It's moving day today at my office. We sit at tables, 2 or 3 to a table, and every month some of us (including me) have to shift to another table. This means packing up all my stuff and then unpacking it 20 feet away. This will go on for several more months, until finaly I can sit in one place for the summer and fall. I hate moving days. All you cubicle dwellers, I envy you today.

I'm reminded of the description of the FBI office in Snow Crash, except you never sat in the same cube two days in a row.

Janet, that's just weird. Personally, I find February to be the longest month, and March is sucky because the days are longer, it's not quite as cold, but Spring (in Maine, at least) is a long way away.

Ah March. When our workload doubles and the patrons are all super stressed (not just their normal level of stressed) because of medical boards. Awesome.

March used to be called 'the hungriest time' in pre-industrial society. You had run through most of your food and beverage stores set aside the summer and fall before, all the good jams and bacon and cheeses and pickled preserves and spices and syrups, and were down to the 'bottom of the barrel': basically mushy old apples, rye grain and cornmeal, and salt-preserved meat. Cows aren't giving milk yet and hens aren't laying. The first 'knots and buds' of spring plants have not yet appeared, and you know they are a month off. The indoor work of winter -mending, tool sharpening, weaving, sewing - was mostly done, but March is still too early, really, to get into gardens and fields or out on the water, and you can't really spring clean because it's still too cold, leaving you way too much time to think about how bored and hungry and anxious you are.

People think the winter was hard to get through in the old days, but winter could actually be well provisioned and a wonderful time to get things done. It was spring, really early spring, that was hardest to get through.

Emotionally, I think some of this is still true today. I personally find February the hardest emotionally, but March tends to drag in a way that's totally unique, feeling sort of teetering on the edge between nothing and something, and frustratingly, not falling.

I actually like March.

(((Wolfdog))) I guess there's a specific reason why it sucks for you? I was just thinking that I quite like March.

Here at least, February is when it starts to get light at a civilised hour in the morning, meaning I don't have to get up in the dark any more. If I leave work at a reasonable hour, I can also walk home in the light, unlike in December when it's dark by 4pm.

February and March always zoom by for me, because they're usually quite busy. I'm really looking forward to Easter this year (nice trip organised) and Easter is really late but I know the time will fly by.

The magnolia at the end of my street is budding now and has been for a few days, which always makes me happy.

Mostly, it's the weather; I enjoy snow and even really bitter cold days where everything's crisp and crunchy, and I enjoy hot summer days when I can go down and swim in the river or sit on the lawn with a beer, but I do not enjoy long periods of just-above-freezing-and-rainy, which is what March tends to offer a lot of around here. In fact, "do not enjoy" is understating the case. Mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud. Also, in the academic year, it is that time - somewhat like mile 60 on a difficult century ride - where you're just enough past halfway to fully realize what a long (muddy) slog the rest is going to be.

I do apologize for slandering the month, to those who enjoy it.

I enjoy hot summer days when I can go down and swim in the river or sit on the lawn with a beer

Those are pretty rare here in England, as are proper snowy days, so mud, rain and only slightly above freezing are more normal here, I guess.

I didn't take it as slander but was worried that something out of the ordinary was wrong.

February and March are both pretty cruel. One down, one to go. At least during March, I have some vacation time planned!

Aw. I was born in March and so was Mr. G. And we both grew up in FL, where "winter" and "spring" are more theoretical than experienced. March is nice.

I'll take March over February any day of the week. At least in March, there is the odd day where it's 40 degrees and we are all in shorts pretending spring is here before April smacks us down with a late snowstorm.

@Janet-I have previously dwelled in cubicle-ville where we did this too. Every four months or so, pick up and rotate cubes. Seriously irritating. They said it was to keep our desks neat and take turns having to sit right in front of the boss's office but I felt at the time it was a petty, simpleminded way to make sure we lacked any sense of ownership over our work by denying us ownership over our workspace. Bastards.

February is always the hardest month for me, but March is a close second. Because you think you are out of the woods with the weather and then it is still dark and snowy and sucky. Today is boding pretty well actually, it seems nice out.

Yesterday, the last day of February, it rained 1.5 inches here. Today, the first day of March, it's bright and sunny (although just at freezing). I'll take bright an sunny.

Environment Canada says that the groundhogs were wrong and we're getting a cold, late spring. Bastards!

Daylight Savings comes along in 2 weeks - always makes me feel immediately better (though it's harder to wake up).

It's March?! It feels like NYD was just a couple weeks ago. Oof.

This is the second Ridiculous Work Arrangement I've heard about today. This morning my husband told me he has to spend hours this week dealing with a Virtual Audit. He has to sit and be questioned and produce reports, instead of doing his real work, for an audit that isn't even real. And, his organization is paying the people who are doing the fake audit and taking up my husband's time.

I wonder who is required to waste more time at work -- JanetLand, packing and repacking, or my husband doing this pointless made up exercise.

Also, I am generally against the spring months, all of 'em. Sure, they bring more sunshine and all, but it still seems like an interminable wait for the REAL sunshine and blue sky and outdoorsy joyfulness.

My birthday and wedding anniversary are in March (4 days apart!), so I like March regardless of the weather.

Miko, that's fascinating!

Environment Canada says that the groundhogs were wrong and we're getting a cold, late spring. Bastards!

One of the neat things about Environment Canada's web site is they also publish data about how accurate their long-term forecasts are. For example, there's this one that shows the temperature forecast accuracy for march, april, and may, as predicted at the beginning of march (so, basically, the same parameters as their "cold, late spring" prediction for this year that they just announced).

And for the area of the country around Toronto, this type of forecast has historically been right only 50-55% of the time. That's a little better than random guessing, but still not great. Randomly pick one of "colder than normal", "normal", "warmer than normal" and you should be right 33% of the time.

So, statistically speaking, there's around a 50% chance this spring will actually be normal or even warmer than normal.