.....mid afternoon... walking from one building to the next and the rain comes down like a giant wave! the center of Florence became a temporary oceanarium (though lacking jellyfish of course) it was fantastic..and only lasted for a short moment......yet i was getting unavoidably soaked.

for some reason i was carrying a sewing needle in my left hand..i believe it was in the side pouch of my nap sack.....and it poked me like three time the day before. it even drew blood.....maybe i was finally fed up with the fumbling stray sewing needle and i took it out pondering what to do with it next....maybe make a shirt with a raccoon on it this time! (like joels hat....the most amazing hat in the world. hands down. joel you should send me a pic of it as soon as you read this...i will post in on here.)

so while carrying this sewing needle it made me extremely uncomfortable because maybe a sewing needle is quite possibly the opposite of an umbrella. probably because umbrellas are much larger and can resemble a little canopy of sorts.....maybe even a fort if one collects enough......and a sewing needle....well sewing needles are easy to lose. it would probably take eons to make a fort from sewing needles.

so in result i kept thinking how much easier life would be...if for only at this moment.... if i had an umbrella. how the rain would pretend that i hadn't existed any longer......how my pants and suspenders and tie would stay much more dry (oh and yes.....I've started a day at school only on Tuesdays where i try and get people to wear ties......mostly it is for me because i have several ties but never wear them...and alas. her is my chance! i call it: TIE TUESDAY)
only a short moment thereafter i found an abandoned umbrella on the side of the street. it was red and petite....and it was beautiful.

i know what your thinking.......yes the umbrella had to have been there for a reason.....like it probably doesn't function properly?.....allows the water to fall right through?....and usually yes this is the case. but not today!......this umbrella was in both prefect aesthetic and working condition! and kept me dry....

i have this problem i guess....i think about umbrellas all of the time. and i have even come to a point where I've begun collecting them (im up to nine broken umbrellas!). maybe its my fascination with their use and purpose....how they are both a tool but also a fashionable garment... how when you dont have one and its raining you want one...... and when you have one but its not raining you dont want to carry it. personally i have this problem that when i am carrying an umbrella i habitually spin it between my finger tips.
to a point where i end up dropping it onto the ground and then the water realizes that im still around and that i was just pretending to hide....like a little turtle..... underneath my little canopy fort.....
and proceeds to rain over my head again until i pick up the umbrella.....

but the rain now has become more intelligent while being more keen to my routine and my little umbrella trick.....and figures out ways to make me a little more wet even with the umbrella still involved....like picking up the wind so the umbrella sways from side to side....thinking ......maybe i wont notice. or falling just a bit more heavily to the pavement....... so it makes a larger splash near my feet and jumps up onto the tops of the thin canvas of my shoes. but the most peculiar thing is when it gets underneath the loose cobble stones in Piazza San Lorenzo and makes a small lake. solely for that of a large heavy cobblestone to float on...so that minutes later when i walk over the stones.....the most buoyant one wobbles from one side to the next and shoots up a giant stream of water...like some sort of urban geyser!
not like old faithful....I've seen old faithful. it is much more boring then this. this has way more personal involvement. this is when you realize that the rain is following you. not just for a short moment...or even a day or two......but quite possibly from that point forth.....for the rest of your life.