a love of numbers

I have always held a small affection for numbers--
not calculations or how they function, mind you.
I never trust my tip calculations, hoping that at least a server will benefit by my lowly arithmetic skills.

But I have always been attracted to things that have nothing to do with their funcitons.
For example, I have loved the oddness of 7, the symmetry of double numbers,
the word cardinal as a descriptor, the sound of the word integer,
the mysteriousness of the Fibonacci sequence and the possibilities of exoticism in its name,
that some people bother memorizing the sequence of Pi,
that others have a favorite number when there are so many,
that the only thing I remember from calculus is the integral because of how it looked
(no clue whatsoever what it means now, not even close),
the baffling idea that infinity can be described numerically with its own symbol...

I could go on, but it drifts quickly towards monotony.

Somehow, dates fall in that category as well--
measuring the passing of time and seasons with numbers.

So February 28 is one of my favorite dates.
The brevity of the month makes it seem like such an unwanted step child,
and yet it fast-fowards us that much closer to spring.
It is now one of my favorite times--
the early signs in brown fields ringed by baby green willow trees,
hearing birds for the first time, not realizing how much I missed them,
more patches of intermittent sunshine and blue sky,
the hunger for reawakening, for energy, and for life.

Happy early spring my friends!

picture via {samantha scibelli}