Let's See if We Can Get Caught Up

How y'all doing?  Did you remember that Justin and I have a blog?  I almost didn't.  I woke up on Friday and threw on a blue shirt and blue jeans (for Dress in Blue Day) and thought "huh, we really should start writing this stuff down again............. OH YEAH".  So, it is time for us to be up to date.  For those following, that means our deep and brilliant insights will be all but completely missing from this entry.

Why though?  Because being a grown up sucks.  No, seriously though.  I'm a happy grown up.  Justin is a happy grown up.  But do you know what we did on a whim for the first project?  One day, we drove up to Frankenmuth and went frozen chicken bowling.  Another day, we wandered into a Moose Lodge in Hamtramck and bummed paczki (and paczki flavored shots) off the Mooses (Meese?).  Being, you know, grown ups, makes that less possible than when we were in that semi-post-school-ish phase.

So, we're going to play full catch up on the writing.  Don't worry if you get bored.  There won't be a quiz or anything.  And even if there were, what could we do?  Flunk you at blog reading?  So there you go.  And here we go.  And there we went.

February 24: Dragobete
Thank goodness we celebrated this holiday, thus undoing that asshole Groundhog's prediction and bringing the coming of spring!  Wait, it's still cold?  Perhaps that's because there is no snow in Houston so we weren't able to fulfill the key tradition of the holiday.  In Romania, Dragobete is the coming of spring and is celebrated by a maiden (boom! score one for the ladies) melting snow and using it in potions.

Lacking snow, as we did, we instead opted to melt ice from the freezer outside and then drink the water.  It was... time consuming.  That said, learning about the custom was a lot of fun.

February 25: Pistol Patent Day
I, unfortunately, had to work and then get up early the next day.  Like, insanely early.  Like, 4am early to get to the airport.  So Justin went a-shootin' without me during the day.  We celebrated the patenting of the colt revolver by Justin going to a gun range.  It was pretty on-the-nose.  And he's a good shot, which in no way scares me cause I am too.

February 26: Tell a Fairy Tale Day
As I sat on the plane to Dallas for my first ever business trip, I briefly contemplated the view that this could qualify as a modern-day fairy tale.  That's right.  For a split second, I compared the experience of sardining myself onto a crack-of-dawn commuter flight with being a fairy tale princess.  I'm not going to self-depricate here.  It has obviously been handed to you on a silver platter.  YOUR WELCOME.

When I got home in the evening (after my second god-forsaken commuter flight in one day), Justin and I talked about the key elements of fairy tales and then built one together:

Protagonist: A beautiful/charming/aloof damsel (probably a princess)
Antagonist: An ugly/mean/pushy older woman (probably a step-mother - its always the step-mother)
Savior: A handsome/charming/mildly-emotionally-damaged knight (possibly a secret prince)

Traditional Plot:  The beautiful damsel awaited the day she could be rid of her ugly step-mother and marry the first man who came along and seemed nice enough for at least 48 hours.  In a fit of desperation and possibly to seem independent, the aloof princess escaped her palace prison out into the streets of her kingdom and was somehow not IMMEDIATELY recognized.  The handsome knight saw her, was captivated by her beauty and, of course, instantly smitten despite never having heard her opinion on anything.  She too was smitten, but afraid, and then the charming knight price fought a dragon or some shit and murder-balled her step-mother and they have lots of babies cause neither of them really wanted to "talk" much anyway.  The end.

Our Plot: The charming damsel was terribly mad her at evil step-mother for not allowing her to attend the kingdom's premier college and study particle physics so she paid a witch from the village to make her look like a regular villager so she could sneak out.  Despite going from stunningly beautiful to normal and plain looking, she didn't care because she valued her intellectual pursuits and went to class religiously.  Her evil step-mother was totally a narcissist and basically didn't even notice that the princess was gone.  Then, the princess met a charming knight who was also taking particle physics.  He pursued her in earnest, writing her love poetry about her beauty before even knowing her name.  But she refused his advances, saying "sorry, but you seem mildly-emotionally-damaged and I'm not looking for a project right now".  Then she got her degree, married a law student and sued her evil step-mother for control of the kingdom.  And they lived actually happily ever after.  The fucking end.  **DROP THE MIC**

February 27: Polar Bear Day
We live in Houston, which, as you may be aware, is not the primary habitat for polar bears.  I had previously done a polar bear swim and that was a hell of an experience.  So, while I was at work, Justin jumped into our pool which is NOT warm enough to swim in.  Then, because we're masochists, we turned off the heat in the house.  I know that seems like no big because, hello, Houston - but it was only 45 degrees out so it actually got pretty cold.  We also did the same thing we did with penguin day, but it was through a different charity.  Either way, we helped polar bears.  It was awesome and freezing.

February 28: Chocolate Souffle Day
It took forever to find a place that had chocolate souffle.  We ended up settling for chocolate mousse from the grocery store and shaking it to see if it would expand.  It did not.  Nor, really should we have thought it would.  But who cares - WE ATE SO MUCH CHOCOLATE.

March 1: Pig Day
There is some controversy about this holiday.  It is meant to honor the majestic pig and its graceful roll roll rolls in the mud?  Or is it meant to be an exaltation of the glorious gift that is bacon?  There is some serious dissonance between the holiday's founder and the nature of its celebrations.

For our part, Justin and I continue to subscribe to the philosophy of the late, great(?) Otto von Bismarck: "Laws are like sausages.  Better not to see them being made."  So we dined on delicious, delicious bacon and legitimately refused to think about the nature of pigs.  Because bacon is worth it.

March 2: Texas Independence Day
Did you know Texas used to be its own country?  We do.  Because Texas doesn't let you forget it.  Ever.  We celebrated by declaring our backyard its own autonomous territory, but ceded the territory back to the state before things got weird.  We also read up on the history of Texas, which I will begrudgingly admit is legitimately interesting.  I highly recommend it if you're a history nerd like I am.

March 3: Fun Facts about Names Day
We asked our various friends and family (not aggressively, but we were curious) about where their names came from.  We figured there are two ways of looking at this holiday.  First, you could argue that the fact has to be about the name itself OR you could argue that the fact should be able the named person.  We decided on the latter.  And there was definitely a winner.

Our friend Allison, who is a delight, was so named after the top quality transmission that shares her name.  That just instantly wins in every way.  The end.

