I wasn’t sure I wanted to move to one of the rainiest places on earth, but I went along with it anyway. And I was feeling kind of grey today as the clouds drizzled out whatever one of a dozen types of precipitation they have odd names for here.
My favorite weatherman makes predictions like this: “today we’ll have cloudy skies, giving way to showers, followed by afternoon precipitation, a chance of some sprinkles this evening, then increasing clouds tonight with marine layer fog giving way to morning rain.” Seriously! It’s a big adjustment for a woman who had become accustomed to Virginia sunshine.
A handful of times now I have walked my eleven year old to his new school and each time I passed another mom pushing a double stroller. Today this same mom said with a grin, “nice jacket,” and she continued walking past.
“Nice jacket?” I muttered to myself while pushing a small smile toward her. This was the functional goretex jacket that I had purchased as one of my token “becoming a northwesterner” survival items. I had chosen it in a deep eggplant purple color in my effort to add something colorful to what I knew would become my uniform here in this soggy place.
For the next moment, I turned as she passed and realized that she too had on an eggplant jacket. Not the same one; hers was made of fleece. Perhaps, I thought, her skin had evolved some water-impermeable surface as a result of surviving here? I smiled to myself.
Realizing her comment was genuine, I returned a reference complimenting her taste in outerwear colors and we parted laughing.
We’ll likely see each other again tomorrow. The skies are seeming a little brighter here already.
A Moving Success 