september rain, take two

It rained a lot last night (the splatter and crash of it making for hours of restless sleep), and it was raining this morning when I left my apartment, and as I stood waiting for the bus, and as I got my coffee and walked across campus and squeaked through IAB in wet sneakers across wet floors all the way down to the library.

I try to come in to work early on rainy mornings, especially rainy mornings following rainy nights.  I come in early and I stand in the quiet of the lobby -- in that particular wonderful stillness of a vast and empty space -- and I listen for water.

Today there were already two bins catching water when I got in.  I scrounged up three more and placed them as strategically as possible, and then there was more standing still, and then minute adjustments, and eventually the hushed noises of water hitting carpet and the staccato noises of water hitting floor tile were gone entirely.

I stood there a bit longer, head cocked, listening to the rhythm of water hitting my five bins, some more full with run-off than others, and found myself thinking about water glasses lined up across a table and the little-kid magic of playing them with spoons.

Today the rain made me smile.