Today it is raining in Muscat. Last night it rained as well. Everyone is happy. Omanis are almost always "dance-in-the-rain" kind of people. I don't like grey skies, or water in the hem of my abaya. Maybe I should take something from their love of tropical thunderstorms and getting caught in the rain? Omani girls, ladies-who-lunch on wet tables in Shatti?
Would you do diamonds in the rain?: not I. "She talks like summer but walks like rain/Reminds me that there's time to change" -Lyrics by Train (who were recently playing in Dubai). Beautiful lyrics, the kind of woman I'd like to, but am unlikely to suddenly become with just a little dose of raindrop elixer/magic.
I don't know, I just can't seem to get into being one of those "go walk in the rain" kind of people. Maybe because I am a control-freak micro-manager type of person, and don't like that I can't plan or control the weather? I just don't find it "sexy" like my Omani husband, to need to towel-off my face and hair, or squeeze dry my clothes, or nigh even close to convenient. There is a kind of glamour in warm rain, I admit. The tropical storms that carry one away. But I've been through hurricanes, the charm wore off. My kind of rainy day glamour is to not have to go anywhere, to sit inside by the window, watching the riandrops fall down, with a warm drink, and a book, and munch on something just a little bit sweet, like banana pancakes.
People like my mother love the rain. "It washes away the dust," she says, "makes everything clean".Yeah, until it gets mud on it, that's my line of thought on the matter. "Don't have to wash your car" people say. That's because it would be pointless to do so, that's just me. Are you, dear reader, "Rainy Day People" or are you in the eternal sunshine crowd, always after another rainbow?
I don't enjoy nearly dying on rainy Muscat roads. Where everyone either stops to basically zero or drives like an inanane moron at 150. Or where heavy rains cause landslides in the Western Hajar. I don't find it "charming" about Oman in the least when rocks nearly crush my car;) and still don't understand how people remain so delighted about rain after encountering that near-death experience.
How do you spend your rainy days in Oman? Do you stay tucked in at home waiting for the sun to come out? Or do you like the adventure of the unknown that is perfectly represented by picnicing in the rain?: "you crazy people who like sitting on wet grass and wear sandals in puddle-ridden-conditions with panache".
It has often been said that life is not about waiting out the storm, but learning to dance in the rain. I wonder if that is true in the practical, litteral sense, as I sit here today behind this computer screen, but don't deign to run an expensive experiment in my [new] shoes today. While I am seeking the rainbow, admitting rain to be a necessary evil of life as we know it, I will find the beauty in rain only through other people's eyes, a reflection of what they see that I am for some reason unable to know when my senses are otherwise flooded. To end this post: I wish everyone a safe and beautiful rainy day, wherever you are in Oman.
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