Singing in the Rain

Last week, I emailed my friend and former paralegal, Tracie Carter, to remind her she still hadn't seen John Patrick, yet. We agreed to meet Wednesday (tonight), after work, at Rumor's Wine Bar on 12th Avenue for a glass of wine.

This afternoon, I left work a little early and rushed home. My plan was to stroll with John Patrick up to the Wine Bar and introduce him to Tracie, in person. I loaded him in the stroller and started down the sidewalk in front of our house, when I looked up at the sky and noticed some rather ominous, gray clouds directly above us. Now, we haven't had any rain in almost three weeks, so I figured there was no way it would rain on us as we strolled to the Wine Bar. Wrong!

By the time we got to 10th Avenue, it was sprinkling. Jude called me on my cell phone and asked if I wanted her to come pick us up. I told her we'd be fine, since we were only five or ten minutes away from the Wine Bar. Plus, for the most part, I was able to walk under trees hanging over the sidewalk, which kept us out of the rain. As I turned left onto 12th Avenue, though, it started raining harder.

I picked up the pace considerably, as John Patrick looked around, curiously, cozy and dry inside the stroller. I, of course, was getting soaked. Finally, I started trotting down the sidewalk, pushing the stroller ahead of me. Sure enough, a car in traffic beside me stopped, the window rolled down, and my friend Johnathan Cole hollered at me, laughing, and asked if I needed a ride. Dripping wet, I told him we were fine, since we just had another block or two to go.

Right as we arrived at the Wine Bar, the bottom really fell out, and it started pouring. One of the waitresses opened the door for us, and I wheeled John Patrick inside just in the nick of time. There were three women at the bar, all of whom turned around and laughed, then marveled at how cute John Patrick looked. I ordered a glass of wine and sat down at a table in the front of the bar to wait for Tracie. John Patrick smiled up at me and laughed as I talked to him.

A little while later, Tracie arrived and we had a nice chat. John Patrick was awake the entire time we were there, so Tracie was able to hold him and really give him the once over. Laughing, she said he looked just like me. That tickled me to death, as it always does, and I related to Jude Tracie's comments about the resemblance when I got home. She just shook her head and sighed.