The Most-Hated Month of the Year

Ah!  February: The most-hated month of the year (at least for anyone living in the northern hemisphere in a non-tropical area). 

Think about it:  February is the last (and typically coldest) month of winter.  The weather is usually terrible, the sun has been obscured for so long, that even people who do NOT suffer from seasonal depression are starting to get twitchy from a lack of vitamin D, and it is so close to spring that you can almost touch it (dangling like a carrot on a string you can never reach!).  I mean, c’mon, February is so drab and dreary that people invented holidays, just to give people something to do (and if that means spending loads of cash on meaningless, overpriced nothings, I guess it’s a win-win for The Bored and The Economy).  Thank goodness February doesn’t last very long (can it really be pure coincidence that this month is a few days shorter than most- maybe it has always been the bane of humanity?)! 

February is also the month when my cursed vanity really rears its ugly head (I believe I have mentioned this flaw previously).  By the time February has come around, my skin has lost so much pigment that I start having competitions with marble statues everywhere to see who has more color.  So far this year, it is Statues 5, Meg 0.   I get so exceedingly pale, that I applying make-up must be done with a delicate touch; one swipe too few and people ask me all day if I am feeling well, one swipe too much and Bozo the Clown is going to my office!!    Every year at this time, I begin stalking the sunless tanner aisles, and thinking about a visit to a tanning bed; just to make me feel human! 

As I was unpacking I came across some old pictures of myself from my college days.  I looked at the girl smiling back at me in those pictures:  twinkling brown eyes that seemed to always be laughing, a smile that went on for days, skin gently kissed by the sun (a lovely, healthy-looking, tanned glow).  I was absolutely gorgeous!! 

“What happened?”  I asked myself; only mildly surprised when my subconscious actually answered:

“Well… 10 years, 2 kids, extra pounds (from the kids), 2 major lay-offs, enough stress in the last two years to kill a small elephant, and it IS February.”

“Oh, shut up…  Who asked you anyway?”

“Um… you did…”

“Well, you’re not supposed to answer!!!!”

Oh, Spring… when will you be here?  I need your sunshine & fresh air; your gentle rain & grass so green it hurts to look at it.  I long to get outside, & teach my daughter to ride her bike in our driveway; to take a long walk with Hubby, kids & dog to explore the pond at the end of the property; to pitch a tent and take my daughter on her first campout in our back yard; to cookout & roast marshmallows & lay on a blanket to show my kids the constellations on a clear, crisp spring evening.   I need the fresh air & sunshine that made the younger shade of me glow with vitality & radiate health! 

BUT!  First, we have to get through February…  The most-hated month of the year.