Rainy Days, the Story of Shelby

I have always loved a rainy day...the kind of rain that is steady and quiet.  The kind that makes everything outside slow and everything inside cozy.  I have always found those days to be highly productive days.  In high school, I remember sitting near the classroom window, looking outside where it was darker than usual and still except for the beating rain...and having the work flow from me like a river.

I love those days.

Sunday was one of those days.

I decided when I woke up that I was not leaving the house...and I made a list of things that needed doing.  I made it easy...all things in the quilt studio...either behind a sewing machine or a laptop.  It was a long list...too long to be done in a day.

But anything is possible on a rainy day...especially a rainy Sunday.  So I put dinner in the crock pot and Shelby and I went to the studio and closed the door.  I sewed most of the day.  Then I wrote most of the night.  I nearly finished the list...nearly.

Shelby decided I needed help and here's where she slept for about 3 hours.

She'll be 7 years old in a couple of weeks.  I have to wonder if she remembers that this is how we met.

The Story of Shelby...

I was sitting in my back corner office...partner in an engineering firm thinking life was all good.  And this woman that worked in the underwriter's office upstairs comes in with this 1 pound fur ball in her hand.  She tells me that my husband (who worked upstairs also) said to not bring this puppy down to see me so she had to do just that because this puppy needed a home.  She hands me this little fur ball...who curled up in the crook of my elbow and fell back asleep and of course, I never gave her back.

So here I am at the end of a very productive rainy Sunday with this puppy still sleeping between my arm and the computer.

I no longer have that corner office, or that partnership in that firm, or that "career" or well, money, or a lot of things that seemed so important then...but...

it's been a long time since I felt the contentment of a rainy production day like Sunday (um...at least 15 years)
at least once a day I shake my head and smile and sometimes an evil little laugh will bubble out...

the dream is coming true...

(footnote...as I'm typing this, Norah Jones sings "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" on Pandora...okay God...you're making me laugh again...I'm working on it...)