IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE SPRING TIME

The weather is finally starting to warm up around here and it feels all sorts of good on my pale skin. I even wore shorts the other day because it was a whopping 63 degrees out! I know that doesn't sound warm, but after the lengthy cold winter months with not a lot of sunlight, I couldn't help myself.

I've also been forgoing jackets. Who needs 'em!

It occurred to me the other day that these sunny warm spring days are so wonderful that they make me forget completely about how horrible and cold winter is. I'm not a mother, but I hear all about how after you have that plump little precious baby in your arms and that sweet little face with those huge eyes staring back up at you, you're like "what labor pains?" and "I wanted to punch who in the face?" and "No, that was nothing. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat."

And that pretty much sums up how I feel about spring and summer. What winter colds? I wanted to tell the snow it could do what? And, no! Surely you're mistaken! Winter wasn't so bad or so cold or so horrible, but man this spring stuff sure is beautiful!

I mean, truth be told I do enjoy a good cup of hot chocolate by the fire place and a ski day up on the mountain. However, there is just something about warm long days filled with heat from that big ball of fire in the sky that makes me so incredibly happy.

Idaho in the spring and summer is simply gorgeous. Lazy days spent on the lake make me wonder why I would ever contemplate moving somewhere else. It makes me remember who I am. I always feel more like myself when the sun is out and I can drive with the windows rolled down and the radio turned up. It satisfies the deepest levels of my soul.

In the winter I dream about the summer. I get lost in my brain and I forget myself - like I've left who I was back in the summertime and I have to re-figure out life as a winter inhabitant. It feels foreign to me, if that makes any sort of sense at all. I really do like skiing and the way that everything gets blanketed in white after that first beautiful snowfall, but everything else about winter I feel like I have to force myself into being enthusiastic about it.

Yay! Sunset at 4:30 in the afternoon! Woohoo! I get to drive to work in the dark and then drive home in the dark! Let's all drive 15 mph because snow is scary! THIS IS AWESOME! BEST WINTER EVER!

But then spring rolls around and the sun doesn't set until after seven and it then keeps getting later and later and my heart keeps getting more elated with each passing day. It's not until I sit down and think about it that I realize how ridiculous winter is. The silver lining is that it makes me more appreciative of the sunshine. As if I needed help doing that or something. Ha.

Maybe it's because I was born in the summer, or maybe it's because summer represents freedom and camping and barbecues and lakes and swimming and long days spent with good friends. I just feel at home in warmer weather. I feel like I belong there. The world makes more sense when there's a warm breeze, the smell of fresh cut grass, and good book to read on a blanket spread on the sand at the beach. That's what I live for, that is who I am.