Oregon, Land of Fog .

I don't get to write as often as I would like anymore. Time is something that becomes precious and you have many internal quarrels as you try to prioritize things and yet at the same time give them all equal attention. Thankfully I have been able to read others' posts often and keep up with what's going on here in the blogosphere.

The winter season in Oregon is long, cold, and wet. It rains a lot. It mists a lot. And a lot of times there is so much moisture in the air that you just feel wet all the time even if it's not actually raining. Picture walking through a cloud that actually is the density of about 10 clouds.

The weird thing is, you can get up and see the world before the fog rolls in. Around 530am, which is the time I normally roll out of bed, if you look out the window the world is still. The traffic ceases to exist. Sometimes the rain patters against the window and the street, and the world is distorted through the streaks that form on the glass.

Several times a week I go to the gym with a friend and when we wake up, it's totally still outside. You can almost always see your breath, and our voices pierce stagnant air, disturbing it from its peace. By the time we get out of the gym, despite it still being dark, you can't see. The fog is so thick you could cut it with a knife. It's truly unlike anything I have ever seen. I'd take a picture, but it probably wouldn't even look like anything.

The coolest part is when you are driving through and it's like you come into bubbles of clear air. It's like swimming out of the ocean for a moment and then diving right back in. But when the sun does finally come up and clear out the fog, damn the days are gorgeous. Makes you remember how beautiful the weather really can be.

Pouring Rain .

Pouring rain, watch it start and stop;
sheets fall down, just a single raindrop.
Driving blind on a two lane highway,
hazard lights flashing so the cars can get by me.
Past pain alleviate, let stress deviate,
from the path it was on, cause the Weather Channel's wrong.
Sunshine, mostly, pull me in closely,
from dawn, 5:32 am; until nightfall, when I go to bed.
Driving down the local roads, under some stressful loads,
focusing on driving slow, 10 mph under the speed limit he goes
Mind draws a blank, what's the next line?
Searching through my mind but can't seem to find a rhyme
Escapee from the job, Guantanamo's oppression;
Steadfast like a heart that allows no digression
Drive safe, indicator lights flash, jump out the driver's side door in a mad dash
for the house and its safety, and the desire to escape the
exterior thundershower, relentless downpour,
at least we ain't got tornadoes knocking down our poor door.
Short little thing that I wrote down right here,
the rain's got me tired, need to sleep, it's true
pounding raindrops on my face, 'til I let loose.

In the Rain .

I'm quickly finding out that in Florida, much like in South Carolina, when it rains it pours! Last night we decided to make a date night and head out to Outback, one of our favorites. We started with a Bloomin' Onion (I've never had it before) and gosh I never knew what I was missing out on!

But more importantly, the weather has been pretty iffy lately. It'll be really sunny and nice, but then quickly turn sour when we want to do something; or it will be crappy in the forecast and so we don't want to risk getting caught in the rain.

There is something cool about the rain though. It's used a lot in songs, and lately one I've been listening to is See My Tears by Machine Gun Kelly: One line states, "You can't see my tears in the rain". Interesting thought, eh? The rain is so out of our control; the weather in general really is. It does what it wants -- with no regard for plans, special events, or date nights. At the same time though, rain can be really awesome: the sound of it against the windows at night, the pitter patter on the walk, the rapping against the roof of the car as you drive. Sometimes it's better to just embrace it, feel the drops on your face as you walk. Hell, once you're wet, you're wet! I don't run very much anymore, but the few times I do, I actually really enjoy running in the rain. First, you feel like a total badass, but more importantly it's just overwhelmingly refreshing.

Anyways, if a rainy day is headed your way sometime soon, don't be afraid to embrace it. And maybe this song will do wonders for you too:

Also I wanted to make it known -- for those readers out there who have always been deterred to leave a comment by the captchas, I took it off. Though in the past two days, I already have six or seven spam comments, and so I will moderate comments before they are posted. This is strictly to just avoid the spammers getting their nonsense on my page. So comment away! The lines are open.

feeling cool & seeing warm .

The past few days in my neck of the woods have been absolutely glorious. Despite some torrential downpours, sometimes for hours on end, it has been awesome. Why, you ask? Because it's been a beautiful 65 degrees out almost every single day for the past week. This means that at night it's cool. This means that you can leave the windows open all day and there is that perfect "fresh-air" smell all through the house. This means that there hasn't been any humidity, and if it is, it's hidden by the clouds and the cooler temperatures. Honestly, I could care less if it's cloudy outside, as long as the temperature stays down. Oddly enough, all of my friends from down South are bitching and moaning about it being "too cold" and whatnot. Phew, I wish it was like this all the time! If I knew I could walk outside all the time with pants on and not sweat my butt off and end up with a severe case of swampass by the end of the day, I totally would take that deal.

Southern weather .

So today there were some heavy storms in the forecast. Funniest part about my school? If it starts thundering or lightning all of a sudden a bunch of sirens go off for like 5 minutes straight and then there is this voice that thunders (pun intended) all around campus saying "Warning. Warning. Lightning in the area. Please seek shelter immediately." The best part is that everyone completely ignores this. I mean, let's be honest, you can't exactly just blow off class because it's raining. And because the sirens happen often even when it's not even storming that bad, it makes people just ignore it to begin with. It's basically like the siren that cried lightning.

adios .

So it's a mere couple of hours before I roll out to the airport. By this time Ryan should already be at Newark, and I have but to gather my final things to put into my backpack as my carry on. It is an absolutely perfectly gorgeous day, and all things have more or less gone according to schedule and plan. It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving for so long yet... but it sure will soon! And then of course, while I am pensively staring out the window, the house starts shaking...

let the rain fall down .

It's storming right now! Without a doubt, storms are awesome to watch, to feel the house shake when it thunders and the flashes blind you when the lightning hits the ground outside your window. Okay, maybe the house shaking is a bit unnerving... but it's still cool to listen to.

stormy weather .

It's been a long time since I can remember a storm... This evening I happened to be down in the basement during a workout. The clouds turned an ominous yellow, as if there was a far off fire in an adjacent town. Thick black clouds began to rampage their way through the crisp blue of the sky. And then came the rumbles of thunder, the flashes of lightning and sheets of rain so thick that everything was as distorted as when you look through beer goggles.