March 4: Paczki Day/Mardi Gras
If you don't know what Paczki is - FIX IT.  I didn't know what it was until I went to Michigan.  Serious aside - it is pronounced "poonch-key", not "pack-zee".  I made that mistake and was drummed out of the state of Michigan in the dead of winter and left to wander back from the Ohio border without shoes.  That is the official state punishment.  At least it wasn't as bad as the punishment for mispronouncing Gratiot.  You're on your own for that one.

Paczki day is the same day as Mardi Gras and we were hoping to get paczki, but Houston does Mardi Gras a bit differently.  The big thing down here is King Cake.  So we got a King Cake instead.  Not unlike the celebration we did early in January, you're supposed to look for the little baby figurine in the King Cake and (I believe) this time it means good luck.  So we ate slice after slice and then realized that the baby was sitting outside the cake in a neat little plastic bag.

OUR KING CAKE WAS ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.  I just want to put that out there.

March 5: National Absinthe Day
Absinthe is the nectar with which I will smite my enemies.

That shit it gross, is what I'm saying.  It is black licorice flavored liquid bullshit.  It burned like six shots at once, even when cut with sugar.  But if anyone I don't like asks: IT'S DELICIOUS.

March 6: Day of the Dude
White Russians.  Rugs that tie rooms together.  Expending as little effort as possible.  WE ARE GOING TO CELEBRATE THIS HOLIDAY FOREVER.

March 7: National Dress in Blue Day
And on the heels of back to back drinking holidays, we have something serious.  Many causes have a color or an event - we chose to raise awareness about colon cancer.  It is a personal issue for me because I lost my grandmother to colon cancer in 2010.  I would also recommend/love if people would take the time to read some of the information on the Colon Cancer Alliance's official website and possibly even donate.  No snark here - this was one of the more somber, but important days we chose to observe.

March 8: National Day of Unplugging
We knew immediately this would not be an easy holiday for us, so we decided to just unplug from the internet.  We watched some comedies and avoided human contact for the day, but in the end there was one thing that really became clear -- unplugging can be nice, but on a normal day, our nature is to connect and the internet allows us to do that.

I do think, more and more, we should stop being a passive observer of each other's lives and jump in and celebrate our friendships more openly, but I won't say we're not offenders as well.  Forcibly losing our ability to politely stalk our buddies for the day made the basic separation of living across the country from one another more poignant.  So, you know, talk more and stuff.

March 9: Panic Day
Holy shit.  A holiday for my inner monologue.  Honestly?  We ran around the house in circles and collapsed in a laughing heap and then rinsed and repeated.  ALL DAY.

Except for the long and serious conversation about our next 5-10 years in the middle of the afternoon.  See, the point of the holiday is to release your inner panic, whatever that is.  As a couple of hardcore planners, we took the opportunity to talk about all of our irrationals.  Originally, we figured it would be silly, but the truth is, we avoided some panicking a year from now by going through the talk-it-out exercise this last weekend.  It worked out really well.

March 10: US Paper Money Day
Neither of us had any real concept how hard it was to subsist without debit cards in recent months.  We both generally carry a small, but reasonable amount of cash, but the nice thing about the debit card is that it leaves a record of the transactions without having to carry receipts around.

We found it difficult, mostly because we didn't want to take out too much so it was an extra trip to the bank and then almost a second trip back because we lost the freedom to buy an extra thing if we wanted to do that.  We both love taking a full lap around the grocery store (because our childhoods' have long since died and been buried) and sometimes we find neat things and with only cash on us, we didn't have the option to buy.  It was deeply distressing.  Let's never do it again.

March 11: Worship of Tools Day
Like many of the holidays we've chosen to celebrate, there are two ways to look at this one.  We could take the traditional and probably correct view that this is a holiday in celebration of the advancements of mankind and the use of tools to that end.  The other, almost certainly wrong, view is that this is a holiday to celebrate the almighty douchiness of dudebros (also known as tools) everywhere.  Guess which one we picked?

All praise to Juan Pablo: the great and powerful Dudebro.

AND WE'RE FINALLY CAUGHT UP.  Until tomorrow.  When we totally drop the ball again.  Stay tuned.  We plan to have a picture bonanza this weekend so you can see the hilariousness that we've been blessed enough to experience.

Until then, let me leave you with the traditional goodbye of my people: PEACE OUT, BITCHES.

Big Happy Most-of-February Post

So, here's the thing... as those who followed the original blog back in 2010 remember... towards the end of the year, as I got into my last semester of law school, the entries slowed WAY down and became big bulk entries like this one.

Fun Fact: upon the completion of law school, you become an adult.  It's like a Bat Mitzvah for Gentiles.  Having become fully formed, adult type people... we had fully formed, adult type things to do that took precedence over the blog project.

"So you failed?"  WRONG, DICK.

We did not fail.  We merely failed to document.  Things continued happening.  Like how birds sing and dogs bark and some other majestic shit.  Life goes on and the world turns in time with the rhythm of the universe.  Or whatever.

Anyway - here are the highlights of what we've done - just the coolest things.  Like how ESPN only shows the ONE FREAKING GOAL in any soccer game because the rest is sucky and boring.  That's what's happening now.  And so, without further adieu....

GGGGOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!

February 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day

THIS IS SO MUCH HARDER THAN IT SHOULD'VE BEEN.  We specifically didn't want to do what we did for Play God Day because, well, we'd already done it.  So, we did not have a lot of great ideas.  Both Justin and I spent the day being polite to people.  Which made it, essentially a typical Monday.  I'm generally a complete shitheel on Tuesdays and Fridays, but Monday is my nice day.  

We let a lovely older couple with a few items go ahead of us at the grocery store and walked the cart back instead of leaving it out in the parking lot boonies.  We also got Subway for dinner and tipped big.  The thing is, the purpose of the holiday is to begin doing many small things to make people's days better, yet somehow it still felt inadequate.  I think when we take time to focus on being kind, it feels infinitely like we could be kinder.  That was our main takeaway -- make it a focus and it will get easier - like any other skill.

February 18: National Battery Day

I was so excited when I found this holiday because I thought we would get to punch people.  (GET IT?  Legal joke. BAM.)  In actuality, it was a historical holiday celebrating the birth of Alessandro Volta, who has the BEST NAME EVER, and also invented the electric battery.  I looked on Wikipedia.  It checks out.

