'Tis (not) the season

On the twelfth day of Springtime my neighbor showed to me
Twelve mosquitoes chomping
Eleven lenting ladies
Ten lovely lilies
Nine eggs a-hatching
Eight rabbits hopping
Seven fish a-swimming
Six drippy rain boots
Five soggy dogs
Four geese heading home
Three thunderstorms
Two daffodils
And a robin in an oak tree

In celebration of the first day of spring, some friends and I composed this little song and went to our local Starbucks to sing it to another friend. All was good and well... until I realized that I had Christmas songs stuck in my head. In March.

Did I mention these were Christmas songs I got stuck in my head?

I don’t even believe in the holidays, pretty much. I mean, come on, Santa Claus? But there is something admittedly pleasant about the holidays. I mean, for a couple weeks in a year, people do the whole thing where they try to be vaguely nice to everyone, spreading the peace-on-earth thing, or at least attempting such. When you’re not a Christian it’s a little futile, but at least they try.

So when I was flying this year on the first of January, it was extremely odd to see the airports take down their decorations at the first possible moment. I’m so used to people keeping their decorations up until February that it seemed a little surreal to see the watchful-eyed TSA guys removing strands of tinsel from around the security check points. Mind you, when I was flying it was about 4:30 in the morning, so they were literally not wasting so much as a minute.

But that brings me back to the holiday spirit thing. It’s always a little depressing to realize that the cozy season in over, and from now until April life is going to be one long episode of angry snowaphobic drivers, regular uncleanly lyriced songs in the stores, broken Christmas merchandise sales, and lots of not-as-cutely-lit snow everywhere. Sigh.

Which is why of the two and a half weeks in the year that I like Christmas music, the half week after New Year’s is one of them. I suddenly find myself saddened by the end of the holidays (which I’ve already admitted to being silly, since I don’t do the holidays) and wanting to bring it back in some small degree. So I depressedly listen to maybe two days worth of Christmas CDs and hope that no angry drivers will slip and slide their way into me, and that I don’t become roadkill.

Not that I’d mind the early admittance to Heaven, I’m just saying, it’s hard on those that survive, and I don’t want to cause that much pain.

Wow, I get really off-topic, don’t I? Not to mention, the weather here is quite nice right now, so my snowaphobic neighbors can (hopefully) put away their fears for another year.