Yesterday we had our first big rain of the monsoon season. And during monsoon season when it rains it POURS!!! It rained really hard for well over an hour yesterday in most parts of the valley but Tempe got hit the worst. I left work at 5:00 pm and did not get to the theater until 7:05 and the show started at 7:30. Fortunately half the cast was stuck in traffic so I wasn't the only one late. I don't know how we did it but we started the show only 4 minutes late. But needless to say I was panicking the whole time I was in traffic. There was flooding everywhere. Below are some pictures of a neighborhood street I was on trying to avoid stop lights that were out and other flooded roads. The street looked fine but when I got near the intersection where I needed to turn onto the main road all of a sudden the water started rushing down the street and there was no escape but to wait in it to get out. It was SCARY. Then after sitting in the water for almost five minutes my brakes were soaked and didn't work right. I had to go really slow until they dried out a little. It was pretty stressful. Even the freeway was flooded in spots. I'm pretty sure this is just the beginning of the rains to come. They usually last well into August. But...since I live in the desert I can't complain when we get a little rain!
When I first came up the street it wasn't so bad
Then all of a sudden the water started rushing down the
street and this is what it looked like out my window.
This is another view out my window after I'd been sitting in the same spot for a while. As you can see the residents of this house had to be getting nervous. Every time someone went past water would almost splash up to my window. I was glad to finally get out of there, it was scary!
My 28th birthday...a cheesecake celebration...mmmmmm! 
Some of the girls from Chamber Singers after our last concert
Getting ready for Ariadne auf Naxos (Nice hats eh?)
