The Comfort of Thunderstorms

So, it's raining right now in Conroe. One of those nice-sounding thunderstorms that you get quite often in Oklahoma or Arkansas. I haven't heard a nice thunderstorm in a long time, so I'm feeling more at home now than I have so far. I really like thunderstorms. There's something about being inside a nice, safe, cosy building while the weather is black outside. It's perfect weather for snuggling up in a favorite sweater and doing nothing. It also reminds me of Octobers in Oklahoma when I was in elementary school. The classrooms in my schools were old, with real hardwood floors and chalkboards (complete with dusty erasers and chalkdust!), and they were always smelling of school smells and felt warm and dry and safe. That's how I feel during dark thunderstorms. Safe and young. I feel the hot heat coming from the old-fashioned (and probably original) steam radiator against the wall under the brand-new windows; I see myself reading SRA folders and getting ahead in the literal reading rainbow; I smell the papery smell of math workbooks and phonics workbooks, and spelling tests being handed back with great red numbers at the top of each page. I see my wonderful smiling teacher sitting at her desk, looking as glad as I am that it's a rainy day, and therefore quiet and dull and sleepy. The classes will stay inside for recess today, and watch movies in the auditorium, which also has a hardwood stage, but carpet on the main floor. There are also old wooden folding chairs that stand against the wall during the school day, but come down and make two seating sections whenever there is a program being performed. After the movie recess, we will go back to our warm, safe, dry classroom and continue doing quiet work while the rain splatters against the new windows and the thunder rolls by, and the lightning taking our picture.