A flawless, warm sunny spring day here in Seattle-ish, one of those we treasure so here, for tomorrow we shall likely go back to the usual impenetrable gray skies and cloud leakage. I wish my moods weren't so affected by the weather. There is no doubt that the many rainy days here puts me in a different frame of mind: somber, contemplative, and probably more irritable that usual. But when the sun shines I am like a languid, stretching cat, deliciously rolling in the comfort of its beams, gathering warmth with a tiny satisfied smile on my lips at all times. I don't lower the sun shade in my car, even when everyone else does. I grab every ray like it might be the last transmitted to the earth from our pal, The Flaming Giant Ball Of Gas, as if I could somehow bank it for the days I need it the most.
The sun cheered me so today that I didn't even mind the extra hour I spent locked up in fantastically-slow construction traffic after picking up my daughter from school. MissNine was not quite as beatific in the backseat.
MissNine: Grr!
Me: What?
MissNine: I don't like this traffic! And it's too sunny! My one leg is getting too hot!
Me: Well, there's nothing I can do about the traffic, sweetie. Or the sun.
MissNine: GRR!
Me: Aw, cheer up! Once we get out of here, let's go for a treat.
MissNine: France?
Me: No. You have school tomorrow.
She giggles, and eventually we are not hit by steamrollers or backhoes and make it over to a Starbucks. I order a smoothie and she gets a croissant, the closest she will get to France today. We sit at a table outside, and talk about vintage glassware, Ray Davies coming to Seattle in July, the flower gardening she did at school today, and that yes, I would share some of my smoothie with her. I turn my chair to face more towards the sun; she turns her chair to face away from it.
We take some funny photos with my phone.
A gust of wind sweeps up the last bite of her croissant and its brown paper bag and sends both tumbling across the sidewalk.
"Noooooo!" she cries, and chases after them, successful in retrieval.
"NO. You can't eat it now! Throw it in the garbage, please. Good job picking it up, though!" I admonish and praise her, Mom-like.
"Awwww! Are you sure?" she asks as she opens her mouth to take a mock-bite.
"AWAY!" I smile, as does she, and the items are placed in the proper receptacle, no doubt to be pilfered by a large crow within minutes.
One of the other things I love so much about sunny days is that I take the time to slow down, get off the grid for a moment, and allow myself the space to just be a person, sitting with a person I love on some little spot of earth, watching a croissant roll away across the ground, like it's late for a date in La Ville-Lumiere.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman