Chock Full Of February

It's all over now. The banners have come down and the confetti has been swept up. The short month of February which brought a Super Bowl and an Oscar pool win to my living room is all packed up until next year when it will go back to being just the one with exactly four weeks. As it stands, I have to think twice about the dates in March because they don't line up easily like they would when it's not a leap year.
There was a lot of living packed into those twenty-nine days. Groundhog Day and its promise of and early spring based on Punxsutawney Phil's inability to see his shadow started the ball rolling. This was followed by the onset of the Year of the Monkey, the celebration of which brought joy to all the monkeys in my neighborhood and beyond. Somewhere in there my wife and I managed to sneak away for a long weekend that was really just a drive up the coast and a stop in Bodega Bay overnight. It was a romantic blur, Observing both Presidents' and Valentine's Day gave us a chance to reflect on the romances of our chief executives. It also gave us a chance to exercise our constitutionally guaranteed rights to free enterprise, stopping at the outlet malls on the way home to purchase those items that can only be purchased at outlet malls on a long weekend.
And somewhere in the midst of all that hubbub came that Super Bowl, with the Denver Broncos putting a cap on the career of Peyton Manning as well as giving me bragging rights at my elementary school for a day or two until all the attentions of these Oakland kids turned back to the wonder that is the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry. It's okay. I have the T-shirt and the DVD to remind me over and over again about where I was on that Sunday: pacing back and forth from my front door to my kitchen, with stops every so often to take in the action and remind myself, "it's only a game."
The Academy Awards brought me the closure that any awards season needs. My wife and I managed to bag all eight of the nominated films before the ceremony. This made us expert enough to pretend to be voting members and enjoy all that glitz and glamour from the relative comfort and safety of our living room.
All that fun jammed into one month? With an extra day to spare? No pressure, March. Spring Break is coming.