03 June, 2002 - 11:21 p.m.

It's only been raining for a few days now, but for some reason, it seems like it hasn't stopped in weeks. Usually when it first starts, I find it comforting and soothing. The sound it makes as the first few drops splatter against the hard, dry concrete of the driveway. The pat-pat-pat noise it makes as the droplets hit my window pane and begin their collective journey downwards.

And then after awhile it just gets annoying. Like when it starts raining really heavily, and because of our tin roof, I can't hear my tv properly. Or waking up to leave for work, and it's 3 degrees outside, and not much warmer inside. Or when you're walking down the street, and are waiting to cross the street, and don't notice the pool of water that's collected by the roadside and get drenched by a passing car. That annoys me greatly.

Yet there are other times when it can be really exhilarating. Take tonight for instance, I was out at the Onyx bar with some friends, and a friend and I left at about 9pm to go pick up his brother from uni. We'd gotten there slightly earlier than planned, so we parked across from the university facing the river and the city skyline, although why we did this beats me, seeing as it was raining so hard you couldn't see out of the front windscreen anyway.

At half nine, my friend told me to wait in the car while he ran across to get his brother. So there I was, sitting and waiting patiently. For, like, 3½ minutes. And then, out of nowhere, the mischievious child inside of me decides to emerge. I'm looking around me at the inside of my nice and clean, dry, and extremely warm car, and then glanced outside at the wet, windy, and extremely cold world -- and opted for the latter.

Because I hadn't had time to do my laundry that weekend, I was currently in jeans, my bikini top, a t-shirt, and sneakers. The rational side of me argued that it would be a wise idea to keep fully clothed against the elements. And then this other little voice argued that it might be considered even more rational if I had something dry to put on once I had gotten over my urge to dance around like a rain god.

So off came my shirt and my shoes.

As I got out of the car and my feet touched the muddy ground, I decided to put my shoes back on. After all, you lose something like 60% of your body heat through your feet. I didn't want to catch a cold.

And what prevents a poor immune system? A good exercise regime, that's what. So right then and there, I decided it was a great time to go for a quick jog up the foreshore.

Squelchy sneakers, sopping wet jeans, and a bikini top.

It was like Baywatch meets the City.

But you know what? While I was standing there after my run, wet to the very core of my being, I remember feeling more free than I had in awhile. The thunder chasing each other around in huge roaring rolls. The lightning illuminating the world for split seconds at a time, sometimes occurring so quickly, one after the other, that it was like being in a nightclub with the strobelights.

And so, spinning around and around in dizzying circles, the laughter gurgling up and outwards in hysterical bouts, I felt absolutely, positively, onehundredandthirtyfour percent wonderful.

It's been a long while since I've felt like that, and I can only hope I can find it again some time soon.