Stuff I like #3: Rain

I've been a fan of weather since I was a little kid. During thunderstorms when I was young, I would pull a chair up to the front door and watch the light show with my nose pressed to the door. If my parents had let me play outside during thunderstorms, I probably would have! I would race outside as soon as it was over and feel the wet pavement on my feet, smell the post-rain scent.

In college, my love of rain popped up again. I hadn't thought about it much in the intervening years. Too much teenaged angst, I suppose. I bought a CD of thunderstorms from a store in the mall called Natural Wonders, which is now out of business. My roommate and I would play it on repeat every night while we slept. It quickly became one of the most relaxing sounds I've ever known. I even managed to get my roommate the following year addicted to listening to thunderstorms at night as well! Rain never fails to make me drowsy now.

It's been years since I was in college and listened to those CDs at night. I spent six years living in a city where it rained only about 15 days out of the year as opposed to the 100 or so days it would rain out of the year where I grew up. I missed thunderstorms during that time. It was a real pleasure those times when it would rain at night in Los Angeles. It's still a pleasure (and happens more often!) when it rains at night now that I've moved away.