Spring is Here...for Good!

It's official: after months of teasing, spring is finally here in Wisconsin. If you're a resident, you know what I'm talking about--the spring teaser, that first warm, breezy day in March when you retire your goose-down Columbia jacket....only to shovel your way to the car within a weeks time. For Wisconsinites, March is always a giant slap in the face and nefarious chuckle from Mother Nature as she says, "This bitch of a winter ain't goin nowhere! Muhahahahaha..."

But, my friends, spring has finally arrived in all her full glory. The ground is greenish-brown instead of poopy-brown, the ice scraper is in your trunk, and fat squirrels have returned to their usual dumpster-diving posts. What I love about spring arriving in a normally frozen climate is just how obviously glaring it is. Everyone and their fucking hamster is roused from their hibernation corrals, and is suddenly an avid runner\tanner\bicyclist\rollerblader\binge drinker\soccer player. Whatever random activity it is that gets you outside, it's suddenly your favorite hobby--and you better be damn dedicated, because it's only a sweet seven or so weeks before it gets too muggy to function.

Now, I live in a college town. And college towns love spring. It's that last hurrah before final exams, and "It's sunny." is the perfect excuse to put off whatever it is that needs to be accomplished until tomorrow. It's ok to be mediocre when the sun emerges from its perpetual hiding spot. Oh privileged reader, have you had the luck of witnessing the classic dorm beach party? It's quite the Midwestern cultural experience--a good 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and dorm-dwellers are willing to take their tops off, ask their dorm-dwelling friends to rub them down with oil, and hold court with a beach towel and assigned reading text....on the poopy/greenish brown rugby field within the dorm's vicinity. How I love these rituals. So positively hilarious. But hey, it's spring, and however we all want to foolishly celebrate--be it by dusting off the motorcycle or indulging in a twisty cone while driving with the window down--anything is A-ok with Mother Nature.