Missing The Midwest

Today is definitely a day that I miss my midwest.

It's gray and cold and ominous today, and the weather has been pretty miserable all week and really most of the time since October.

So what's so great about this time of year in the midwest? I'll tell you.

Romance can be found in a gray April day in Louisville, even Cincinnati or Cleveland. Up here, you go to work, you go home. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then wait for the weekend.

And I'm not talking about romance with other people. You can experience it alone, so long as you're mindful of the seasons. They have those in the midwest. I've been here nearly a year and so far most of what I've seen has been summer and then not summer. They don't do spring in New York, apparently, and I don't like it.

But in Louisville, for example, a buzz takes over that city on March 1 and you feel it for about nine or 10 weeks. The NCAA tournament is right around the corner, girl-scout cookies are arriving, temperatures are warming up, and after the tournament, it's suddenly Derby season, the best holiday not called Christmas.

It's Derby season right now, but I'm not in Louisville. I'm in my quiet apartment 700 miles away, in a city that still hasn't seen spring, and I have to go to bed in four hours.