Rainy Days = Nostalgia

There is something about rainy days that always makes me nostalgic.

Nostalgia. noun : a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

Maybe because soft rainy days were such rare gifts in Ouagadougou that now I always treasure them. (In Ouaga, it was usually either torrents or drought.) Here are a few of the nostalgic things that a beautiful rainy day calls to mind:
- tin roofs: I miss being able to hear the rain.
- cinnamon toast with hot chocolate: Rainy days were some of the few days where it got mildly cool enough in Ouaga for hot chocolate. Thus, on rainy days now, I crave hot chocolate!
- romping up and down the red-flooded roads and chasing my flip-flops when they got "washed down stream"
- cuddling under blankets: again, one of the few times blankets were desired.
- reading a delicious book or playing a board game with the siblings
- the electricity going out
- yelling "Mom! It's leaking!" when noticing yet another place in the house where the water was coming through and then putting out pans/bowls to catch the water
- unplugging everything: which, btw, I still do!

Needless to say, there's a direct correlation between rain in Kansas and my emotional state of mind! Wednesday, was one of those days. The rain was simply beautiful! I decided it was the perfect day to camp out at a coffee shop. So, I packed up my things and headed off--rainboots and umbrella in hand. (Well, technically, the rainboots were in foot! ha. ha.)

Just in case you forgot what my stellar rainboots look like, here's a refresher:



Here's Mom's umbrella that I borrowed last September and still need to return. (No, I do not usually hold it so close to my head, but the wind was ferocious and I didn't want it to blow away while I took the picture.)



It was not hard for me to choose which coffee shop to frequent. Granada Coffee Company is small, quaint, and has big soft chairs by a large front window. P-E-R-F-E-C-T !!! It's right next door to a remodeled 1929 movie palace. Legit. Here are a few pictures. The coffee shop is on the right and the chocolate company on the left! (I had a gift certificate for the chocolate company so I had to stop there first!)




Here is a picture of the view from the big front window.



The place is great! I love it. Here are a few pictures I snapped when the barista was in the bathroom! :)




Unfortunately, the rain stopped when I got there, so I couldn't enjoy the noise of it pelting against the window. Regardless, I enjoyed some Pride and Prejudice in French along with some Bible reading and journaling.