Monday Rain Madness

I love the rain. Love to drive in it. Love to sit on the porch and watch it. Love the smell of it. Love the sound of it. Love what it does to my yard and flowers.

But I don't like walking in it on my way to work.

Since taking my new job in Dallas, I thought of a good way to save on gas and miles on my car: ride the train to work. My office is just a few blocks from the Mockingbird Station. I took it for the first time last week and loved it. I loved having the solitude while reading. I loved avoiding a possible traffic jam. I do have to leave my house earlier in the morning and I get home later at night, but the pros outweigh the cons. My plan is to take it a few days a week. My drive round trip each day is 80 miles. That adds up fast. A full tank does not last a full week. True, gas is a lot cheaper now, but money is money when it comes to saving it.

So last night I planned ahead since I was planning on getting up earlier today to ride the train in. My main reason to ride the train this morning was to keep reading a great book my sister loaned me. I LOVE books by Harlan Coben. If you like suspense novels, I highly recommend any he has written. Any who, I was so proud of myself last night as I went to bed at how much I did the night before so that my early morning would leave little to do to get ready.

As I was starting to get out of the car at the train station at 5:50 am (yes, am!) I heard the DJ mention rain in the forecast. No time was mentioned, so I took my umbrella with me. Thank goodness I did because half way through my ride I saw it was pouring rain outside. I got a little wet waiting to get on my connecting train in Dallas, but thankfully I was able to get on an earlier train. But when I got off at my spot, it was coming down in sheets. Wait, more like coming in at a 45 degree angle. The kind of rain that proves pointless to be holding an umbrella. I called my mom that works sort of in the area to see if she just so happened to decide to go to work really early. Nope, she was just leaving her house. Oh well, off to walk in the rain I go.

Thankfully, I had pulled my hair up, but by the time I got to my office building, my pants were soaked from above the knee and down. My hair and shirt was dry. A lot of items in my bag got wet from the water falling off my umbrella. The entire time I am walking across the parking lots, I am thinking "you should have checked the weather last night like you always do!". I get in the office lobby and you can hear water squishing out of my shoes. And I love these shoes that I have not had very long. Thank goodness I wore black pants because you could not tell they were wet. But I was at my desk all morning with cold legs and cold feet. No space heater. Just had to let my body, pants, and shoes dry naturally. I took my shoes off to help them dry quicker, but when I put them back on to go somewhere, I can feel the water in them and my feet and hose get wet all over again. My toes look like raisins and prunes. My hair is just as limp as it can get.

I keep telling myself that this is probably better than driving in the rain and taking the chance to either be involved in a car accident or have to sit in traffic because of another car accident. We all know that people drive horribly in the rain!

Lesson learned when I want to ride the train and it is raining: bring my beloved Chi to work so I can touch up my hair and wear other pants so what I have to wear all day at work are not half wet all day!