As I was waiting for the bus the rain came down on me

Tonight as I was walking home from work, the sky looked threatening and dark, and it was starting to thunder. Right when I got to 57th Street it started raining and then pouring, and since I didn't have my umbrella I decided to take the bus (and I realized while on the bus that this is one of the only times I've taken public transportation home from work since I moved to this apartment!). The rain didn't look to be letting up, so after I got off the bus I stopped at the grocery store to get stuff for the baby shower, and although I was able to get there without getting too wet, I got soaked running the half block home on my street and almost knocked one of my contacts out. But I didn't really care since I was just going home to my cozy dry apartment anyway. But now...

I open the door to my apartment building, and something isn't right. I hear the sound of rain, and it's loud. It's raining in the lobby! I can hear the rain gushing in the elevator shaft. As I walk up the stairs, I see water raining down on each landing. I remember that my room leaked in the corner above one of my book shelves during a big rain last year, so I worry about what I'll find when I get up there. I open my apartment door...whew, no rain pouring down in the kitchen, although the windows were open and the floor is somewhat wet, but no biggee. I run up to my room, and thankfully the corner where the previous leak is dry. I think I'm home free. But then I hear dripping--where is it coming from? Finally I realize my ceiling is leaking near the wall by my computer. But it isn't bad yet, and I pull my computer out away from the wall. I have some buckets to catch the drips now, but it seems to have slowed down. Guys who live in the apartment have been running up and down the stairs to and from the roof, and I think they've fixed something--something about the drains being blocked.

Hmm. How did you like the present tense?

Seriously, I love my apartment, but it really is falling apart. So sad! The rain seems to have stopped for now. Man, our elevator is probably completely dead...and the baby shower is Saturday! I don't want pregnant Tanya to have to walk up 6 flights of stairs...

Last night was a goodbye party at Loreley for Eveline (who is moving to China), and Mathieu (who is going back to France), and both flew out today--not the best day to fly, both weather-wise and bomb-threat wise.

I was exhausted from my LA trip, but managed to stay out till 11 and have fun doing it, dammit. But the Randoms are now minus 2 key members. I'm sad.

And now this post reminds me of a poem I wrote in 8th grade that was published in the school paper, even though it was bad. Take it out of rhyme, people! But I still have some of it memorized:

As I was waiting for the bus
The rain came down on me.
Without an umbrella, there I was,
It rained so hard I couldn't see.

And then I forget the rest. All for the best.