Rain

Last night, I looked though my balcony sliding glass doors and saw a storm cloud rolling in from the West. I snapped a few photos of it.

'This must be the storm cloud that Noël was telling me about,' I thought. She lives about two hours away from me which, coincidentally, is about as much time as we spend talking to each other every phone session. I live by the beach whereas she lives nestled between the mountains.

I went into my kitchen and turned on the gas stove. I started boiling water for my dinner: ramen. Legit ramen. OK, so the noodles were store bought, but still--boiling water, miso paste, veggies, an egg, tofu, and ramen noodles. In Japan. That's about 99% legit, if you round up.

As I added ingredients to my soup, the kitchen lights flickered. Lightening flashed. Before I could react, my apartment rumbled with the rolling thunder. Strange, strange weather for a Cali girl like me. Did I mention that it's about 80 degrees Fahrenheit? At night?!

I turned off the lights to try to get a better glimpse of the bolts of lightening. The view of my town appeared hazy through the thick sheets of rain.

Flash. My neighbors' houses appeared as though bathed in a split second of daylight. Rumble.

Flash. Rumble. Again.

Flash! Rumble! And again.

The lightening must have been striking on the other side of my apartment because there were no bolts in view from my kitchen glass door. I was ready with my camera (I was curious about my modest point-and-shoot's capabilities), but unless I actually ventured out into the night, I wasn't going to catch any lightening for a picture this evening.

I had my piping hot bowl of soup alone in my dining room while I listened to the sound of pouring rain and rolling thunder. Later, I fell asleep to the lullaby of gentle rainfall.

This morning, I biked to school in bright, sunny weather. The air was cooler than usual and smelled fresh and clean.