Favorite Seasons

It has been so unseasonably warm here lately, and I don't want it to end. I am loving the 70something days we have been having with their crisp clean nights. I love spring and fall. Summer is great with its sultry heat but there are bugs. Winter is wonderful with it's snowfalls and icicles but one has to always bundle, always take care not to get the frostbite. It's a tie between spring and fall as my favorites I think. I was born in fall, so that gives that season an advantage over spring perhaps. Do we imprint on our first season? I don't know, but I've always have a special place in my heart for the shortening days, the billowing clouds, the colorful leaves, and yes, even the death of plant life. It represents a cycle to me, and usually by the time my birth month, September, rolls around I'm ready to be done with bugs and hot, sticky, sweaty weather. I enjoy the first frost of the season (especially since it indicates an end of outdoor allergy season). I love to see the long V's of geese heading south for the winter.

Still, now it is spring, and spring at last. The snow has melted (but as it's Minnesota, we may still get one or two small snowstorms before it gives up til fall), and the tulips and daffodils are growing. I saw little purple flowers on the protected side of a campus building the other day and it made me smile. I was walking to class, grumpy about having to be inside on such a nice day, and I turned and saw them. I actually stopped on the path for a minute to admire them before continuing on to the basement torture chamber they call a classroom (no windows, the heat still on, bad ventilation, and cramped quarters). The grass is already green and there is no more ice on the lakes. Ice Out (that point in which all lakes in the TC area have no more ice) happened one week earlier than the average this year. This past week the weather has been 15 degrees above average. Instead of a chilly 50 to 55, we have a balmy 65-70...and even 80 on one day (though 80 was too hot for this time of year, my body needs time to adjust to that). The longer days, and flowers, and birds, and plants, and warmth have me smiling at nothing, and doing little skippy dances at work. My coworkers have labeled me 'eccentric' or just plain weird, but my skppy dances make them smile, and I think everyone has a better day for it. Oh, and the wee house finches have build a nest in our awning again, so soon I'll have baby finches to watch grow big and fly away. Yesterday I caught myself humming the 'raindrops keep falling on my head' song.

Don't get me wrong, my world isn't completely rose colored glasses. I was sick (I admit it) last week, and that was no fun at all. If I think too long about how much schoolwork I have to do from now until May 12th I will slide right back into stress. I still have to find a real job for when I finish my Master's and figure out how to live as an 'out of school adult'. Just now, as I type this though, life is good. It's 77 degrees outside, the sun is shining, and the mosquitos aren't yet hatched. I fully intend to finish this post and then go play outside for awhile before sunset. I have some errands to run in my car with the windows rolled down, and then I'm going to take a blanket out onto the lawn and do my reading for class where it's nice.

This weekend I'm going to GB for Easter, and then it's back here for a CRAZY week of next. Have a great weekend everyone. If it's not looking like it'll be great, call me and I'll try to infect you with some of my energy. Lord knows I don't need quite all of it.