So how about that weather?

I joined a writer's workshop in an attempt to get my creative juices flowing. I admit I pretty shy when it comes to class, I have difficulty speaking up and became even more bashful when the professor referred to me as a writer. This week we were tasked with writing about the weather, how it sometimes pushes itself to the foreground and I was instantly reminded of Erie, Pennsylvania.

My friends often say “I hate California. I wish we had seasons.” Not me. I’m a California girl through and through. I love California and I tell her often that I think she’s beautiful. She’s warm and colorful. Not like eerie. Or dreary Erie as I've heard it called. Dreary was right, I remember it in shades of grey. Sure there were reds and oranges to mark the change into fall but I remember the grays, and how they quickly reclaimed the scenery.

I've heard people lament California’s near perfect weather, “ I love the rain, I wish we had more storms.” As if warm sun and a perfect blue sky were something to bemoan. As for storms I wonder if people even know what they are talking about. I enjoy the rain as much as the next person if I’m inside, but that’s not what I think about when I think of storms. I think of snow, blanketing the neighborhood without discrimination, sad slush lining the streets, and having to put on so many layers walking became an small feat in of itself. I think of the times when Erie wasn't dreary but was instead resentful. The air was warm, thick, and smelled damp. It growls and groans and then there it is, a moment so brief it might not have happened at all. Night is transformed into day, and a charred tree is the only evidence the lightning left behind. We would retreat underground to our basement but we cannot escape the sound of the wind pounding on our windows and the knowledge that by tomorrow the streets will be flooded.

It’s true that California sometimes has her bad days but even her worst seem like mere hissy fits compared to Erie’s hysterics, if that is “real” weather I’ll take my flip flop in winter weather any day.