Puddles

Puddles

Authors note

English is not my first language, prepare to dance through a few mispronunciations and misspellings.

At any given time in the past 25 years, if you were to ask me if I loved the rain my answer would have been a flat absolutely not!

I have often complained about how much I cannot stand the rain, even though I have lived most of my life in the rain!

The funny thing is, when I would complain about being cold, or not liking the rain, I would often get surprised looks from various individuals, and receive comments such as, “I thought you were from Sweden? Shouldn’t you be ok with the weather?”

My smart-ass comment would be something like, “Well there’s a reason why I left Sweden isn’t there?”

I just love the climate in Southern California: no more big jackets, hats, gloves or walking backwards against the cold winter wind! (My hometown is right by the ocean and it gets windy!)

It feels so good to throw on a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a pair of flip-flops. Then head out the door, it’s so simple and carefree!

I call it my happy medium!

Today was one of those days when I woke up from hearing the rain beating hard on the windows, which is a very unusual thing for us here in Los Angeles. Especially now more than ever being in a big drought!

As I was lying there, starring at the clock, I started to get annoyed that I was not able to fall back asleep again. I mean it was 3am for goodness sake!

My mind started to wander; it took me back to my child hood.

I thought about the activities I used to do as a child, playing outdoors in the rain and some other very fun memories.

It made me think of when I was 4 years old, my favorite thing as a child was to jump into puddles. Some of you might say, “There’s no way you can remember that age”, but I actually do. I had two traumatic events that happened during that age.

One being my parents separation, we were forced to relocate to a different city. Secondly, I almost drowned in a swimming pool.

What I mostly remember about moving away is that I could no longer play outside in the puddles by the parking lot.

My brother and I used to balance on wood planks that hovered over large puddles. To us they looked like rivers and it was a fun challenge not to fall in when balancing across.

Another thing I loved to do as a child was the thrill of running outside in the open when thunder and lightning would hit. Sometimes, when we watched a big storm rolling in, we would count how far away it was, before the lightening would strike! Then “boom!” thunder and lightning! After the storm passed, the beautiful rainbow would appear, glistening down on us from afar. We kids would dream about finding the treasure at the end of it and of course I’m still looking for that treasure!

In a million years, I never thought I’d say this but looking back, rain surely brought joy to my life!

Today was one of those days when it got me thinking. It was storming most of the day, and for some reason I enjoyed throwing my rain boots on and just being in the moment. Driving around, watching all the chaos in traffic, no offense, but no one seems to know how to drive in California when it rains! You can either throw a tantrum or just ride the wave.

Today, I decided to ride the wave. As I hit this gigantic puddle on the side of the road, my first thought was to look and make sure I didn’t splash someone on the sidewalk. That’s when I suddenly thought of something I experienced a few years ago, I started to chuckle. My daughter turned to me staring at me confused.

It happened on one of the trips I took with my mom to visit my grandmother in Slovenia. It was during the hot summer months and we had just eaten breakfast with her. We had listened to one of her incredible stories from her lifetime.

Just to give you some quick background on her: she is 91 years old, uses a laptop, skypes, smart as a whip, spends time learning everything that goes on in the world, she’s on top of all the news in her neighborhood.

Listening to her stories is fantastic; I hope I can be just like her, as I grow old! She often quizzes me to make sure I’m up to date on all the news around the world.

That particular morning, my mom and I had planned to walk into the city, to do our end of trip shopping, grab some espresso and eat some awesome pastries that we cant find in our countries. The walk takes approximately 30 minutes. My grandma told my mother and I that she had been watching the weather channel and it looked like a big storm was about to hit! She suggested that we bring umbrellas, or that maybe we just stick around at home altogether.

But there was no way we were just going to stay at home because of some rain. We wanted to get to the city, and nothing was going to stop us!

We gave each other that silent look that it was time to bolt before my grandma would persuade us to stay in.

We both agreed that she was over reacting, after all it was sunny outside.

It had been in the upper 80’s the whole time since we arrived, how bad could a little rain be?

Carrying umbrellas around was for silly people. We did not take her advice, nor did we dress in any way that would help us in the event that my grandma was right. We left wearing our skirts and flip-flops with two big smiles on our faces!

Mamika, my grandma, must be exaggerating, “ a major storm here in the summer time?” I said laughing to my mom as we walked.

As we walked into the city, we made our way into a couple stores, running our errands. When we were on our last stop at the café, we heard the thunder and as we came out onto the street, we saw things flying around, it was very dark outside.

The rain was pouring down; it was as if you had turned the faucet of a sink on full throttle!

If you stood outside for even one minute, you would have been completely soaked!

“I guess we have to get umbrellas!” I yelled to my mom, who chose not to follow me. My mom, pig headed as usual, wanted to stand under cover until the storm passes.

On the other hand, I was not about to get stuck in the city all day; this could be an endless storm.

We had to get the hell out; we were better off running home under some umbrellas. However the wind was not helping our cause, those umbrellas were bending and flopping around, and the only way it would remotely work, was if you held it in front of you fighting the wind.

My grandmother should have seen us, it was pathetic.

My mom was not pleased with my decision, we were arguing the whole way as we were fighting the wind and leaping around the large forming puddles.

Of course my poor mom wears glasses and she could barely see out through her lenses, it was no picnic for her. I could not relate with her therefore I had no sympathy for how hard it was for her.

I acted like a brat, telling her to suck it up! My poor mom.. trust me,

karma is a bitch!

As we were huffing and puffing and fighting the rain and wind, we were now about halfway home. Then this joker of a man, appears out of nowhere in his car and he decides to enjoy himself, by driving up close towards the sidewalk. As he drove by us, he sped up and hit the biggest puddle! Bam!! Not only did my skirt fly up, I was completely drenched.

I was so taken back, that I stopped in my tracks with my mouth wide open, then I quickly thought of my mother, and as I glanced at her and saw her standing there, like a drenched cat, all wet and muddy, the glasses were hanging off of my moms face. I’m not sure what seemed to be left of them.

We took one look at each other, and just burst into hysterical laughing, with tears rolling down our cheeks, we were both on the ground almost peeing on ourselves from laughter! This was just so unbelievably funny.

After we came to our senses, we folded up what was left of our umbrellas, and started walking home all drenched, just laughing and enjoying each other’s company.

We stopped at a bakery, and bought some amazing freshly baked donuts filled with raspberry sauce to bring back to my grandma for our afternoon coffee.

The look on my grandmothers face, when she saw us walk into her kitchen muddy and soaked, was classic.

She didn’t lecture us, but as the mother that she is, she ordered us to take a nice warm shower, and served us her famous homemade chicken soup!

I think she saw we had learned our lesson (always listen to your elders) or karma will get you!!

Sharing this crazy moment with my mother was special

It’s one of those times in life, I can seriously say, “I love the rain!”

I truly love you mom,

Sorry I was so rough on you!