I want to stay another season/see summer upon this sorry land

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

The heat wasn't working at the office today, which means I spent most of the day being aggravated about the cold and - of course - engaging in monologues with God about how much I disapprove of this winter business.

"It's all in your head, Yasminay," my father would say, but my father wasn't the one who had to sit there with blue fingernails all day long, either. It's enough to make a kid want to turn around and return home, even though it took said kid 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to work this morning. (Californians are idiots when it comes to driving in the rain, apparently.)

Leaving work at the end of the day, I stepped out the front door into the evening darkness and the first words out of my mouth upon seeing the pouring rain were, "Aw, f*ck." Needless to say, I felt a severe dearth of things to be happy about today, but my earlier comment-gone-too-lengthy over on Chai's "Three Appreciations" post forced me to rethink the gloominess. (It took far too long to brainstorm all this, though, trust me.)

Driving home too fast on roads that were too wet, blinded by inky-black asphalt and incessant rain, I turned up both the heat and the music and kept my eyes on the yellow line for guidance, smiling wryly as U2 sang, You got to get yourself together...

Here, then, unnumbered and expanded, is my list of rocking things about today, in spite of the freakin' rain that makes me shake my fist at God:

Co-workers who make me laugh so much about pointless things that my stomach hurts and tears pour out of my eyes. We laughed about falafel, of all things. Falafel are funny.

New philosophy, stolen off the incomparable Z: "I like to call things I don't wanna do 'adventures,' to make them suck less."

Deciding that I am going to start bringing cocoa powder and milk into the office, so I can make myself hot chocolate while everyone else stands around drinking their (nasty!) tea. Also, this is just an excuse to warm up my hands on a hot mug. The co-worker Zee offered me tea today while making some for everyone else, and I just smirked and shook my head in refusal. "Yasmine doesn't drink tea," laughed B. "She only drinks cranbery juice, and eats doughnuts and candy and string cheese."
"Hey, I bought some dried fruit from the grocery store yesterday," I protested, but no one believed me.

Friends who check out my gmail status message ["every day is yasmine day"] and IM me with, "Happy Yasmine day!" Another variation:
J: "Yasmine day is today!"
Me: "Dude, what are you talking about, it's EVERY DAY. Get with the program."
J: "I didnt say it wasn't everyday. I said it was today. Isn't it today? And tomorrow I'd say it again."

In conversation with a friend, I make a point and finish it off with my requisite threats of stabbing and an emphatic, "The end!"
He responds with, "To be continued," and I can't help but laugh: "I hate you, no one has ever waylaid my 'the end' line so well before."

Jogging down to the end of the street to grab the umbrella from my car for a co-worker, I'm reminded of how much I miss running. No - how much I miss enjoying running. (Un)fortunately, I am no longer 12-17 years old; now, I'm ostensibly grown-up and I like who I've become, so I don't have anything to run from anymore, myself included.

Male friends who can admit they have "boy crushes."
Me, as a wholly rhetorical question: "How come I don't have any boy crushes?"
MF, generously: "You can have some of mine."

Trying to explain to the buddy Z where to locate the seat-warmer buttons in his car. Seat-warmers on a day like this? Freakin' ROCKING. When I become dictator of the world, I will ensure that everyone has seat-warmers in their cars - and their very own personal blue raspberry slurpee machines, too. So, vote for me, kids - I might even have another discussion with God about the weather, while I'm at it.