May Gray

There is a phenomena in California that occurs during the months of May and June. In May it is called "May Gray" and in June it is called "June Gloom." It is weather that causes utter confusion when you first wake up in the morning, and as you are rubbing sleep out of your eyes and shaking off the cobwebs of REM rest you suddenly think, "Did I just get teleported to Seattle?" Gray, drippy, depressing. The sort of weather that makes you want to wear black and write sad poetry, like a misunderstood teenager. The sort of weather that causes people to pull their fall and winter clothes out of storage and wear clothes like they are going to peek at the fall foliage. I wore sandals yesterday and parked next to a woman who looked like she was dressed to go to Vermont in November. Confusing, to say the least.

I have experienced weather similar to this only once before, and that was when The Rev. and I were nearly newly married and the city we were living in experienced a stretch of gray weather that caused us to experience 27 minutes of sunshine in a three week period. How do I know it was 27 minutes? It made the news and it was all anyone talked about for days. Coincidentally, we were also planning a vacation to Seattle, Washington and I made the suggestion that we save ourselves the time and money and just stay home. We could make Starbucks and sit in our living room and pretend that we were in Seattle, rather than having to go through the fuss of leaving home for a week. I even offered to let The Rev. read some of the poetry of my high school students, just to give the vibe of a coffeehouse. I'd wear black and pretend to be misunderstood, and he could read to me about "why did you leave me/why did you go/I used to love you, love you so." There are some things about teaching I don't miss.

Thankfully, The Rev. declined my offer, and we spent a great week in Seattle. Ironically, we experienced beautiful weather during our visit, except for the occasional rain shower early in the morning. Thankfully, the gray does burn off here and I am happy to report that the sun is shining at the moment. Now I just have to decide what clothes I am going to wear.