storms don't last forever

I experienced the worst drive from Seattle to Portland to date, yesterday. It was miserable. I knew I should have left earlier in the day, but my time is always so rushed when I visit the island that visiting friends in Seattle is a must, especially when they are long overdue… I was so thrilled to have lunch with Cameron and coffee with Angie. It made my week to BE with them. Telephone calls and quick facebook messages just don’t cut it with some friends and nothing replaces face time, nothing.

I moved along my afternoon happily and with a hearty grin on my face and the feeling of renewal in being with good friends. My grin flattened a bit when I missed the freeway on-ramp and then flattened some more when I ended up driving around downtown for another twenty minutes in rush hour trying to get to another on-ramp. Eesh…Finally, I made it to I-5, only to inch along around five mph and at most twenty second stretches of 30mph, but those were short-lived…TWO HOURS of inching along, that wore on my spirits. And I was delighted to finally get to Olympia, get out of the car, stretch and buy some chocolate-to lift my spirits, of course ;)

Once I got back on the road, the rains decided to POUR. Ugh. And for the next one and a half hours, I clenched my steering wheel for dear life because I could hardly see the car ahead of me in the downpour and hydroplaned every thirty seconds. It was awful. Every time my wheels slipped, by heart jumped. I was stressed out and just dying to be home.

I came around the bend toward Vancouver and was so delighted to be close to home, and what had been a dark and stormy drive gave way to huge bright sunshine. Oh hello sunshine, where have you been all my life? That’s what I was thinking, and I just felt my tensed muscles loosen in the slightest. And the most gigantic and ridiculously awesome rainbow was suddenly painted across the sky as I drove into Portland. I was so thankful for that moment and the reminder that storms don’t last forever. Thank God storms don’t last forever.