THIS.
Technically,we’re two days away from the official vernal equinox here in the northern hemisphere, but almost everyone I know is just lunging towards spring and all that comes with it: shedding layers of wool and silk, eating asparagus and baby peas (and Cadbury Creme Eggs!), maybe feeling a bit randier than usual…ahem. Maybe it’s just that the extra sunlight is perking up my SAD self, but I’m feeling pretty fat-n-sassy these days.
I’ve also noticed that my students are feverish: louder, easily distracted. I can’t really blame them; I would rather be relaxing in the sun than giving exams, too.
All this to say, thank maude for warmer, brighter weather. And thank maude for flip flops! I really don’t like wearing proper shoes, so when I can finally just slip on the ‘flops to run errands, it is a Good Day. Sunshine and flip flops; that’s what it’s all about. (And Cadbury Creme Eggs!)
So, today’s FFT is: what is it about Spring that you most look forward to? And is your weather as insanely beautiful as Brooklyn’s promises to be? (Blue skies and 70 degrees F–that’s a delightful 21C!)
And for our antipodean readers, it’s almost fall (my absolute favorite season)! What are you looking forward to about the coming months?
my students wouldn’t keep still yesterday. College students, not children. I look forward to ditching winter clothes.
Mostly I look forward to that week when all the trees are electric green, followed by the week when all the magnolia trees bloom, followed by the week when all the dogwoods bloom, followed by the chestnut trees
I am having the Worst.Week.Eva, thanks to extended family drama involving mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism and institutionalization. (Good times!)
But seeing the crocuses I planted in front of my apt. building coming up is doing wonders for my spirits. Honestly, just the bright sun and warmer weather seem like a miracle right now, and it reminds me that there’s a lot of beauty and happiness in the world.
Also:
REESE’S EGGS ARE A MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN CREME EGGS.
Thank you.
Oh, lord, Becky. I hope that your family problems come to a speedy and livable (if not happy) resolution.
Spring to me is:
ditching the layers
getting rid of the parking chair
shopping for Passover
saying my favorite spring poem:
Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where
The flowers is?
Becky, I’m sorry to hear about the family drama! I hope it gets better, and that you get to enjoy some Reese’s Eggs (which are definitely NOT better than Cadbury, but we’ll just agree to disagree on that one).
It’s not quite flip-flop weather here in Ontario yet, but it is BEAUTIFUL outside. I am currently loving being able to go out without a coat, and I most look forward to the day when I can go out in a fun sundress. I hate wearing so many clothes during the winter, and I long for the day when I can go about in as little clothing as possible.
Other things I love (sorry, Canada has a way of making you really, really appreciate spring!): the sound of birds, the smell of dirt, buds on the trees, and taking the insulating plastic off the windows!
The longer days. I’m more a summer than a spring girl, when it’s 80 at 7 AM and the sun doesn’t go down until 9.
@Becky I am so sorry to hear about your family’s problem with a member with addiction and mental health. There are so many people with this same issue, my family too. You are bringing healing to the world just by talking about it.
truth be told, that’s the main main reason I started reading Jezebel and hung around to wade through all the stupid. Pretty frequently, somebody would talk about their issues with mental illness, both in themselves and in their families, and I would see my life reflected there.
@rodriguez: Amen. I feel the same way about Jezebel and the more time I spend on-line hearing other people’s stories, the more I realize addiction/mental illness seem to affect nearly every family out there to some degree. It’s a relief to realize that and I think the more we talk about it, the better. I think even reality shows like “Celebrity Rehab” and “Intervention” are useful for that reason.
Thanks everyone for your kind words!
The little tiny tan lines from sandals make me indescribably happy. I have terrible allergies, so my feelings about the flowers are mixed, but the magnolias are blooming here, and no amount of pollen can make magnolias less beautiful.
Tomorrow I’m planting my peas and my lettuce starts. By mid-summer, gardening will be a chore, but these first few weeks, it’s an unequivocal pleasure.
I’m sorry for your unpleasant drama, Becky. But I do think you’re right, even exploitative shows like Intervention help remove stigma.
@BeckySharper You are a woman after my own heart. Reese’s Eggs are my absolute favorite egg-shaped candy in the world.
