humid or wet, & I don’t just look like a wet Saint Bernard, I look like a rag doll that’s been dragged through a briar patch by my hair. No amount of hair product, hair brushing, or hair styling can pull my hair out of its frizzy, sloppy, rat’s nest. That’s the only part I cannot stand about rainy weather, but I bet that’s how many ladies feel as well.

It’s a sunny day today. It’s by no means a warm day; the temperatures have been steadily dropping recently, & I hope the weather gets even colder as the days go by. I’m supposed to be going to Disneyland again this Thanksgiving with my nephew & niece. We all go as a family to Disneyland every year as a Thanksgiving tradition, per my older brother’s insistence. Every time we go, it’s always hot. It’s almost December! How can it be hot in December?!?! That’s so not cool (no pun intended). Well, I’m off to enjoy the bright sunshine…and bask in the chilly air with my comfy scarf. Cheers.

Today’s song of the day: