Let's Get This Camry Started

Today I found my car quite dead about 45 minutes before work. Though she can't do anything from three hours away, I called my mom.

Afterwards I brought my friend Jameson's truck beside my car. A stubborn lever made opening the hood a struggle but I managed. I got my jumper cables, hooked up the truck and my car, and got the latter going. And I didn't even cross the wires.

It's something small, but I'm happy to know I can take care of myself. Here and there I learn something new and I get a little smarter, a bit more grown-up.

"Up" and Away

I FINALLY watched "Up". The advice I continued receiving was, "If you can get through the first 10 minutes you'll be OK." I braced my emotions as best possible while the film opened with a black and white news reel.

First 10 minutes? Ha! My feelings took a roller-coaster ride, dipping into sadness one scene and climbing to amusement or joy the next. Somehow I made it through the entire thing, frazzled and exhausted.

I sobbed quietly on the outside but I was a torrent inside. It was for abandoned dreams and plans of events and places. I recalled with pain friendships gone adrift or completely lost. I wept for the to-do lists many of us create but are forced to discard when friends are no longer there because X or Y.

Friendships come, go and change. However, I always hope to have you to share this ride called life with. That's how I know in the end I will be able to successfully fill my adventure book.

It's Still Raining There

Rain... my God I love that sound.

No words can ever express what it means to me, though a few can give you an idea: memories, peace, redemption, life. My soul's bitter dirt and grime floods away along with pebbles and dirt for at least a moment and the soft earth side of me, the one that splashed in puddles and climbed a nearby dam in the middle of a long ago storm comes back.

Tonight I stepped outside my apartment's shelter and put myself at the mercy of the sky. Droplets hit me like soft bullets that gently exploded on my skin. I was soaked but intact. So is that rainy day, from drenched clothes to God painting.

I hope we always remember when it rained.