Yesterday was GORGEOUS (65 degrees and sunny) and a friend and I took advantage of a huge outlet mall sale to buy a load of pretty flowery skirts and t-shirts. I was so excited to prance around town in my pretty new clothes…
and then I saw that we are supposed to get 2″-4″ of snow tomorrow.
I had a bad winter. My grandma died. The snow piled up. I was newly pregnant- an intended pregnancy, that I was happy about, but the first trimester made me emotionally unstable and nauseous all the time. Every night through January I cried before I went to sleep, and all I could talk about was moving back to Australia where it was never cold.
And now! The sunshine, the green grass, new freckles on my nose, taking my daughter to the playground, showing my pregnancy in sundresses instead of just feeling sick under 85 layers of winter clothes. It’s magical. I truly feel this week like a fog has lifted from my mind.
I will never again doubt the chemical properties of sunshine to affect people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Bring. It. On.
@Becky – that is 100% the suck and I am sorry that bad stuff has tainted the happy weather. I have also had a long and hard week (although nothing of that order) and it’s even more depressing to be upset when everyone around is happily basking in the sunlight.
As for what I’m looking forward to: I am a senior this year and as such have two weeks between the end of finals and graduation, where I will be engaged in sweet, sweet nothing. I will lie on the lawns of my campus, snuggle my boyfriend, cook and eat delicious food, day trip to the beach, day trip to some gardens, sleep all the time…it’s going to be awesome.
I’m looking forward to the farmers’ market opening and my CSA season beginning. I’m looking forward to weather warm enough to go to the beach. I’m not looking forward to moving away from my beach town and back to landlocked Arkansas in May.
Yesterday I got Reese’s eggs. Today I think I’ll grab a sandwich and read outside for my lunch break.
BIKING!!!!
(Also, Cadbury eggs are gross. Lindt FTW!)
Spring to me means my purple Birkenstocks and reading a book outside while the birds sing and everything smells of flowers.
Oh, Becky and SkipToMyLou, I’m sorry for the stuff y’all are having to go through, and glad that the warmth on your shoulders is making it a little more bearable.
Down here in Louisiana, I always relish early spring because it’s the one time when our weather is beautiful without being hot. We can enjoy the sun for a couple of weeks before the mugginess and humidity really start to take hold, and I spend as much time outside as I can during those weeks.
Also, another vote for Cadbury! And for Peeps.
@PhDork and Rodriguez, when I lived in California and taught at university, the kids were so used to “springtime” weather year-round that they completely fell apart anytime it rained or was dreary outside. Many of them wouldn’t even come to class. I tried to tell them how lucky they were to have such nice weather ALL the time!
Its gorgeous here but next week possible snow flurries. ah well.
But what I enjoy most about spring is getting to walk places in my neighborhood and running.
I love the flowers coming up. My garden is full of tulips and daffodils that are going to bloom any day now. I also get to take both my dogs on long walks, which is only possible in the warm but not hot weather. I have one that gets cold very easily, and one that overheats very easily. Bad planning on my part!
Most of all, I’m delighted that the geese are finally leaving the pond behind my house and flying north. They’re pretty, sure, but they honk until about 5AM, and start up again with the sun, and prevent me from sleeping.
I am so happy not to need to wear a coat and scarf and gloves and hat…
This has been the longest winter of my life, but the weather has been glorious in DC this week.
I like the smell of the air and just being able to walk places comfortably!
I love spring! We’ve had 70 degree weather here in NOLA this week, there are flowers in bloom all over town, migrant birds are showing up and the egrets are nesting in the park. And best of all, spring in New Orleans means festivals: Mardi Gras Indians, French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest.
But even more, spring to me means it’s almost time to leave for the field. Five more weeks ’til Panama – I can’t wait!
Oh, re: students, I had the lowest attendance yet in my class this morning. Though I can’t really say I blame them too much on such a beautiful day.
@Queen_George I’m laughing at the thought of your students falling apart when it rained, kinda like how the Russians laughed at us for freaking out over the snow
We had gorgeous weather for most of the week, but overnight we got about a foot of snow and it’s still coming down. GRRRRRR!!!
I am most looking forward to the upswing in my mood that warmth and sunshine always bring (it’s a seasonal affect thing).
Becky, mental illness, addiction, and institutionalization don’t just run in my family, they marathon. You have my empathy.
We have a fucking blizzard in Colorado right now. To me spring is:
Little strap shirts with a nice thin cardigan
Skirts! Of all shapes sizes and colors!
