The 5 Real Signs of Spring

Call me a cynic, or impatient, but I think that I've given up on Mother Nature's ever-shifting moods as an accurate predictor of the changing seasons.



Especially here in the Midwest, I feel that we're constantly being teased...It's cold, it snows, it warms up, the snow melts, then it rains, but the snow returns...It's gotten old for me.



So, I propose the following as true harbingers of the new season:



1)The Super Bowl- I realize it's in the dead of winter, but hear me out on this. Once the Super Bowl is over, it's officially the end of anything worth doing in winter. Winter, we can all agree, sucks after the big game is over. February is, paradoxically, the longest month of the year. There's nothing left to do except wait for the weather to warm up. So I guess The Super Bowl is the Fat Tuesday of the winter doldrums.



2)Pitchers and Catchers report- Even if you're not a sports fan like me, there's something reassuring about the fact that:

1. Somewhere, anywhere, is warm enough to host a baseball game


2. That those same baseball games will one day move to a city near you, and that Winter is going to end at some point.

I always think back to my youth and a ad campaign put out by the Chicago White Sox, picturing a baseball in a pile of snow which read "Think Spring."

3)March Madness- Firstly, basketball is a winter sport, so when it's over, it means that winter's over as well, at least as far as the omniscient NCAA is concerned (insert your own joke here). But what's also important is this: You've been sitting in front of the TV all winter long anyway, watching whatever is on because it's way too cold to go outside for anything. March Madness is more of the same; lots of sitting around watching TV. Only it's probably the best TV-watching there is...ever. So it gives your favorite activity a little shot-in-the-arm, a little spice if you will, to get you through.

4)Movie Trailers Get Louder- Summer(and late Spring anymore) means the movies start to get good, at least if you're into things going boom, formulaic plots, and protagonists with whom Carl Jung would have a field day(I happen to be into all of the aforementioned). Consequently, it's usually sometime in April when you get to see all the blessed carnage in morsel-sized trailers just before some forgettable flick.

5)Opening Day- I hate to stick with baseball, as I realize not everyone loves our national game as much as I do, but let's face it...Nothing means Spring the same as the beginning of baseball. Now, as a lifelong resident of the Upper Midwest, I realize that sometimes Opening Day is played in parkas and thermal underwear. Be that as it may, I still think that it's a more reliable indicator of a new season than anything the nerds at The Weather Channel have come up with.