We spent the day doing our very best NOT to rely on battery power.  However, as was helpfully pointed out by one of my smartass coworkers (who I actually adore, but that's another story) -- my car runs on a battery.  So... shit.  OKAY - not counting the car, how did we do?  Well, Justin went to the store so his car also got used.  Then he texted me... so his phone battery got used.  Then I had meetings so my phone was unplugged and I totally texted, because how else do you deal with meetings?  (I'M KIDDING AND I LOVE MY JOB).

Turns out - we suck at not using battery power.  Our freaking TOOTHBRUSH is battery operated.  I mean, to be fair, it has a manual mode: obvs.  But still.  It was really neat to think about just how much power we've ceded to our robot overlords.  I, for one, celebrate the new and glorious life they've provided us with their benevolence.  All hail our robot kings!

February 19: Single Tasking Day

Most boring holiday ever.  I had honest to God withdrawls from doing multiple things at once.  In fact, let's talk about how far outside of our vocabulary 'single-tasking' has become.  At work, the same smartass coworker who pointed out that my car has a battery, told me single tasking was going to be tough because how was I going to open the door for myself?

Let that simmer for a minute - remembering that I adore this coworker.  Single tasking is so completely foreign to us that for a brief moment of fogginess, a highly intelligent person whose brain I completely vouch for, did not fully grasp what it did and didn't entail.

Also, it turns out it as hard as crap.  We made dinner and listened to music, having decided that listening to comedy was engaging enough to be considered multi-tasking.  We watched TV without playing around on the internet and realized how boring most of our favorite shows were.

We did, however, meditate like a BOSS.  Meditation is our freaking JAM guys.  So it wasn't a total loss.

February 20: Cherry Pie Day

The moral of today is this: I am a bad wife.  And not in the fun, naughty "ooh, bad wife, bad wife" kind of way.  Think that's an overshare?  Stop reading my blog then.  We have almost a DOZEN occasional readers.  So take that!

No.  Wait.  Come back!  But also, still deal with the oversharing.

Here's the thing about the holiday though -- I make a killer cherry pie.  My gramma taught me how to make pie crust from scratch and doctor up a delicious freaking pie.  I know what I'm doing.  I am the pie-master.  But - remember that whole adult type things thing?  Well, it resulted in us buying a cheap-o cherry pie from a gas station.  DON'T JUDGE ME.

For the record, I officially owe my husband a cherry pie.  But we did celebrate the holiday.  In the most pathetic way possible.  It was a celebration of sucking.  It was the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of offbeat holidays.  IT WAS MAGNIFICENT.

February 21: International Mother Language Day

Jag gjorde lite forskning på svenska eftersom jag är svenska genom arv. Mestadels, därför att jag inte talar svenska och på grund av mitt jobb, jag försökte inte att tala mycket högt. Jag gjorde dock, upptäcker Google Translate och det gör mig väldigt glad. Jag tillbringade alldeles för mycket tid att spela runt på den.

Por la noche, después del trabajo, me burlé Justin por no saber español. Para ser justos, sin embargo, yo estoy fuera de práctica. Así que me llevé al Traductor de Google para su parte de la entrada también. Hablamos un poco más acerca de españoles porque muchas veces me llama "ángel" y "cariño", que es muy dulce.

Dann, denn das Leben ist erschreckend, haben wir uns einige Dinge auf Deutsch. Justin ist der britische Erbe, so gibt es keine andere Sprache gibt es für Google zu übersetzen. Mein Erbe neben skandinavischen, ist deutsch. Daher haben wir uns auf solche Sprüche und dann sagte sie auf Deutsch, sich gegenseitig zu erschrecken. ICH LIEBE DICH! Sehen Sie? Das ist beängstigend wie Scheiße.

Because we're nice:

- Swedish

- Spanish

- German

- Your welcome.

February 22: National Margarita Day

I cannot even begin to explain how excited we were for National Margarita Day.  For one, it is one of the very few holidays that other people actually knew about and for two, there is an actual, official location in Houston that celebrates it.  So, despite being homebodies, we hauled our booties out to downtown Houston to El Gran Malo to drink Margaritas on the patio.

ABOUT THAT.  Before I get into anything about the actual holiday, let me just say this.  IT IS A FUCKING GHOST BAR.  Why-  Wh-  I don't even-  I can't- with words.  AHHH.  

We went.  

It was PACKED.

It is now CLOSED.  Click the link.  IT IS NOW CLOSED.

Then, because I'm thorough, I look up the Google Street View of the place we went.

DIFFERENT BAR.

WHAT THE HOLY EVER LOVING SHIT GUYS.  My brain exploded.  I can't.  It was there, but not really and it was packed, but now it's closed and... I don't- WHAT?

The margaritas were decent though.

February 23: Curling is Cool Day

This holiday went a lot better.  Largely because the ice rink we went to didn't CEASE TO EXIST after we went.  We woke up on the wrong side of the ass crack of dawn and hauled our butts down to Friendswood to try our hand at the only Olympic sport either of us would like to believe we could pretend to be able to do.

The Houston Curling Club, which is a real thing that really exists, hosts a couple "Learn to Curl" days between seasons where people can come in and learn what it's all about.  We went in with the biggest Michigan ice chip on our shoulders.  You know what I mean - the whole - oh yeah, you Texas people are "cold", in a mocking tone of voice.  That was us.

At first it looked like we would be vindicated in that condescension since the first part of their orientation included one of the experienced Curlers explaining that "ice is cold and hard".  Yes.  Indeed it is.  Turns out, however, that ice isn't the only thing "cold and hard" at the Learn to Curl day.  Curling itself is freaking difficult. 

In fact - you know what muscles I didn't realize I'd be using?  ALL OF THEM.  WE HURT SO MUCH after the session.  And staying upright was not as easy as it looks.  And getting the stone all the way to the other end requires actual umph when you push off.  So... this paragraph reads really complainy, but I just want to say that it isn't.  WE LOVED THE SHIT OUT OF CURLING.  It was amazing.

I just want to make sure I'm clear about the fact that "easy" is not one of the reasons it was amazing.  It was a surprising amount of exercise and I WISH it were a little less expensive.  The club is small and they have to pay for ice time at the same rate as larger hockey clubs so the dues were out of our price range.  Otherwise though... it was the neatest thing ever.  If you ever get a chance to learn to curl -- DO IT.  IMMEDIATELY.  Drop everything.  Quit your job and change your name if you have to.  It is that fun.