Tiny little baby things being born
Window blinds open at all hours.
Car trips with giant sunglasses and good ol’ songs blasting too loud
Staying over late at friends houses with spiked lemonade.
This is the best dog-walking weather. Mid-summer it’s so hot and sweaty and sticky and muggy, mid-winter it’s so cold that my eyelashes freeze together and I can’t feel my feet no matter how many socks I wear. Now I can wear a black sweatshirt and it soaks up the heat from the sun and warms me up without getting overheated.
And the flowers. Hyacinths are my favorite, they have the best smell on earth. The crocuses are just blooming, and soon we’ll have daffodils and tulips and the hyacinths and everything is so pretty after the white and grey winter.
Mostly, though, I think the sunshine and vitamin D (and hearing that I don’t have cancer! after a “serious-grade” cell mutation thingy scare for a few months) are making my depression more manageable. No more silently laying in bed staring at the ceiling!
Cadbury Mini Eggs FTW! They make me happy every spring. Good thing they also come in the little pouches, not just the big bags…
As one of the antipodean readers, it is def Cadbury creme eggs FTW! I stockpile them in March/April so that I have a lil stash until about June/July.
It doesn’t feel like Autumn, we’re still getting 28-32 degrees celcius days (I’m not sure what that is in the imperial – I’m a metric person). Shorts are still being worn, light cardies are carried in case the night air is a lil cool. Though there is that tinge of chill in the morning breeze.
I like Autumn, because my birthday happens! Birthdays to me are better than any of the other celebrations that involve cake, presents, etc. And this year my birthday looks even better, coz my sister, her partner and their children are coming to visit me (it’s also one of the kids birthdays as well – and I love to share in the celebrating of friends and families birthdays).
The jonquels and mosses are thriving in the woods of Tennessee, and the bradford pears are thinking about it
@SkipToMyLou: I’m sorry to hear about your long difficult winter, and I hope the spring is the equal and opposite reaction!
@Cimorene: congrats on the good medical news!
Rita’s (an ices place, if you don’t have them) is doing Peeps ices. Could be great, could be a disaster.
@Cimorene Let’s hear it for hearing you don’t have cancer!
Spring time rules! I was outside on my green lawn drinking ginger beer and blowing bubbles until nightfall tonight. It was so awesome.
As I’m in the same state as the Harpies (although I’m up in Ithaca), this past week has been rather absurdly beautiful. Yesterday we had our annual Dragon Day at Cornell—where the architecture students build a dragon and there’s a big, silly parade, and that was super fun. Granted, I had to finish a take-home English midterm yesterday, but as soon as I was done The Boyfriend and I walked downtown and had dinner, which was lovely.
Today I’m flying home to Illinois for spring break—I have to take planes, which is a nuisance, but still, yayyyyy!! I hope the days I spend in Chicago are as beautiful as they are here, and that the big park near my house in Springfield is starting to green up.
Also, Cadbury is right, but creme is not: it’s all about the caramel.
Oh, and Becky—my best wishes to you, and I sympathize completely. This time last year I was hospitalized for severe anxiety, so March has been pretty hard for me, but I’ve been doing my best to see this year as a time of healing. I intend to celebrate the first anniversary of my discharge this coming Tuesday by donating blood (which has a one-year wait time after a discharge before you can do it), so I’m actually looking forward to that quite a bit. Good luck, and take care.
*also, in my first post I meant to say TWO planes—of course when one flies one takes planes. Agh!
Also from the antipodes:
It’s cooled down a bit suddenly and I’m loving it. Soon the trees lining my favorite entry into my university will turn that blazing gold that makes me stupidly happy.
I’m also looking forward to wearing boots again and getting back into my warm snuggly clothes.
Oh and the cold. Or rather the shift towards it being colder. In-between weather is the best.
Autumn in the Antipodes:
And suddenly- I’m no longer a heat stressed witch!
Lazy sunny afternoons spent picnicing in New Farm park, hikes in the GoldCoast Hinterlands and evenings spent dining with friends on those wonderful “Queenslander” decks, shivering around a heater..
REESES PEANUT BUTTER EGGS FOREVA!!!!!!!!111!!!ELEVENTY!
That being said, I love that it is warm enough and light enough for me to run after work. Gets me excited to train!
June, you’re enflaming my AUS/NZ lust. Srsly.