Late-night Rain

I am still up. It is raining outside.

I haven't stayed up doing work since I stopped studying. Tonight is the first time I am working deep into the night.

It reminds me a lot about the late nights I pulled while staying at the dorm. I would have my desk light on. The air would be rather damp. The door leading to the balcony would be open, and if it were raining the way it is right now, I would also have the wind coming in and the sound of rain falling on the plants and on the ground. Usually, if my work was quantitative and computer-based, like what I am doing now, I would have the music playing moderately to keep me company... and right now, I have Nelly Furtado's Folklore CD playing.

The only thing missing is my dormmates. On most evenings, the door opening up to the hallway would be open. But whether or not it was, I would always hear the other girls laughing, talking, screaming, even. On rainy nights, doors would occasionally slam up and down the hallway, blown by the force of the wind entering from both ends. Maybe I would hear the overflow of music from other rooms as well. (And I would find them tacky and sentimental a lot of times.)

Even at 11 PM, the place where I lived was vibrant with energy. But not tonight. Tonight, I am the only one still up. Late-night rain the way I remember it; maybe not ever again.