Rain, Rain . . .

Am I the only person who likes rainy summer days? They remind me of summer camp. For some reason, my memories of summer camp are mostly of sitting in my tent, listening to the drum of rain against the canvas, or trudging through the hot, humid aftermath in a sticky raincoat.

I think I also like the excuse to stay home and be lazy. When the sun is out, I feel like I should be out or I'm wasting the day. But when it's raining, I feel like it's okay to camp out in front of the television, take a nap, read a book in bed.

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Do you have a person in your life who just always brings you down? Someone who just has to rain on your parade, criticize everything you do, and bring up every mistake you've ever made?

I do.

And unfortunately, she's not someone I can just excise from my life.

How do you handle that person?

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I'm starting to get closer to my departure. My condo is in shambles at the moment: boxes stacked everywhere; piles of things that I really should sort through before I pack (but I have a feeling that I'll wind up tossing them into a box that will be ignored until the next time I have to move); more piles of books and magazines that I "swear" I'll get to read in the next 12 days; lists of things to do, to get, to remember.

On the bright side, I'm making fun discoveries---like the L.L. Bean gift card that I unearthed from the craft closet yesterday and the CDs that I found in one of those boxes of "things to be sorted" that sat unsorted in the storage closet for three years.

My mother is coming next week to help me pack and clean. My plan is to give her a set of boxes and a room to pack each day, while I go into work. Then, I just don't have to deal with any of it.

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I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. I was going to go super short. Like Felicity-post-breakup short. Hot showers are few and far between in Malawi, and trying to wash long, thick hair in a cold, bucket shower is an exercise in futility. Short hair would be way more practical.

But I think I might be wussing out. For one, I do not have Keri Russell's bone structure. I am not so impossibly beautiful that I can carry any hair style. And I recently unearthed a photo of myself from last summer when I had chin-length hair. It was not a good look for me. (Why didn't anyone tell me?!)

What say you---Should I be brave and go short? Or should I stick to a moderate, brushing-the-shoulders length (and hope that my new solar shower solves the problem of how to wash it)?