Rain, STAY! ...If I've got a change of clothes.

I will update on the adventures of last weekend, but here are two funny rain stories first. Inspired, of course, by Justin's blog. I never claimed to possess creativity.

Spring of last year, after a long day of classes and work at uni, I found that it was rather puddly outside. Although it was still cold and I was wearing jeans (most comfortable when worn dry), I decided to have fun in the dreary weather by running through the puddles on the way to the carpark. The few passersby witnessed my excitement blossom as felt my sneakers go all squishy. The entire time I was arguing with my mommy voice -you'll be cold and miserable on the drive home! You could get sick!- Thankfully, I've come to learn that you have to do some of the fun things regardless of silly "reasons" not to, such as having wet clothes (which would dry when you got to the car where you could run the heater for free). Anyway, I had been feeling pretty healthy.
Then I decided just walking through the puddles wasn't enough; I needed to jump. I was only wet from about the calves down, it was great!
The big puddle was coming up...oooh, it's deep!...a fellow student was approaching, I knew it was then or never. I thudded into the deepest part of the water and the splash was SO satisfying! However, not only was the water spent splaying in all directions around me, it was sent straight up the inside of my legs. That one student just smiled as I looked down at the result. Continuing the "peed-my-pants" theme I have here on my blog, that's exactly what it looked like. I then felt free to attack the rest of the puddles I encountered before my car. It was a good day.

I shared my second puddle encounter with Heather. It was the afternoon and I was on my way to her house. A major storm was brewing. The wind was howling and a slushy rain was falling. The rain turned into hail and cars sought protection under the trees lining the street. Windshield wipers couldn't run fast enough to allow visibility. I made it to Heather's during the few calm let-ups in the storm. Flying from my car to the house, I made it inside at the same moment an amazing rain began.
Heather and I stood at the windows and watched the torrents fall. Some areas of the road now had small rivers flowing across them. What do you do in situations as these? You can't just ignore them. Not when one of you has a 4WD vehicle.
The rain lasted long enough to create treacherous driving conditions (though it doesn't matter how long it rains - everyone still forgets how to drive in it). Heather and I decided to go driving. We found a few giggle-inducing roadside ponds before finding the mother of all puddles. The parking lot was empty and the drain must have been blocked because there was a puddle the size of Texas...there in our own private Idaho.
We drove through the edges a few times, screaming with laughter. The middle was actually so deep that we could've seriously damaged the jeep if we'd gone through it quickly. The weather was starting to warm at this point, so I decided I wanted to go for a wade to break in my chacos. Heather drove to the middle to drop me off, but I was pretty sure the water level was higher than the door. After getting out of the vehicle at the edge of the water, I made my way to the depths - past my knees - holding up my trousers so they wouldn't get soaked. Heather was slowly driving around and I was signaling to her how deep the water was.
But there's this funny thing about dear friends, you can read intentions in their eyes.
Heather was starting to drive, aiming the jeep just to the side of me. My jaw dropped and I began to muck my way out of the water while shrieking, "Heather NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Although she sent a wave of admirable size over the place I had been standing, I wasn't caught in it. But I did manage to drench myself by running to get away. As I approached the jeep with death in my eyes, I could see Heather, bend over the steering wheel, tears streaming down her face. She could hardly speak she was laughing so hard. She told me the look on my face was priceless as I realised what she was going to do, but my frantic running in knee-deep water rivaled for humour.
We laughed until it hurt. It was then that we saw something black floating in the puddle - one of the plastic guards from under her jeep had broken off. We scooped it up and headed back to her house.
It was another good day.