a cold rain falls on the first day of springgeese shivering, waddle in frozen mucksearching for food, a place warmboughs and branches freeze, fall from treessleet piles high in walk ways and hidden spacesstinging crystals strike the face, chap the skina preacher poet sings of beautiful creationbut I think of the problem of evil and painand milling now warm and drycontemplating changes seasonalI vow poverty, aestheticmy lies patheticbut it's the first day of springand a cold rain falls

--the Earthbound kid

Dear Neil,Today was the first day of spring, so I got a haircut. I'm not sure if I'll get another one this summer or wait until fall.

When I woke up this morning, I jumped out of bed in a panic, because I'm still used to thinking about the time I needed to be up by for my old eight o'clock class during the winter trimester. Once I realized that I still had an hour to kill, I calmed down a bit. Looking out the window, I was startled to see that my Weather Channel watching friend's prediction had come true: snow.

The wind whipped the frozen precipitate through the air with violent motion as I watched. So, I poked my computer until I figured out the number to call for snow cancellations.

All classes were still on.

"Fuck."

I trudged miserably through ice sludge toward the dining hall as stinging crystals from the now frozen rain hit my face. How could they not cancel class on a day like this? I would not drive to work today if I were a teacher without snow tires, I thought.

The wind drove angry waves on the lake.

Ruby Eskew was scanning cards as usual. She's a funny old lady. One time, I wore a Hawaiian shirt and she drew me into a conversation about her trip to Hawaii and her many other travels and the death of her husband and so on. That was pretty interesting, but today, I just commented on the weather and she agreed.

I sat with a friend from my hall and two of his friends that I don't know and complained about the weather and having to go to class and so forth. I was fairly upset and unhappy.

I ate a bowl of Cheerios because I think that for spring I'll try to eat only Cheerios for a week or however long I can last. Protein is tempting already though, so I may give up and return to my unhealthy habit of burger and fries with vegetable for every non-breakfast meal.

Anyhow, I kept feeling terrible about my classes and hating life and such until after lunch, when I got my mail. The CDs, which I order and didn't expect in for another week, had already arrived! "Klassics with 'K'" by the Kostars and "Secret Swingers" by Versus were here, though "Super Sexy Razor Happy Girls" by Mika Bomb is still backordered. Anyhow, I walked out in the sleet toward a computer lab and laughed smiled while the Kostars sang about Red Umbrellas and cold rain snuck (sneaked sucks) through my jacket.

Moral of the story: Emotions are stupid, fickle things.