Conclusion:

We will post another catch up entry in a couple days.  AND THEN ANOTHER.  AND THEN ANOTHER.  Until things are back on pace.  There are also some kick ass pictures that I still need to load because us Curling was adorbs and we DO have photographic proof of the creepy GHOST BAR.  So that'll happen too.

The holidays have been difficult, at times, just like the 2010 project was, but we have gone out and done things we never would have done if not for this project.  It has already started shaping up to be an amazing year.  The more we've opened ourselves up to celebrating the little things, the happier we've been and the more fun life has been.  It is totally worth the time it takes and the extra effort.

Entries to come.  Many promise.  Such Entry.  Much wow.

Don't try to think about that too much.  Just know that more entries are coming.  And I'm tired.  And y'all are awesome.  The end.

February 16: Almond Day

We ate almonds.

I'm sorry.  I know there's supposed to be some neat ass shit in here like "ooh, we invented a new kind of almond paste that cured cancer and now we're billionaires", but that didn't happen.  We sat around and ate almonds.  A lot of them.

To make up for that bullshit, here is a basket of puppies.

Mmmmmmm.  Almond-y.

February 15: Parinirvana Day

Today was a fairly somber holiday, but not in a bad way.  February 15th (in some places, February 8th) is the date, in Mahayana Buddhism, when it is said that Buddha attained Nirvana.  As most know, Nirvana is achieved by leaving the physical body behind and stopping the cycle of reincarnation.  In short - dying.

The purpose of the holiday is to contemplate death and work towards understanding impermanence.  I will keep the entry short for on main and serious reason: our contemplations were difficult and serious.  It was a worthwhile, but very private exercise.

We did one other thing, that was a BIG thing for us.  For months we'd talked about getting our meditation room set up.  In honor of the holiday, we worked hard to get a safe and comfortable space to meditate together in our front room.

Out lovely in progress shot.

It turned out beautifully and we've used it almost every day since.  I'm exceedingly glad for this holiday.  Both Justin and I had important and meaningful conversations about death.  It did, however, take a day or two to emotionally recover from.  That's all I'm going to say about it, but I will just reiterate that it was definitely a worthwhile exercise.

February 14: Valentine's Day

I'm going to make this entry super quick for four reasons.

1. Everyone knows what Valentine's Day is.
2. We Darwined the shit out of this year's celebration, as previously written.
3. Justin and I are SERIOUSLY lovey-dovey on our Facebook wall so we figured you guys could use an ironically timed break from that.
4. Blah blah blah, something, consumerism, something something blah.

It being a Friday and whatnot, I decided to work from home.  It was nice to get to spend the whole day with Justin just relaxing, getting some work done and wearing pajamas.  That's right.  Pajamas.  On a work day.  Ladies, gentlemen, please keep your jealousy in check.

Justin was super wonderfully romantical and posted a wonderful Facebook status that got me teared up.  That's a sentence you're welcome to both roll your eyes at and laugh at.  Go for it.  I can wait.  Actually, truthfully, I've come to the belief that Facebook often serves as a forum for our personal expressions of love and affection for one another.  Time was that was weird for me, but it isn't anymore.  I don't know why, but it isn't.

Also, he brought me candy.

HOLY SHIT AMAZEBALLS.

Those were delicious!

So we went pretty low key.  It was kind of the perfect Valentine's Day for us.  But but but... did we learn anything, you're desperately and clingily asking?  Nope.  Just that there are so many overlooked holidays that are so much cooler than this one.  That's not an attack on Valentine's Day.  It doesn't suck - it was lovely - but a month ago we blew up pieces of fruitcake.  About a week ago Justin threw beans at me and chased me out of the house.  It just can't compete and that's okay.  It will always have a special place in my $5 grocery store chocolate heart.

February 13: Madly in Love with Me Day

FINALLY.  A holiday for my beautiful and passionate ego to run wild!  So rarely is there a day for me to stop and just contemplate my true and honest greatness.  I'm better than all of you!

Wait.

What?

That's not the actual spirit of the holiday?  Well.  Shit.

When we first stumbled onto this holiday we thought it would be a good excuse to goof off and say insanely egotistical things.  Actually, there is a great message behind it and a reason why it falls on February 13th every year.

The movement is mostly focused on women and girls and the idea is to teach the fairer sex, in particular, that it isn't actually fairer or weaker or less deserving of confidence and love.  See, basically as soon as New Year's ends, it becomes time to load every aisle in every grocery store with Valentine's candy.  Candy that can either be bought for someone you love...

...or sacrificed to the God of loneliness.

So, instead of wallowing in the lead up to Singles Awareness Day, Christine Arylo came up with a holiday for women to celebrate their inner wonderful.  There have been a lot of events and the holiday has expanded significantly over the years.  It makes sense - as much as people roll their eyes at self-help books, there are known psychological benefits to positive thinking.

So, even though the holiday is more geared toward women, Justin and I both took a few minutes to think about our own best qualities and really feel good about those things.  Here are our top five:

Mine:

1. I'm smart

2. I'm loyal

3. I'm funny

4. I'm generous

5. I'm hard-working

Justin's

1. He is kind-hearted

2. He is resilient

3. He is loving

4. He is hopeful

5. He is smart

It was NOT an easy exercise.  The thing is - being humble is important.  Not believing yourself to be smarter than the people around you is a good quality -- not believing yourself to be smart at all is a different thing entirely.  But when you're sitting there, talking about yourself, it just feels... off.  I think that's something that should change.  There is nothing wrong with being happy with who we are and being able to speak to that out-loud.  I know both Justin and I are happy people in our own minds - but why is talking about our own good qualities so taboo, I wonder.  I don't have an answer - it just got me thinking.

There's a meme that has been floating around for a while that we thought of a lot of on this holiday.

I love this meme and I love it when it resurfaces on my Facebook feed.  Unlike all of those darn "share if you agree that ten people won't share this because they're afraid of sharing about this important topic that you'll look bad if you don't share" ones.  If you post those... stop it and never do it again.

Anyway, whether that is real or accurate or just made up - it is wonderful advice.  Over time, hate begets hate and love begets love.  That's why this holiday is great.  It is important to love ourselves - it is what opens us up to love each other as friends, family, lovers and fellow men.  The holiday was wonderful and enlightening and I would highly recommend putting effort into loving yourself, even if you are doing it belated this year.

February 12: Darwin Day

Happy Darwin Day!  In celebration of the illustrious and storied birth of Charles "The Turtle Watcher" Darwin, we jumped off our roof without parachutes and then licked a couple of light sockets.  That's a lie.  Although, given the existence of the Darwin Awards, surely someone, somewhere has done that.

