The Deluge

It was raining when I awoke and rained incessantly all day long. I dread going down to the basement to watch the water pour in through the walls. Our roof was repaired in January, but the gutters are broken again and I keep reminding Eric to contact the roofers, but he forgets every day and a day like today gets me reminding him over and over again. Thankfully there is a drain in the middle of the room and it is still working, but water keeps coming. The rain lightens for a bit, then there is a sudden deluge. My raincoat was not effective, so I got quite wet each time I ventured outside. It never occurred to me to find an umbrella, perhaps hoping that if unprepared, the rain would stop.

My alarm went off far too early, after only a few hours of sleep. For Maya, her day began later than usual, so she could sleep in, which relieved me because Eric packed her into the car at midnight to pick me up at the airport last night. I had booked my mammogram appointment this morning, which is why I did not stay in New York for the night. In retrospect, how silly of me to choose such an inconvenient time. I was able to make it to my Spanish class at Hopkins, of course getting soaked on the way from the car to the classroom. I love my Spanish class; we read incredible Spanish literature and discuss what we read. Our teacher is from Argentina and one of the students just came back from three weeks in the country, so we had a slide show and Judith reminisced about Buenas Aires.

I had a few patients booked, but the rain appeared to keep them away, so I spent the time waiting going through 16000 emails and deleting whatever I could to reduce the number to 7000. I still have far more to go through, but I felt oddly satisfied with the exercise. I had promised Maya to pick up books at the downtown library (about the violin, her sixth grade project) and ran into the 'City Lit' festival, with booths in rows of local authors and their works. I got wet again when I ran back to the car in the rain. Maya was off to Emily's house for the afternoon, while I made it to a yoga class, during which I watched the rain pouring down outside.

It was the movies for the evening, 'Miral', a story about the Palestinian experience since 1947, sobering, realistic, sad. When we left the Charles Theatre, everyone was huddled at the entrance, waiting for the rain to stop, but Eric and I got soaked again on our way to the car, and from the car to Emily's to pick up Maya, and when we arrived home I checked the basement to assure myself that the rain was still seeping through the walls and collecting in the drain. Eric tells me that tomorrow no rain is predicted. It will take many days to feel dry again.