Counting the days until spring . . . and spring training!

On so many levels, I'm counting the days until spring.

I freely admit, I don't like winter one bit. I don't like the cold and dreary days, the depressingly early nightfall, or that sense of isolation that comes from being cooped up inside from the cold. Instead, I yearn for the warm days of spring and summer, when I can break free from that isolation, shed the jacket, open up my doors and windows and feel bathed in the outside world, when the days are long and endless from dusk coming as late as 9:00 pm, when the flowers and trees bloom, and when the world just blossoms into life again.

Which is why I'm tingling with excitement at the fact that with each passing day, the days get longer by 2 minutes (a minute each at dawn and dusk), so that when I arrive home from work, there's still a hint of daylight left in the world. That in a mere 5 weeks we can turn the clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time, and can finally enjoy the evenings with refreshing daylight.

And last but not least, that it's only 24 days until the first spring training game!

Balk if you will at that last point (no pun intended), as I know the Nats haven't exactly had the most memorable, profitable, or even sensible off-season (I still think we put all our eggs in one basket with Teixeira), but the beginning of Nationsls baseball season is something I look forward to with the same kid-on-Christmas-Eve anticipation that I get for Penn State football season. And once the season starts, I attain a sense of completion, because once I'm sitting in Nationals Park, Beaver Stadium, or even RFK back in the day for that very first home game, I feel like I've returned home.

Last year, Will and I were lucky enough (actually, "miraculous" is more accurate!) to attend the inaugural game at Nationals Park, which had the most storybook ending with Ryan Zimmerman's game-winning walk-off. Going to the season's home opener has been something of a tradition for us, and I look forward to it again this year, when the Nats open at home against the Phillies on April 13!

I can already taste the half-smokes!!!