Jan 31 2003
Love/hate: Umbrellas
Love/hate for Friday, January 31, 2003:
Umbrellas
It’s back! Finally! First love/hate of the year (barely made it in the first month of the year, but still). Did you miss it?
It seems only fitting in this winter of El Ni?o Lite to write about umbrellas. We have had a couple of pretty bad storms this winter, but as January comes to an end and the cherry tree outside my living room window begins to blossom, I will venture to say that this El Ni?o Lite year has been a positive joy compared to the badass El Ni?o of 1997-1998. That boy was the bully of the playground, pounding us mercilessly with rain every single day of February, not to mention kicking off the rainy season in September and not ending until May. Suicidal weather, my friends.
Though I hate the rain – and love a good drought – I love umbrellas. If you must endure the rain, and the northern California climate decrees that you must, you have to have an umbrella. Now I don’t carry it (no pun intended) to the extreme seen in Chinatown, where umbrellas and parasols ward off the sun’s rays and the rain’s drops equally. But after spending the time it takes to glamorize in the morning, from contacts to make-up to hair, I’m not having the effects ruined by rain. So I have to have an umbrella to shield all that labor from the rain, which wants to ruin my face the same way it ruins my mood. I can’t stop the latter, but I’m sure as hell going to stop the former if I possibly can.
Now, there are times when it’s so windy that your umbrella gets turned inside out and becomes completely useless, like me at math. But that’s no reason not to have one. After all, it’s an accessory, and a girl can never have too many. Make sure you get one of those really lightweight travel ones, so you don’t even notice. If you are only carrying around necessities, the way you should, the umbrella shouldn’t add too much weight and inconvenience to your daily luggage, be it handbag or backpack.
At least it only rains here in the winter, so you don’t have to carry an umbrella all the time, just in case, like condoms.