February 6, 2006
holidays on ice
i'm into my seventh year living here in massachusetts, not only can i still not spell it correctly, i'm also still learning more about the strange new england culture. one of the strangest things is their holidays. this starts off with first night, which i still don't quite understand. shouldn't it be called last night? anyway, then there's patriot day, which i guess is a necessity given how difficult it is to get around the city when there aren't 20,000 people running down its busy streets.
back in the midwest (where states are easy to spell), around this time of year we have groundhog day. you may have heard about it; it's risen in popularity recently due to a motion picture of same name starring bill murray and andie macdowell. fun fact: director harold ramis originally wanted tom hanks for the lead role. [1]
anyway, here in boston they apparently celebrate skunk day. it goes something like this: on the eve of february 6 you walk to the T late at night, perhaps rocking out to the new green day album, not really paying attention to the cat walking toward you. only this is one ugly cat, and i've never seen stripes like that on a cat, ohmygodrunaway.
luckily for me, the skunk was so utterly confused about being awake in february that he just walked away without ruining my week. i don't really know what this says about the coming spring, but it reminds me that winter isn't all that bad after all.
