It's Spring. Boo Yay.

I hate spring. Ok, I know I'm weird. But out of all four seasons, it's my least favorite. My ranking of seasons, in terms of favorite-ness:

1) Fall

2) Winter

3) Summer

4) Spring

I love fall because it's a cool light at the end of our heat-blast tunnel. Fall means that eventually, the temperature will be bearable again. It's not bearable yet, but it will be. At some point. I love fall because - FOOTBALL! Leaves, pumpkins, Halloween! And school starts! Well, actually school starts in the summer here, but metaphorically, fall = start of school. And who doesn't love that? I mean, besides the people that actually have to go.

Winter is awesome, because it's COOL. Temperature-wise and Fonz-type coolness-wise also. It means we can actually go outside and do stuff and not swelter and die. We can wear jeans! And shirts with sleeves that extend past your mid upper-arm! To the wrist, even! Occasionally, even a jacket. How awesome is that? Did I mention that we can actually go outside and do stuff? Take kids somewhere besides the pool or the mall? I know that swimming sounds great, theoretically. And it is...for the first three months or so. After that, they're like, "We're going to the pool, AGAIN?" I remember August of 2002, when I was very pregnant with Kylie, who was born on Sept. 3rd. When my then 10 and 7 year old started complaining that they were bored with swimming, I said "I don't care. We are going to the pool, and we are going to spend the day in it every day all day until I deliver this freaking baby. I can't stand being anywhere else." Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that harsh, but you get the point.

You would think that summer would be my least favorite season in a suburb of Phoenix, AZ. But no. Summer is just hot. Once it gets that hot, you just deal with it. You stay inside or in the water. If you must go out, you turn the car on first and let it run for a few minutes, in hopes that the a/c will get going a little and cool the car off enough that the kids won't whine about how stinking hot it is in the car. You start driving, and after about 5 minutes the a/c starts to do its job, the car cools off, and you can remove the oven mitts from your hands. Then you get to your destination, which will be wonderfully air-conditioned and cool inside, and will be somewhere where spending money is required. Of course, there will not be any parking in the shade, so by the time you come out of wherever you are, the inside of your car will be a toasty 180 degrees. Then the a/c will blow hot air for a few minutes until the engine gets all revved up, and there will be more whining, (mostly from me) until the car starts to cool down again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Spring is the worst. Today, the high was about 85. Warm (too warm for my taste), but not unbearable. What spring does is remind you that the unbearable is coming. For this reason, it's my most-hated season. It lets you know that we're about ready to start the months of unrelenting, skin-baking, furnace-blasting heat. I lived in Albuquerque for about 3 months once, and in Denver for about 9 months. I was in both places for the summer. It gets hot during the summer in Alb, sometimes 100. But you know what? It cools off at night. Same with Denver...it sometimes gets into the 90s, and that's hot for there. But again...it cools off at night. I think that's what makes our heat so...ridiculous. In the summer, it will still be 100 degrees at 10pm. Our low might be 90. There's no opening your windows at night to cool the house off. The a/c runs all. the. time. And spring is just here to remind me...nay, to taunt me, that summer is coming. Quickly.

And now that I've told you why I absolutely hate spring...here's a cute little picture of Kylie riding her bike at the park today. Enjoy it now, kid...the heat doth approach. And I swear, if one person says to me, "Oh, but it's a dry heat there!", I'm going to come to your house and shove your head in your oven. Because that's a dry heat too.