In celebration of Darwin Day, we did a couple things.  We both read several Darwin Awards stories and shook our heads in disbelief and superiority.  I know Darwin Awards are linked twice in this very short blog entry, but I would highly recommend clicking both.  Mostly because I'm being controlling of you blog reading experience today.

We made it a fairly low key holiday.  Partly because there really aren't non-life-threatening ways to celebrate Darwin Day, since we're honoring that whole "survival of the fittest" precept.  And partly because it was a Wednesday.  And, honestly...

Who can compete with that beard?

We did celebrate in a deeply meaningful, important and philosophical way though.  We spent the afternoon contemplating the nature of survival of the fittest in regards to humanity.  From an evolutionary standpoint, things that used to matter really don't.  Think about it - why do giraffes have long necks according to evolutionary theory?  Because over time, only the tallest of them could reach food to survive and therefore reproduce.  But for humans, not even abject stupidity prevents reproduction consistently.  There is no particular physical characteristic that is 'bred out' or 'bred in' to the human population the way things used to be with animals.  It is a weird time to live - there is an abundance of food and high tech medical care that puts people who might have been removed from the gene pool back into it.

So really there are few ways to demonstrate evolutionary superiority.  We decided, therefore, to celebrate the concept of survival of the fittest under a looser, sociological interpretation.  You know - social Darwinism.  So how then, did we celebrate?  Well.  You know how Valentine's Day fell on a Friday this year?  And how Justin and I live in Houston?  And how Houston is the 4th largest city in the country and how restaurants go utterly batshit crazy on Valentine's Day?

Yeah, we knew that too.

So, in honor of BOTH Valentine's Day and Darwin Day, we had a lovely romantic dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on a perfectly calm Wednesday evening.  Also, we had fried macaroni and cheese.  OM.  NOM.  NOM.

Darwin Day was neat - we had a lot of fun talking about both actual and social Darwinism over the course of the evening.  It was a more in depth and intellectual conversation than we normally have.  Don't get me wrong - we're smarty-pantses - but sometimes it's nice to space out to Maury Povich and wonder who the father is.

February 11: White Shirt Day

We like to joke a lot, but this holiday was a bit more serious for both of us.  So let's all have a short lesson, shall we?  During the Great Depression, jobs weren't exactly easy to come by.  Between that economic reality and the almost complete lack of legal protections for workers, doing anything besides going to your job day after day with a broken human spirit would've been... well... crazy.

Lucky for you, me and everyone in between, there were a bunch of crazies working at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan who did just that.  The strike lasted 44 days, ending on February 11, 1937 with a victory for the workers.  Notably, it was a victory that wouldn't have been possible without the support of Michigan's governor.

When police arrived at the plant, they intended to force the workers out.  Instead, Michigan's governor called in the National Guard to protect the workers as they peacefully protested.  The result?  The first GM contract with the modern UAW.

But why the white shirts?  They wore white for the same reason we use the terms 'white collar' and 'blue collar'.  The line workers wore blue shirts as they worked and management got the nice, clean whites.  In a symbolic move showing that they were no different and should be treated no different, the blue collar workers wore white in protest.

There are many write ups around the internet, but the UAW's is clear and succinct and I would highly recommend it.  You can find it here.

As for Justin and I?  There wasn't much we could do to celebrate it besides wearing white.  So that's what Justin did.  I, on the other hand, celebrated by selling out to the man.  I tease, but both Justin and I are very pro-union.

My first job was a union job - UFCW 428 in Saratoga, California.  I was a bagger.  I was able to get health, dental, vision and retirement benefits at 16 years old.  Thanks to my union.

There was an appeals process.  So when the abusive shift manager above me decided to write me up because she didn't like it that I was dating one of the produce guys (who she was widely known to have a crush on), I had a recourse.  I couldn't simply be fired on spot for looking at her wrong.  Thanks to my union.

When most of my peers were making minimum wage, I was taking in $2 more an hour.  Thanks to my union.

When I heard about and read stories of missed breaks and hours off the clock with no where to turn, I rested easy knowing I had protection from that.  Thanks to my union.

When I worked on holidays I got double time instead of time and a half.  Any Sunday I worked I got time and a half and when a holiday landed on a Sunday, I got triple time.  All a demonstration of the value of the time the job took from special and family days.  Thanks to my union.

No system is perfect, but we have the protections we have because of unions.  There is an intrinsic value to anyone's willingness to provide their time and labor and that value deserves to be recognized even if it is a 'menial' job like fast food or bagging groceries.  This holiday was particularly timely in our opinions because of the renewed debate about raising the minimum wage.  Here's the deal - if someone is willing to work a full time job, they should be able to live without additional help from the government.  Right now they can't and that's not okay.  It is time again for the workers to put on white shirts and stand up for their worth as human beings.

Did this entry get preachy?  Yup.  Don't make me break out the astro-sloth again.  This holiday got my engines firing.  It is a celebration of the human spirit.  Every holiday has been fun or interesting or unique.  This is the first one we've been proud to celebrate.  PROUD.  So there.

February 10: Umbrella Day

My inner nerd was supes excited for a holiday that is celebrated 100% by carrying something random around.  You see, after our attempt at building a kite, we decided we weren't going to do anything silly like try to build an umbrella.  So, Justin agreed to carry the umbrella around to his errands all day and report back on all the strange looks he would get.  YAY!  So much fun!!

HAHA.  Look at that silly shit!

I awoke with a feeling of glorious anticipation.  My sweet, wonderful husband would be walking out into the world, on a bright and beautiful day... with an umbrella.  HA.  SO SILLY!  I was giddy with anticipation.

HAHAHAHA.  Umbrella.  For no reason!

WAIT.  WHAT THE SHIT?

WHY IS THE GROUND WET?

What is this dark magic?

Turns out... sometimes it rains on Umbrella Day.  And that is some poetic shit right there.

My wonderful hubby carried the umbrella around all day, but no silly looks were to be had.  No, just a man and his umbrella, walking in the rain.  LIKE TOTALLY NORMAL PEOPLE FROM THE SUBURBS.

Ugh.

February 9: Library Lovers' Day

Justin and I were so excited for Library Lovers' Day - it is right up our nerd alley.  Free books?  Sign me up!  No, seriously though, I won the shit out of reading challenges every summer when I was growing up.  It was not nearly as good for my street cred as you'd think it would be.  Doesn't change the fact that library's are bastions of learning and fun for children of all ages.

