One rainy day

The weather is changing. For the second day in as many weeks I've found myself waking to the sound of rain falling on my tin roof and the grey skis of a stormy day. Last time this happened, I had nothing planned and spent a wonderful rainy day engrossed in my current book, several movies and my lunch and dinner preparations. Today, however, proved to be a different story. There were two private classes to teach and several errands to run and I roused myself out of bed at 7 am and headed for the shower. My dreary mood was replaced when I walked out the door and was hit the smell of rain and the newly wetted rice fields, the sounds of the insects and frogs, and the mountains shrouded in clouds and mists off in the distance. My dreaded ride to work became a pleasant ride through the rice fields soaking up the crisp and fresh air that the rain brought with it. Teaching wasn't as relaxing but it was enjoyable. I met several students on campus I hadn't seen in a while as well as several teachers and the reunions were wonderful. It put me in the mood to go back to school. The afternoon ushered in more rain and it waited until I was on my home to start and so I took refuge in a local coffee house. I had put my book in my bag as I walked out the door and soon enough found myself curled up on a couch drinking a caramel coffee and reading my book while the rain fell outside. Not a bad unplanned afternoon activity. The rains subsided and I headed home to grab the necessary materials for my next class and off I went. Ajaan Ryan's class for this rainy Thursday afternoon was a lesson on directions. What better way to teach that than with paper airplanes and make-believe trains. With my three 5-year-old students, I taught them "right", "left", "top", "bottom" and of course "fold" and "un-fold" and we proceeded to make paper airplanes. We then walked to the end of the classroom and proceeded to learn "throw", "straight", "near" and "far". This lesson involved lots of coming and going as they threw their airplanes across the room following my commands but it was also full of smiles and laughs as their planes did unexpected things. The rains came again shortly after I had arrived home and I heated up the remains of my culinary creation from yesterday (an eggplant parmesan casserole of sorts expect with parmesan and it wasn't really a casserole since I don't have an oven) and now that's brought you up to speed.

For those who are interested, the book I curled up with was Kerouac's On the Road. I've been captivated by Kerouac and haven't put the book down for more than several hours since I started reading. Kerouac's always been an iconic figure of the "beat" generation (I don't know exactly what that means) and a popular author of friends of mine, yet I hadn't picked up a copy of any of his books until the other day. On the Road has been intriguing and has stirred up my desires to hit the road and proceed with unabated enthusiasm and without a care in the world and simply go. His visit to Denver was a surprise but their adventures there and his descriptions of my hometown were appreciated. They gave me a nice warm and fuzzy feeling and made me long for the streets of LoDo.

Cheers.

RM