Raining, Flooding, and Traffic- Oh My!

It's been an interesting week here in the state of Washington. If you've seen the news or online posts you know that we were dealing with lots of rain that subsequently caused a lot of flooding all over. Joe and I didn't feel any of the effects with our commutes or in the city but there are many people who lost their homes or were surrounded by water and couldn't leave their homes as the case was for the secretaries at school. The ski slopes near Charlie and Jim's cabin saw an avalanche that wiped out a chunk of the mountain. The road to drive on in front of the cabin became the scene for a tubing extravaganza and no I don't mean snow tubing. Their neighbors posted a you tube video of themselves tubing down the road. It looked like a small river on what should have been the road. I can't bear to turn on the news as there has been constant coverage of damage all over and dealing with the aftermath.
All of the rain and high winds made my commutes home from work very LONG! I'v sat in traffic so much this week that all I saw were headlights when I closed my eyes at night. I had my first art class on Tuesday night. After sitting in 2 hours of traffic I was rushed and flustered as I arrived on campus. Seattle Central is only about 10 minutes from where we live but of course parking is at a premium (a common theme in this city) and I knew where the main building was but unsure of where the fine arts building was located. I felt like the new kid on the first day of school with the feeling of being lost, surrounded buy a frenzy of students with their backpacks and books trying to get to their next class. I was grateful when I found a map and could orient myself with my surroundings and where my destination was. The confusion did not end there as I ended up in the wrong class (right title, wrong group of students) before finding my way thanks to my instructor who had to come round up those of us confused and misplaced (there were 3 of us). Of course I was the only American misplaced as my counterparts were au pairs from Sweden. After a frazzled start, the next two hours consisted of an introduction from our instructor (and further into the class little snip its of his life as they related to things we said during our introductions). Did I mention my instructor is 79 years old, carries a backpack, and wears brand new Nike sneakers? He struck a chord with me with his soothing tone of voice and interest in each of us. I could picture him sitting around his living room as the grandkids crawled on his lap and he tells the stories of days gone by. His slight difficulty in hearing caused some entertaining interpretations of the true message being relayed as introductions went around the room but I think it's going to be an interesting next couple of weeks and a good outlet for me.
Tomorrow night I'm indulging my interest in live music and checking out yet another venue in the city before heading to class number two on Tuesday. At least I have an interesting start to my week.