And beavers?  Or... is that a chipmunk?  Seriously - what kind of animal is this?

So we woke up early to beat the church crowd and headed to the library.  I know there isn't likely to be a bum rush on the library, but we figured the church crowd and wholesome, Sunday-afternoon-reading-for-fun crowd would have fairly significant overlap.  So, while they were all gussied up for Jesus and grabbing brunch, we were heading to the local book lounge for some scholastic hullabaloo.

Or so we thought...

CLOSED!?!  Closed on Sunday?!?!?!  What the shit, Texas?  This was NOT an issue for me when I was growing up in, apparently Godless, Connecticut.  Or when we moved to, definitely Godless, California.  Or, like totes Godless, Michigan where Justin grew up.  See, Texas?  They all left time in the morning for church!!  UGH.

Justin was particularly devastated.

So, no library to love.  What would we do with our unrequited bibliophilia?  We decided, instead, to sort through our books at home and pick out some to donate to the library when it opened back up the next day.  I tear through books at a decent clip so there are piles and piles from before I got my Kindle.  We donated about three-four arm-fulls of good fiction books at various skill levels.  

So, even if our local library didn't love us back, we donated it tender.  Or something.

Mostly, looking back, we were pretty disappointed that this holiday exists, but isn't celebrated widely by libraries around the country.  Print media is starting to disappear (says the person with the Kindle herself) and I would love to see libraries take the opportunity to get people back in the door at least once a year.  See, I do love my Kindle, but here's the issue - I buy books I've pre-selected.  I don't just... browse... like I used to at the library.  There is some joy to just stumbling onto new books because there are walls and walls of them to choose from.

I suddenly have the desire to go around the country drumming up support for libraries.  You know what... I think I'll start next Sunday.  In Oklahoma.  Or Arkansas.  Or basically ANYWHERE BUT TEXAS.

February 8: Kite Flying Day

Woo!  Another super easy holiday, amirite?  We woke up on February 8, excited to kick the day's butt!  So we went to SEVERAL stores (note the pattern!) looking for kites.  Now that the several months of Christmas had passed and the weather had started to turn down here in Texas, we thought we'd be able to find summary toys in the seasonal aisle.  No, beyond winter, spring, summer and fall there are apparently a bunch of seasons we'd never heard of....

...like proposal season...

...which is apparently a thing.  It culminates with Valentine's day and allows stores to begin selling Valentine's candy way back in January when it would otherwise be WAY TOO EARLY.  It also means that the summer toys are not yet being sold despite several 60+ degree days.  Come on people!  It's outside weather!

Ever industrious, we decided to hit up the Michael's crafts and buy fabric, wood, string and ribbon.  You can see where this is going.

BRILLIANT!

So... here's the thing.  Turns out kites are made with a less... porous fabric.. right?  You know, to trap the air and fly majestically.  So, ours didn't really, what's the word?  Work?  Yeah, that's it.  Work.  It didn't work.

The agony of defeat.

Go us!  So it didn't fly.  So what?  We inadvertently learned a lot about kites.  Justin built one... because, as established in the last entry, I'm pretty darn lazy.  I managed the project, which, in this case means I watched.  And we ran around out backyard like idiots throwing that beautiful monstrosity in the air over and over again.  So, Project Convince the Neighbors We're Insane is going delightfully as planned.

It was tons of stupid stupid fun.  We have every intent of flying kites with Eventual Baby Ynclan (EBY as our as-yet-not-even-conceived child shall be known), but we're gonna Amazon that shit next time. 

February 7: Send a Postcard to a Friend Day

For a variety of reasons, this is going to be a short entry.  The first of those reasons being that postcards APPARENTLY don't exist outside of tourist areas anymore.  The second being that I'm like ten days behind.  OH MY GOD, DEAL WITH IT.  That wasn't fair.  I didn't mean that.  Seriously though...

Astro-sloth burn!

Both Justin and I loved the simplicity of this holiday and how easy it (theoretically) would be to celebrate.  The instructions are literally in the name.  There are so few things like that in the world.  So, while I was at work, Justin ran out to several stores looking for postcards.

The key word there being SEVERAL.  He went to the grocery, the Target, the Wal-mart and two pharmacies.  NOTHIN'.  So - in the spirit of the holiday and because he's awesome, we both wrote card-cards to close friends of ours.  He sent his to Jeff W. and I sent mine to Ben & Lisa P.  YES I SNAGGED A TWO-FER.  What of it?

We didn't manage to get them into the mail until the next day because we are just SUPER lazy people.  But we both loved taking a moment to think about a couple people we care about.  It is easy to see bits and pieces of people's lives on Facebook and not really stop and think about how they impact your life.  So, Jeff, Lisa and Ben - we love you and you're wonderful and we definitely think of you more often than we say out loud.  We're... gonna work on that...

February 6: Canadian Maple Syrup Day

As a general rule, Justin and I love making fun of Canada.  They're America's super-polite hat.  Also, it is cold there and, umm, they're still kinda hot for the British monarchy.  Also Mounties.  Just saying.  The point is, as Americans, it is our solemn duty and right to mock our kinder northern neighbor.  They make us feel better about ourselves.  When our credit gets downgraded and life isn't kissing our world-super-power booties, we can just tease ourselves a few Canadians and start feeling better about everything.  You know.  Like bullies.

Here's the issue with that.  Canadians are ballers.  As in, mad skills, ass kicking ballers. They're polite because they know what's up.  Remember that polar vortex thing that happened?  Wanna see Canada's reaction?

Yeah.  That's what I thought.

Luckily for us, we were presented with an opportunity to celebrate Canada's clear superiority.  Specifically, their maple syrup superiority.  In honor of the syrup, we re-wrote the Canadian national anthem to celebrate the viscous and delightful treat:

O Canada!
Our home for maple trees!
True syrup love in all thy pancakes please.
On waffle squares you glisten bright
An ample breakfast bite
From far and wide,
O Canada, we pour on food for thee.
God keep our trees glorious and free!
O Canada, maple syrup for me.
O Canada, maple syrup for me.

In addition to honoring this beautiful and meaningful holiday by bastardizing the national anthem of our very understanding and patient northern continent-mates, we also had breakfast for dinner.  YAY!!!  Breakfast for dinner is the most comforting kind of comfort food since comfort became a thing.

