A Year of Blogging: February 10, 2011

February 10 was Umbrella Day. To me, February is an odd time of year to have Umbrella day. That would be more appropriate in say, April, when you get all the spring showers. While it seems pretty silly to have Umbrella Day (and you thought Toothache Day was ridiculous!), umbrellas themselves are pretty important. If you don't want to get wet, that is. If you don't mind getting wet, then you probably just get up, see it's raining, and walk out the door. But if you've taken the time to shower, fix your hair, and put some care into your outfit, you don't want to have it all ruined by a rain shower. I have a habit of leaving my umbrellas places. Not random places like the bank, but rather- the last place I used it. For instance, if I took the umbrella into the office in the morning, but it wasn't raining when I left at night, then I'd leave the umbrella in my office. And it would stay there until the next time it rained. Which was usually in the morning- when I was trying to get from my car to the office without the aforementioned drenching. Then I remember my umbrella is sitting next to my desk, taunting me. Or when I try to leave the office in a downpour, and realize my umbrella is in the front seat of my car! So I have an umbrella at the office, several in the car (just in case others are with me),and one in the house. I think an umbrella is also possibly the most bizarre souvenir I've ever bought. When I was 16, our high school offered a trip during Spring Break to Madrid and Paris. My sister and I jumped at the chance. Our group consisted of the two of us, and two other girls in Laura's class. Paris in April can be very wet. I don't remember if my sister and I packed one umbrella between us, or if we didn't pack one at all. Our second day in Paris, we got drenched. We stepped into an expensive store (the name escapes me now) to get out of the rain, and spotted umbrellas for sale. They were really cool umbrellas with handles shaped like a duck head. My sister and I bought one, and it was used extensively for the remainder of the trip. I know we paid too much for it, but it was fun telling everyone at home 'we bought this in Paris'. Like we went to Paris so frequently, that it was common to buy a duck head umbrella!