I distinctly remember telling my girlfriend that March would suck. This was all the way back in 2006, so bear in mind that things may have been different back then…
Suffice it to say, though, that March did end up sucking, and there I stood on the 31st, right once again.
When you live in this part of the country, crappy weather during the “green” month is nothing if not par for the course. However, the one thing that skews my outlook is the fact that when I was a kid, I always viewed March as sort of a gateway to spring, which is an elegant way of saying that I thought the weather wouldn’t suck so badly most of the time.
Every year, this turns out to be wrong. If you live in the Midwest, March sucks.
leave already
During my senior year in college (’03), I went down to Miami with my girlfriend at the time. If I remember correctly, we were there for 3 days in the first half of the month, and I distinctly recall temperatures in the low 90s.
I remember throwing a football on the beach, and I can remember thinking that if I had the choice each day, I would certainly choose to blow an hour or two tossing the pigskin on South Beach.
If you want to crack a queer joke, I teed it up nicely for you in the previous sentence.
So anyway, I went back to Miami in March of 2005 and proceeded to have the time of my life. At that point, I realized that maybe March didn’t have to suck so badly after all. Maybe I just had to experience it from a different angle.
For my money, March in Miami is basically the most awesome time/place combo on earth. Not that I’ve been everywhere, but with all the crap that goes on down there during that time, I simply don’t see how you could beat it.
Needless to say, my own personal conclusion is that a vacation to Miami is not only necessary, but also the most awesome way to tick away a few of the otherwise-soggy hours that March typically brings to this part of the country.
In 2006, I unintentionally tested this theory by heading down to Austin, TX, to experience South by Southwest (SXSW). Once there, I was greeted by springlike, mild weather that was not only warm enough for shorts, but was also darn near perfect.
Maybe my Miami theory was wrong! Time to refine…
Simply going south during March is pretty much a necessity. After weathering (quite literally) the last 3 or 4 months of cold, crappy weather, nothing says “spring” quite like a trip to a place with warm temperatures and blue skies.
reality check
Today is March 1, 2007. It’s rainy and windy outside here in Louisville, KY.
Looks like I might be right once again.