IT'S LIKE IF PILLOWS WERE FOOD

We also did a syrup taste test between the two American "syrups" and the Canadian maple syrup my parents got us for Christmas (because Michigan is basically South Canada).  There was a clear winner, obvs.  But here's the interesting thing - the Canadian ACTUALLY MAPLE syrup had no scent to it at all.  I had expected a somewhat stronger scent from the real deal.  So, you know, what the shit, Canada?

We steeled ourselves for disappointment.  The two American syrups had strong, patriotic, American scents to them.  Indeed it was the sugary musk of freedom!  Then the actual taste test began.  Also, we used shot glasses because we're classy.

We used our Chumlee glass for Mrs. Butterworth's.  Obvs.

Here's the thing (you knew there'd be a twist - there's always a twist), the American syrups taste like thick sugar drink.  The smell hits your nose, but no taste hits your tongue.  They are the biggest tease EVER.  The Canadian syrup, much like the Canadian people, is not concerned with puffing up its metaphorical chest to make a point.  Oh no - true Canadian Maple Syrup walks softly and carries a big stick.  Much like Teddy Roosevelt who is, let's not kid ourselves, the best American of all time.  HA.  Brought it back to the USofA.

Seriously though, the Canadian maple syrup had SO MUCH flavor.  It was amazing.  There is this slight spicy bite to it - not heat - like a kick of savory TO THE FACE.  It doesn't need smell to make its point - it is the real deal.

We love food holidays.  Between taste tests and feasts, food days feel like a vacation from the holidays themselves.  They are chill and easy to celebrate AND SO DELICIOUS.  But our advice is this - don't wait for the next one to come around.  Once you go Canadian...... you'll politely decline American syrup and then apologize for the inconvenience.  

February 5: National Weatherperson's Day

There are few careers as fast-paced and adrenaline filled as meteorology.  Will it rain?  What direction is the wind coming from?  I DON'T KNOW DAMMIT!  No, seriously though it's more than just witty banter with the morning anchors and remembering not to wear green to work...

...most of the time...

Justin and I decided we would celebrate by watching the weather channel and doing our very best to stay awake.  It's the least we could do for them after they were mercilessly dumped by Direct TV.  YES I REUSED THAT JOKE.  DEAL WITH IT.  We also decided to make our own predictions and name some of the weather patterns we saw.

The thing is - celebrating the holiday in a way that truly honors the man it is held for (John Jeffries) would basically be impossible.  He's credited with being the first man to take detailed recordings of the weather, including daily measurements.  That is a huge step forward in the field of weather prediction, but it also can't be done in a day.  So we decided to try our hand at modern weather-man-ing.

First, we named several gusts of wind on the way to work.  My favorite was wind gust Armando, traveling southeast at about 15mph.  He was gone as soon as he arrived...  But why did we name gusts?  Mostly because my deep personal offense at the winter storm team naming blizzards.  They aren't hurricanes and you're the B-team.  Well.  Someone had to say it.  You were all thinking it.

But we also predicted things.  Like that it would get colder in the evening.  OOOOOHHH!!!!  Weather'd!

Okay.  I'm mocking a lot, but let's be serious.  Meteorology has some kick ass sub-disciplines that are genuinely amazing.  Storm chasing requires meteorology knowledge, for one.  For two - the science has evolved to where the top folks in the field can tell you about storms weeks in advance.  The polar vortex?  A couple decades ago, that would've been known as "holy shit - why is it so cold?".  And realize that at some point, someone had to sit down and decide something as basic as how do we describe how hot or cold it is.  In fact - three separate someones came up with three different options (Celcius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin - all named after their creators).

We enjoyed reading about and marveling at both the substance and the spectacle of weather prediction.  It was a great learning holiday.  We really came to understand and appreciate the importance of the discipline and the dignified nature of the weatherperson's profession.

Al Roker agrees with me.

February 4: Create a Vacuum Day

That's right.  Science is happening.  One of the things that has really been interesting for us so far this year is that there are holidays dedicated to science experiments.  We did some reading and we're pretty sure they evolved as a way to convince schools to do more hands on experimentation with their students by making it an official day.  It makes sense -- one of the holidays we're celebrating later in the year is Mole Day and another is Pi Day.  If math and chemistry can have holidays, why can't physics.  If you don't let physics have a holiday, there's gonna be some friction, boy howdy.  That's right.  That happened.  Deal with it.

As for us, we decided we would attempt the hardboiled egg trick.  I say attempt because the first thing we did was melt a plastic bottle.  Which I do not have pictures of.  Because I was busy dealing with melted plastic and the choking, acrid smoke that resulted from it.  For those who don't know - the hard boiled egg trick is where you take a peeled hard boiled egg, shove some candles into it and then put the whole thing into an upside-down beaker.  The heat from the candles does physics related things and sucks the egg up into the beaker.

This is how it's supposed to look.

In short, this holiday was the second in a little not-so-great streak for cataloging the holidays for us.  I tend to triage not burning the house down above photography.

 Which, apparently sets me apart from the rest of my generation.

We had a lot of fun being idiots with plastic and ruining an egg.  But we also found the experiment pretty enlightening, even messed up.  I think it's going to become one that we do with kids when we have them.  I'm gonna take a bold stance here and say there should be more holidays based on science experiments.  I bet we could fill an entire calendar with them pretty easily, actually.  SOMEONE GET ON THAT.

February 3: Setsubun

Oh Setsubun.  I was SO excited for you for weeks and weeks and then Groundhog Day happened and the emotional anti-climax was almost too much to bear.  Don't get me wrong - Justin and I rocked this holiday.  Unfortunately, we rocked it the way most parents rock their third child, in that we loved it, but didn't bother to take any pictures of it along the way.

It was mostly the Monday-ness of it.  Thankfully for us, lest we would've skipped it all together, we'd had a long talk with BFF Hop about the meanings and traditions of the holiday a couple days before so we were ready to go when the holiday hit.  We gathered beans, drinks and notes from BFF Hop and great ready to go when I got home from work.

Setsubun, not unlike Joma Shinji, is a holiday where (almost) everything you do has real tradition and meaning.  For example, we started off the night by Justin chasing me out of the house and throwing edamame at me while I made the scariest face I could and he shouted "Demons out!  Luck in!".  Why would he be calling me a demon, you ask?  I mean... we haven't been married that long, right?  No, no, children - there is no trouble in paradise.  See - it was his job to chase out the demons from our home in a sort of spiritual spring cleaning.  But since the bastards don't, like, materialize and pack up their shit themselves... we need to reenact him tossing them out in the form of me running away and making silly faces.

