I'VE BEEN THINKING A LOT ABOUT Leap Day since I learned earlier this week that a folk tradition linked to this strange extra day is that in some countries, it's the day when a woman may propose marriage to a man. While that's quaint, I have a proposal of my own.
You see, February is not traditionally a banner month in our family. This year, Soup Husband Curt and I gritted our teeth as the books closed on January and we entered our least favorite month. Besides the gray weather and still-short days, February has held, for us, the theft (and return) of a vehicle, a medical crisis for our son, and last year, a wild brush fire that nearly burned our house down.
So naturally, our dread at the arrival of yet another February was magnified by the insult of the extra day. In normal years, February, thank the goddesses, is the shortest month of the year, but this year, it was Longer. By ONE FULL DAY. In my book, that's one more day that stands between me and the time change (one of my favorite days of the year).
It occurred to me as I was working on Leap Day that if we could arbitrarily tack on an extra day to every fourth year, why not add it to a month that's already awesome? Like, say, October. It's autumn, there's a welcome chill in the air, and wouldn't it be nice to have the day after Halloween to recover. Or - why not? - December! An extra day before the 25th to shop and bake and decorate and wrap would make everyone happy, don't you think? Or April: Let's give the procrastinators an extra day to file their tax returns.
But then I decided that JULY would be the best month. For one thing, it's summer. It's warm outside. The kids are off school. The days are long. There are things to do outside. My birthday is in July! So yeah, that's what I propose: This year, I'm pretending February 29 never happened, and instead I will be celebrating July 32nd.
Party at my place! Who's with me?
