Winter's Straitjacket Finally Loosened

January and February in the DC area do it to me every year. Sometimes March is on my naughty list too.

They cause me to pause my extracurricular web surfing of parenting, cooking and style blogs and switch to real estate listings. In San Diego.

(Well, when the power's not out and I can actually get an Internet signal)

I can't stand wet, windy, freezing Washington weather and our local infrastructure's response to a couple inches of snow.  I'm not a total winter Grinch. Sledding is great fun... for 30 minutes, tops. One or two snow days off from school are fun, but as long as there's still heat and you can drive down a plowed street for hot cocoa supplies.

Every January to March the seasonal depression and gloom of the area just slays me. After the Christmas decorations are stowed away, the cold, grey and freezing winds make the yearnings for Southern California creep into my heart.

I wander around muttering the lyrics to "California Dreaming" as I stagger about, wearing my puffy down coat that's about as flattering as an inflatable Sumo wrestling suits and my hideous boots with a very appropriate name. 

Several freezing days without power this January sent my family and I, like so many of us, to camp out in a hotel. My husband and kids were handling the cold well, but it was either the Residence Inn or the loony bin for me. 

But then the end of March finally arrived and the trees are blooming, there are  daffodils everywhere and I remember why I have loved living here these last 13 years. It's like the weather finally decides, enough's enough, I'm going to the doc and getting myself some darn SSRIs. 

And in the blink of an eye, families around the D.C. metro area are suddenly booking trips to the beach, buying lawn tickets to future shows at Wolftrap, drinking capirihnas on a roof in a tank top (or at least serving our kids their juice boxes in the back yard).    

Everyone loves the famous , but I'm talking about the Norman Rockwell dawning of spring that you just don't get in Palm Springs or San Diego. 

Like these two mourning doves that show up every April to have their twin chicks in my hanging plant. The flash flood of iPod wearing runners and powerwalkers on the trails with goofy smiles on their faces. Parents leave work a little earlier to take the kids to the park before dinner, couples finally find evening babysitters and book dates, family weekends that can be spent outdoors together are just that much sweeter. It's like the old Disney cartoon of spring, where all the fuzzy animated animals  have little hearts hanging over their heads. 

I can't wait to have Sunday brunch at Sequoia and then take one of those cheesy Georgetown Waterfront tourist cruises on the Potomac with my family. Drive to Annapolis or Fells Point for the day and eat spicy steamed shrimp and ice cream cones in the sun.  Holler at my kids for chasing the butterflies at "Wings of Fancy" at Brookside Gardens.  Take the kids to a Nats game for Kids Run the Bases Sunday or to play in their swimsuits in the downtown Silver Spring fountain.   

I am so thankful that spring has sprung.  It was about freaking time. 

Jessica can be found with a recovery from her seasonal panic attack on her back patio and at A Parent in Silver Spring.