I love my rain boots.  They are comfortable, stylish and naturally, a leopard print.  They make me look forward to the rain.  I love to slosh through puddles and not worry about my shoes.  I feel a little invincible like I can tread through anything.  I am more playful; the idea of jumping through puddles makes me smile.

1983. Winter sports at Stevenson School include Boys Soccer, Boys Lacrosse and Girls Field Hockey.  Field Hockey has the worst field; on rainy days it is more like a swamp.  We play in knee-high mud.  We practice rain or shine — or we would never have practice during El El Niño.  I love Field Hockey. All the stresses, troubles, and academic pressures of the day melt away with the mud.  Mud flies everywhere. Sticks and balls and mud do battle.  I stand in my cleats. Mud swishes through my socks between my toes and my toes wiggle in the mud.  I am not the most skilled player, but I love this sport.  Actually, I love the uniform.  The kilt hits me just right and Field Hockey girls  – we – give off a,  ‘ready for anything’, tough-girl vibe, which I can’t muster off the field/so unlike the real me. I am covered in mud, my perfectly coiffed bob is destroyed.  I feel liberated from the controlled and striving for perfection self I am off the field.

My father picks me up from practice.  The front seat of his Audi is covered in towels.  I strip down in the laundry room off of the garage lest I drag the field into the the perfectly clean main part of the house and dump my clothes into the washer.  After a hot shower, I devour a whole box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and ask for more.   I have earned this, I am a serious athlete and I am starving.  It is time to buckle down for 4-5 hours of homework.  As I write essays, solve geometry proofs and conjugate verbs in French, I stop and smile as I remember the feeling of freedom in the mud.  Tomorrow is another practice, I hope it rains.

The manicure and nail art are by Olive & June.  The color is “Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around” by OPI.

Happy Monday!

XO,

JAE