After several months of Midwest winter, Chicagoans are in desperate need of a break. Spring is a time to air out our stuffy apartments, unpack the emotional baggage we've been carrying since January (thank you, seasonal affective disorder) and unlearn the bad habits we picked up merely trying to survive in Chiberia. Never again will you race an old lady to be first on the bus or throw trash on the street just to reserve a parking space. Beautiful weather is finally here and that means the return of baseball, spring events and, hopefully, a newer, better you. From getting active to thinking warm thoughts, here are some ways spring makes us better Chicagoans.
1. We're inspired to learn new and potentially hazardous things, like rollerblading the ribbon at Maggie Daley Park.
2. Relieved of the burden of layering, we become faster and more agile.
3. With the return of farmers markets, fruits and veggies begin to replace warm, delicious cheese curds as dietary staples.
4. Our inner poet emerges, and we spend our weekend afternoons on a bench inside Lincoln Park writing verse after verse about Chicago in the spring.
5. Instead of spending our free time inside dark dive bars, we move outside to sunny patio bars.
6. With more sunlight and vitamin D, our seasonal depression fades and we become less of an asshole.
7. We start to see Lake Michigan as more of a natural wonder and less as a bleak, frozen hellscape.
8. Whether we're fans of the Cubs or White Sox, we share a brief moment of camaraderie with our crosstown rivals over the start of baseball season.
9. Now that there's no snow to limit the amount of available parking, we finally move our patio furniture off of the road.
10. We embrace our geeky side and commit to three straight days of nerdiness at C2E2.
11. A strange color starts to appear throughout the city, and we remember that Chicago has some amazing public parks and gardens.
12. We're reminded that it's time to begin charting out all the summer music festivals and Millennium Park concerts we want to go to. Spring is the season for updating your calendar, after all.
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