I came late to our team happy hour this evening given that I’ve had a lot of things on my plate this week, but I realized when I arrived that I wasn’t really feeling it. We do have a lot of new people who have joined our team here in New York in the last couple of months, so I should have been more social, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I just felt exhausted and disengaged. I stayed for about an hour and then ended up leaving… and picked the absolute worst time to leave, as there was torrential downpour at that time. And it was not just endless buckets of rain coming down, but the wind was out of control. The weather report said the rain wouldn’t end until around 9:30 and kept sending me multiple alerts for flash flooding, and there was no way I was going to stand around for another hour and a half just to get home. So instead, I ran about 5 blocks to get to the subway station, taking breaks under cover occasionally to clear my vision and wring my dress. I thoroughly drenched my flats, dress, and hair; I can’t remember ever getting this soaked in rain ever before. And very empathetic women and men on the subway told me that my eye makeup had completely run down my face as I was using a napkin to dab it all away.

Luckily for me, when I got out of the train at the stop closest to my apartment, the rain had lightened to just above a drizzle, so I was able to get home okay, wring out my clothes, and then have a quick shower to get comfortable. I am never not packing an umbrella when there’s even a hint of rain in the weather report ever again. I rationalized it in the end, thinking that even with an umbrella, I still would have gotten drenched, but it’s better to come prepared anyway.