Thunderstorm @ MindSay

That puddle looks...weird.



That ain't snow, FYI. That's hail.



That's our backyard porch thingy.



Cinder blocks in our backyard were covered with hail.



This is the other part of our "porch". I say porch loosely...it's just two platforms jammed together. When you walk onto it, you need to be careful or the boards will come up,and you'll feel like you're in Dudley Do-Right.



There's that weird puddle again.

This rainstorm is still going on, FYI.



The grass coming through the hail is green...can you imagine?

The rain outside is slowly turning into snow. Which is what it's supposed to do.



Hail around the tree.



This is the trail that leads behind our house.




This is me

I'll post more in the second post.

Jay Cutler is now going to try for a $100,000 bonus for participating in the Bears' mini-camps. He also reportedly said that he wouldn't mind having Plaxico Burress play for him. Not long after Jay was traded to the Bears, the Giants released Burress for his stupid act of shooting himself in the leg, last season. They felt that it was time to move on.

If I hear that phrase one more time I'm shoving the dork who says it's head through a wall.

~*The day in the life of Rebekah*~*316*~

Tonight we had this really epic thunderstorm. It was right outside my window. My roommate and I turned off the lights, sat at our desks, and just watched it. At one point, two bolts of lightning somehow converged, maybe 50 yards away from our window. When they touched, there was a huge flash of light; I thought there'd been an explosion. The two bolts funneled down into one, maybe it hit the ground. I don't know because while all of this was happening, I was busy falling out of my chair and diving for cover behind my desk. And I'm not ashamed to admit that. Thunderstorms are really awesome. Awesome in the literal sense. Awe-inspiring. And scary, and humbling and they make me feel glad to be alive. But I also really enjoy them. I really enjoy looking at the radar and seeing a storm roll in and then watching it and feeling (relatively) safe inside. Then I feel guilty because storms cause harm and kill people and ruin lives and cities and nations and civilizations. So here we have a moral dilemma. How can I justify getting pleasure out of something that causes so much harm? And this is what I'm thinking about as Gustav gets closer... 

Well, I still find myself missing him, but...

I guess being apart from him is like being apart from my best friend- he fills a part of me that nothing else does. But, its more than that.

Does anyone else find the smell of how it smells after it has rained amazing, refreshing, and endearing? That the air feels lighter, like it has just cleaned your soul?

And how the build-up to the thunderstorm that gives all the rain is one big, unbearable build-up, with a ton of pressure, where the humidity is so high that you cannot breathe?

That's him.

and what's more, that's how the boy smells, too.

Somedays, my soul cries out for rain, even when I know it will make other things horrid. A thunderstorm at night cures all ails.

And sometimes, when it occurs, I feel like he's next to me- a peculiar feeling, to be sure.

But, then again, everything feels better, and, just for a little bit, everything is right with the world.

It was a fragmented sky, not yet sure of its destiny. I thought to let it expand into itself, but when I turned around the wind had swept the potential to the side.

 

The vultures have returned. Spring has begun. Welcome to Life - now I wait with impatient eyes the bursting of the seams of the sky.... When will the rains come?

I spent my last night in the dorms with a horrific thunderstorm. Montpellier has been so dry since I’ve been here that when they warned me there might be torrential rains, I almost didn’t believe them…almost.

 

The thunder was so loud that it woke me up in the middle of the night a few times and scared the crap out of me. I was already having a bit of trouble sleeping because I was so nervous to meet my new host mom the next day. The rain continued for a lot of the next day while I was in class and scheduling for my semester. After that I went back to my room and finished packing my things before meeting Akila, my new host mom.

 

We met in the lobby of the dorms, and she is the cutest lady ever. She is about five feet tall and weighs all of about 100 pounds, even though they don’t use pounds here. Her car is just as tiny, and I was worried that my two huge suitcases (which each weigh more than her) wouldn’t fit inside. They did fit after a little bit of cramming and some creativity. I had to sit in the front with a huge bag on my lap, and she was speaking rapid French to me the whole time. I thought she was telling me that I looked uncomfortable, so I kept saying “no, I’m ok.” Turns out she was telling me that I had to put my seatbelt on before we could leave. I felt like such a moron. Here I am refusing to put a seatbelt on instead of telling her that I’m comfortable. Woopsy.

 

Anyway, we finally made it to her apartment, and it is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. It’s a small two bedroom apartment, but there are balconies everywhere with tons of plants and the furniture is so interesting. My room is really nice and Akila gave me full rights to all the towels, dishes, and the refrigerator. I have to say that it has been really scary to only be able to speak French with someone and not be able to fall back on English every once in a while, but I think that it is helping my language improve tenfold. I was a bit sad to leave my friends at the dorm, but I can tell that this homestay is going to make the semester even more enjoyable. Here are some pics of my new apartment!!