I know this isn't very topical for those of you who live in areas that are under 12 feet of snow right now, but bear with me -- we've got crocuses and violets, okay?

What sets you off? Do you, like me, get spring fever before spring actually arrives? Does it mess with your head? Does it make you horny? Does it make it impossible for you to be indoors?

Do you know a cure?

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

Answers

spring fever hit my campus early this year - even though this past weekend temperatures (now in the teens) were still well below zero. there is never such a rash of permanent (for the time being) hookups as there was at the party i went to on saturday.

it's spring carnage right here at carleton, and it's only january! i think the seasons are accomodating my going to london and missing the actual carnage.

but to really answer the questions, i always have spring fever early, it makes me impossibly horny, and i want to go outside and sit on the still damp from melting snow grass in my cutoffs and sun bathe. it's 14 degrees today and i deemed it too warm for my parka. it's hit already.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

I was looking out the window at work last night, and I thought wow, its really getting light out. And then thought..must be losing my mind as its only January.

But it is...it now bright till 5:40.

But its -30C with windchill..so deep freeze.

I can't wait for spring..because then its that much closer and then that much closer to summer and VACATION.

Anticipation....

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

Uh...no.

Spring depresses me. It's too bright. It's too earnest. It's too noisy. It's like a Mary Kay meeting. It's like a pep rally.

As I once titled an entry in my journal, "Spring Sucks".

Give me Fall, please. Beautiful leaves AND beautiful weather.

Al of NOVA NOTES

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

Oh, yes, I get spring fever. Spring is my favorite season. The Spring fever hits me when on an unseasonably warm day in February, the ground emits this great earthy "spring" smell and a warm breeze entices me outside. Then I grab a shovel and test the earth to see if it is workable and I prowl around the yard examining trees for swelling buds and looking for precious green shoots and snowdrops poking up their little heads. I love spring. To me it means new beginnings and a looking forward....the anticipation of great things to come.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

geeze, I'm in California and it still feels like winter to me.

I love spring and want to be outdoors when it hits, but it hasn't hit me yet.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

It was MINUS 37 here this morning (about 500 KM NW of Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and my crocuses will be up in April if all goes well. Spring Fever?!? Ask me again at Easter ok?

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

oh do i get spring fever. it starts in February and lasts until April/ Mayish. There is no known cure. Spring arrives here in NC by March.

During that time I am a very odd bird. Spring Fever makes me want to be in the mountains again, running naked and swimming in the creeks. Which is funny cause I've actually done that but still. Spring Fever makes me think of the way a deep forest smells: specifically the ferns.

okay. let's end this. It's not February yet.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

I'm with Al; I don't get spring fever, I get fall fever. Seriously, when the godawful heat and humidity start to fade and the leaves start to color, my mood improves a lot. However, when the snow starts to melt and buds appear on the trees, I get whiny and unpleasant and complain about the heat when it's 45 degrees outside.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

I used to. Back when I was in the Midwest and we were blanketed in white for three years. Now, the seasons almost pass by without notice. It's a little colder one day, a little warmer the next.

I still love spring, though. The air smells different - deep rich brown and tender green.

Yeah, it smells in colors. that must be the spring fever talking.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

Oh yeah -- it's the SMELL in the air, the smell of fresh, wet earth and buds on the branches ... sweet earthy smell.

It goes right to my head ... makes me giddy like a school girl. Giggly and energetic and I get the urge to plant things, take long walks and run around in the wind.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2000

As a transplanted Californian living in upstate New York, I'm definitely starting to get a bit of spring fever. We have at least 12 inches of snow here, probably more, and it's supposed to keep coming down for at least 3 more days this week. There are definitely mornings as I scrape 6 inches off my car in -10 degree weather that I wonder what possessed me to move here. But there are also days when it's beautiful and sunny and I love being outside in the snow. Each season has its advantages, I suppose. Besides, I hear it's raining in California :)

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2000

Oh yeah, I get spring fever -- or at least I used to, and really badly at that.

Spring here in Ontario is a long process of temperatures slowly climbing up, snow melting, false starts (the inevitable "Indian Winter" -- a last snowstorm sometime in late March or even April) and finally, a sustained burst of warm-ish weather that re-activates the trees and bulbs and fills the air with this rich, humus-y smell of damp earth and grass and plant pheromones.

The trees bud and the grass greens and everyone sheds layers and when I was a teenager I walked around with a hard-on. I remember it well because it was so irritating, and more than faintly embarassing. I took to walking around at night, just so I could enjoy the electrifying feeling without looking like a nut.

I don't get the same sensation in spring anymore, but then I'm (thankfully) not living in the same hellstorm of hormones anymore. Still -- it was kind of wonderful, an exhilarating reminder of fresh starts and new possibilities. Unfortunately, it always came around at the end of the school year, when you'd exhausted all of your possibilities for the year, and couldn't wait to get away from those people for a few months. By college, I started associating fresh starts and mad optimism with the fall, which is odd, as it's the season of slow death and dying light. Go figure.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2000

I do get spring fever and right now I can't wait for it..why? Cause my damn roomate keeps the house at somewhere between 84-89 F. Which is really really really hot especially since its about a 5-10 hotter in my area.

ARGH.

My bathroom is a little sauna and sitting there for any length of time causes the sweat to break out.

Its nice in the morning though..

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2000