Rainy Days

Laurie Cohn
Mirror contributing writer

   I was in Portland recently. It didn't rain. Sure it snowed, but the weather was still better than it's been in Santa Monica. My friends in Seattle are now enjoying sunshine, dry weather, and earthquakes. Meanwhile those of us in Southern California, one of the greatest, warmest weather spots in the entire country, if not the whole wide world, are beginning to go stir-crazy from spending so much time indoors.
   Like many locals, I have an outdoor lifestyle. I don't belong to a gym, but spend lots of my free time hiking in the local mountains, walking around the Boardwalk and canals in Venice, and kayaking in the ocean. When it rains, I just don't know what to do with myself. Not being able to be outside for days on end is cruel and unusual punishment. I sit on my butt all day for work -- I need some time to be out and about, roaming freely, sunshine warming my moving body. That's why I pay the big bucks to live in Los Angeles. If I wanted lousy weather I'd move to a less expensive part of the country and buy a 10,000 square foot house for $200,000.
   My friend Edward, (who turns 40 today, March 7) and I have been walking for over seven years. We walk every other Monday, and up until recently we were only rained out once, some time last year. Recently, we've been rained out two times in a row, so instead of a walk and a meal we're now just eating. Not the best method of weight control. And it shortens our time together because there's only so much time we can spend in Wildflour Pizza and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, our two bi-weekly haunts. 
   Then there have been the times lately I've missed my window of opportunity to take a walk. The skies were grey, the forecast was rain, so I didn't want to venture far away from home. Well, sometimes the grey did turn to rain, but not until much later, so there would have been time for a walk. One day, the rain never came. Instead, the grey skies had the nerve to turn to sunshine when I had to work, again sitting on my butt, my waistband gradually expanding from lack of movement. 
   One morning I couldn't take being inside anymore, and believed the newscasters that the rain would come later in the day. I took a much-needed early morning kayak around the marina. The water was filled with scullers and rowers, but no other kayakers. As the rising sun hit the clouds, I figured rain was imminent, so I headed back to the dock. Turns out it didn't rain all day long, and in fact, got more beautiful by the hour, again not doing me any good since I had to work. Still, I'd rather have sunshine, even if I can't partake of the festivities, than rain with endless free time to bemoan it.
   One nice thing about the rain is it allows me, and people I know, to hang out at home without feeling guilty. Somehow if it's beautiful outside, some of us have a hard time justifying staying indoors. With the rain, it's okay to catch up on last month's magazine stack. I've had lots of wedding stuff to do, such as typing addresses, placing stamps on envelopes just so, and stuffing envelopes, and honestly it was a lot more bearable doing it since I couldn't be on my favorite trail in the Santa Monica Mountains. 
   Since I am getting married in about six weeks (oh, that's scary), and rain decreases my exercise, there's the fear that I will gain weight just before the most important day of my life. Before that happens I will starve myself, but that's beside the point. Losing muscle tone is more of a concern than the actual numbers on the scale. Certainly the God of weather will be kind in the coming weeks and allow me my normal exercise routine so when my kids look at my wedding pictures one day they will only say, "Oh, mommy, you look so funny." Funny I can deal with, fat I cannot.
   The forecast for the next few days is rain, rain, rain. Hopefully, we'll have glimmers of sunshine between storms. On the bright side, the hills are incredibly green, as are my neighbors' lawns. Another positive note to all the rain is that my car is quite clean on the outside. If we could only learn how to harness the rain better so streets don't flood, then driving in the rain around town (the song "It Never Rains In Southern California" lies) would become a much more pleasurable and safe experience for all.