It’s raining right now outside my window.
It rained every Halloween night for like the first four years or so that I moved down here to LA. It was kind of the ushering in of the fall. Rain usually started late September or the first week or so of October up in Humboldt, which is right when fall was starting. Rain always makes me think of home.
It makes me think especially of being a teenager out in my Aerostream trailer that served as my own bedroom starting…mmm, I think starting when I was 16. It was covered in aluminum, so when it would rain, it was very loud. But, in that steady, lulling way. And every so often, a gust of wind would shake the trailer slightly if it was a decently-sized storm. I just got used to it.
I remember doing homework in that trailer, and finding out what mp3s were, dial-up internet, reading and writing about Star Trek, and then when I got full swing into High School thinking about girls and college. I didn’t like living in Ferndale, surrounded by cows and rednecks. I didn’t fit in. So, I went to High School in the “city.” Eureka. It was such a drive every morning, plus, I was doing zero-periods which started at 7:30 in the am instead of 8:30. I woke up at 5:45am every morning for four years. That’s ass early. And my dad would scratch his head at me when I’d sleep in ’till 11 on the weekends.
I am not, and have never been a morning person. Ever. I still can’t believe I did that for four years. The upside, however, was that my entire senior year, I was completely done with my class-load at 12:35 every day. It was worth it. I got to take college classes at the university in Arcata, Humboldt State. I made college friends before I even moved out to go to school there. I could go to lunch, and work a job to have a little money. It was awesome.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but thinking back on those teenage years always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. I feel like I was so stupid back then, so naive and so…just, awkward and teenagery. It’s not like I wish I’d done anything *different* back then, and I mean that. I just mean that I feel the feelings I felt back then when I think about being that age, and those teenagery feelings just don’t fit right on my adult self. So many things I didn’t understand about life back then that I do now.
I worked today, and then went over to our friend Matt and Dayna’s new house (literally, brand new, they just bought it and it’s not finished yet getting remodeled). Their neighborhood was actually quite nice. Kids out in their costumes with their families. It’s a cute little neighborhood. We saw a ton of Elsa’s, and a ton of super heroes. I was a panda, again, and Liz was again a magical unicorn with short shorts. The girls would sing “Let it go” every time an Elsa came up. Also, Matt scared a bunch of kids with his gorilla mask. It was amazing.
More work tomorrow. Hopefully it’s not raining in the morning with the pup-pups, but I do hope it rains for a little while longer. Put me to sleep. Here’s ALSO hoping that this is a portend of rainy-ness to come and we’ll get our water reserves back up to respectable levels this fall and winter. Wouldn’t that be nice? 🙂
Good night, y’all. It’s crazy to be writing about another Halloween, just like I did last year right on this blog. Progress!