VOICE! Summer '97:

Rain

By Heather Frese & Anna Ruddock

Originally published in Youth Allied By CFIDS, Summer 1997

Summer has always been my favorite season, and it probably always will be. Summer means family vacations, open windows, lightning bugs and wishing stars. For the past few years though, summer has also meant sailing. With the sailboat I at last found an environment suited to me! On a boat, everyone is expected to wobble dizzily upon standing, to be confused at the brand-new vocabulary containing fascinating words like "port" and "starboard," and to scream in frustration upon learning that to make the boat go left, you have to turn the handle right.

On a nice windy day sailing is a great CFIDS activity, providing that I don’t have to steer or pull any ropes. But sometimes the breeze lags, leaving me to soak up heat and humidity. Slowly I turn into a limp, wilted, noodle of a girl. When my family gets tired of placing ice cubes on my head for the fun of watching them melt in two seconds, they simply toss me overboard to cool off. Many an hour I have spent, rope around my waist, trailing after the boat like a persistent mermaid. So if ever you spot a sailboat in Ohio with two upright occupants, one grumbling brother and a head bobbing along behind them, chances are it’s us!

Some summer days are just too darn hot to venture outside, so those are usually spent in front of the computer screen, which is where these definitions originated — thanks to my ever-present friend and fiend, the typo! (See if you can guess the original word…)

Frompy, adj, (from me, Heather) The state of feeling so grouchy, frumpy and irritable that you simply must stomp about the house muttering to yourself in order to remain sane. Example: After a long day of being poked and prodded at the doctor’s office, you return home to the sound of your neighbor’s remodeling and also discover that someone has eaten your cookies and moved around the organized piles of junk in your room. Upon being asked what is wrong you throw yourself on the floor, kick your hands and feet into a frenzy and wail, "I feel frommm-peeeee!!!!!!!"

Myalgebra, n, (from Rebecca Moore) Myalgia (aches and pains) induced by math overload. Example: While staring at the numbers, plus and minus signs and various other intricacies of algebra, your brain slowly begins to send sizzling signals of pain and suffering throughout your body until you cannot add two and two together without getting five. At this point you are technically allowed to quit by stating "myalgebra is really acting up on me."

Typoese, n, (from Sandy Becker) The language spoken by uncoordinated hands and brains in E-mail messages. Example: "I signed my E-mail as ‘Snady B.’ rather than ‘Sandy B.’ I must have been speaking typoese again!"

The Voice Lettitorial

This edition’s Voice Lettitorial has a summer theme, one of my personal favorites, summer rain. It comes direct to you from Anna Ruddock of Wiltshire, England. Have a great summer and I’ll see you next time!

Rain

It rains. It always has and it always will… but how often do we really think about it? Rarely is the answer in my case. But one evening I was sitting down to my computer as it began to rain. Seeing as the last few days had been wet, I didn’t see it as a particularly interesting occurrence. This time however, was different. The rain was so heavy, seemingly determined to wipe everything else into oblivion…

A sudden urge struck me — an urge to go outside and get wet. Thinking I should probably obey this sudden need, I went outside. I stood alone in the back garden spinning around. (Not particularly advisable with this illness, but there you go.) Then I just stood still as the rain fell. Huge fat raindrops seemed to be fired down from the clouds just for me.

As I stood I realized that, despite how annoying it can be, the rain will always provide us with a consistency to rely on. However any of us are feeling, it will always rain. Witnessing the power of nature like that really brings home the fact that some things just aren’t worth worrying about. I stood in my garden getting drenched until it stopped before going inside to change.

It was an incredibly refreshing experience. To some of you the above will probably seem a bit weird, bizarre etc... but you’ll just have to trust me. My advice to you all is to take advantage of the next really heavy rainfall by going outside and getting soaked. For those who are unable to do that, simply sitting by a window and concentrating on the rain and how it falls should hopefully lead to a feeling of calm that you can turn to when feeling unnecessarily stressed.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share that experience/rubbish/rambling/drunken pondering/divine inspiration.

Take care,

Love and rainfalls to you all,

Anna