I used to love the rain. Now I kinda see it as a nuisance. But today I gave thanks for the rain. I was driving back from church, around 2 pm, when I noticed that the hills by this one stretch of the freeway looked different. I thought it was because I was seeing them in the daytime. (This part has very little light, so I'm used to driving through it in the dark when coming back from visiting friends and seeing nothing but looming black things.)

Anyway, I finally realized what it was. The hills were green. There had been so little rain this past year that I was too used to them being brown and dead. But everywhere I looked, there was a green covering on the hills, and the trees were greener, and the sky, though still a bit gray with storm-brewin' clouds, never looked more beautiful. It looked like a scene from Oklahoma or some State around there. It looked downright Irish.

Speaking of emeralds (cuz... y'know, Emerald Isle... nickname of Ireland... yeah? yeah?), I saw a really beautiful emeral necklace at a jewelry store at South Coast Plaza. Sooo green. Sooo pretty.