Then he slammed the door to complete the process of scaring out the demons.  Unrelated to the holiday, it also kicked off the process of convincing our neighbors that we're insane as well. I'm just saying - let's look at this from their POV.  A man just yelled "Demons Out" and slammed the door behind his wife... who then laughed and reopened the door and walked back in the house.  Was it a fight?  Did he just call her a demon?  Are they drunk?  No... no I'm pretty sure they're just lunatics, honey.

So... what next kids?  Well, remember how I said "almost" everything about the holiday has symbolism?  Well, I asked BFF Hop what else we should do besides the bean throwing and he explained that people tend to go out and get drunk.  Oh?  So... is that a cleansing activity?  You know, like, a symbolic disinfecting of the system in advance of summer?  Nope.  Drinking is fun.  That's pretty much the reason why.  So, we got reasonably tipsy for a work night.  I KNOW.  WE'RE LOSERS.  WHATEVER.  My two glasses of wine were DELICIOUS.  So there.

There definitely were other traditions, but like I said - we got a case of the Mondays.  We laughed like morons after Justin chased me out of the house and relaxed with the wine while we watched TV and settled in for the night.  It was incredibly pleasant and relaxing.  I would highly recommend doing a little light, crowd-source-researched reading on Setsubun because it is a super neat holiday.  There is a lot of emphasis on cycles, seasons and years in Japanese culture and that makes for some very cool traditions that are somewhat out of the norm for the west.  The best part of this holiday was the learning - by far.

February 2: Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is my fucking JAM, guys.  I WILL CELEBRATE GROUNDHOG DAY FOREVER.  Coming off of the righteous letdown that was Working Naked Day, we were somewhat weary about what we had to do to celebrate Groundhog Day.  For one, it meant waking up on the dark side of dawn, which is almost never "worth it" (whatever "it" is).  For two.  Well.  That's basically it.

See.  We live in Texas.  Pictured below on this handy map:

Punxsutawney: conveniently located in Not Texas.

Turns out, the Weather Channel's need to fit-in extends beyond naming things that aren't hurricanes.  They also wanted a yearly event they could call their very own.  We can't entirely fault them - CBS has the Super Bowl, Animal Planet has the Puppy Bowl, BBC has the... Tea and Doctor Who Bowl... or something.  The point is - this is IT for the Weather Channel.  And considering they just got mercilessly dumped by Direct TV, this is their post-break-up night on the town.

Now, for those who haven't memorized Bill Murray's 1993 magnum opus: Groundhog Day, you may not realize what a big deal Groundhog Day is to the locals in Unspellable, Pennsylvania.  Every year, crowds of between 10-25 thousand people gather around midnight and dance and sing all night long in an orgy of groundhog related excess.  Actually, hedonism is kept to a reasonable minimum and it has become a delightful family event.

The Weather Channel's coverage started at 4am CST and contrary to EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IN, I will admit that on this one and singular occasion - waking up before dawn was totally worth it.  THEIR ANCHORS HAD GROUNDHOG HATS ON.  How amazing is that?  I think what really sold it for us was knowing the actual purveyors of the groundhog were going to come out in fancy-pants top hats and tailored suits.  Guys - I'm 99% sure this is a prank they're playing on all of us AND I DON'T EVEN CARE.

I LOVE EVERYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS PICTURE.

So Justin and I snuggled on the couch, falling in and out of sleep and watching the countdown clock (SERIOUSLY - there was a countdown clock) tick down on the screen to that glorious moment when the groundhog would emerge.  As the moments draw into hours - two and a half to be exact - our excitement waned.  Could it really be worth it?  Could the loss of sleep and the knowledge that our bed was sitting all by its lonely self in the other room really be worth it...  And then it happened.  The nerdiest thing ever to happen.

A bunch of men in fine suits, with weather-related pun nicknames like Cold Front and Gusty McGee (or whatever) stood with cheer signs celebrating winter.  THE SEASON.  Grown men - with homes and jobs and families - they stood there cheerleading the weather.  STOP READING AND TAKE THAT IN.  

Then.  THEN.  Those same men consulted a groundhog IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE to ask about the weather.  This really happened.  It happens every year.  Punxsutawney is nerd Mecca.  

AND PHIL IS LEGIT.

And does Phil the Groundhog shy away from telling it like it is?  Does he pretend that Spring is around the corner when we all know it isn't?  No he most certainly does not.  Phil is a truth teller.  Phil is the prognosticator.  Phil is my motherfucking HERO.  Just look at this predictive prowess:

"A Super Bowl winner I will not predict, 

But my weather forecast you cannot contradict, 

Why that's not a football but my shadow I see

Six more weeks of winter, it must be"

- Phil the Groundhog

BOOM.  Not like those other groundhogs.

Wait.  Other groundhogs?  Yeah.  Turns out Phil has company.  Groundhog Day isn't just about Phil being a rockstar.  The holiday dates back centuries and celebrates a German tradition that says that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on Candlemas there will be more winter to come.  So Phil is the current gold standard groundhog, but there are others?  Indeed - and it turns out their predictions are split right down the middle.

"...from leading groundhogs"  SERIOUSLY.

Phil is unquestionably my hero, but I've gotta say, the "best name ever" award has to go to General Beauregard Lee of Lilborn, Georgia.  THIS IS A REAL THING THAT REALLY HAPPENED.

We were in awe of this holiday.  It has EVERYTHING.  It is my new solemn and publicly stated LIFE GOAL to make a pilgrimage to Punxsutawney for this glorious yearly event.  It was so completely and totally silly.  It was joyful.  It was unapologetic.  The entire town expresses unadulterated joy for an entire night in anticipation of a whispered weather prediction in groundhog-ese to men in old fashioned top hats.  It is everything festivals should be.  It is the most honest, truthful and real expression of humanity there is.  That last statement is not a joke or exaggeration.

See, the thing is, we don't come together because we have to.  We come together because we can.  I'm head over heels in love with Groundhog Day, exactly because its traditions are really just an excuse for love and joy.  So we laughed with the people of Punxsutawney and we jovially groaned when Phil predicted more winter and we snuggled, because life is short, humanity is beautiful and we're blessed to live in a world where a groundhog predicts the weather.