Everyday is a Holiday

Joyeux Chandleur!

Thursday (or jeudi) was the French holiday of Candlemas. Normally I would launch into an eloquent and educated explanation of this holiday, but the article I read about it was in French. And if you have read anything I've said about my {lack} of knowledge of the French language, you would know that the past 6 years have served me little good and that my role in the class is to frustrate Madame with my hopelessly American accent. Therefore, the article went wayyyy over my head. But what I do know is that it calls for one of the greatest days of the year, crepe day!


The French class joins together over a cooktop stove and skillet set up in the middle of our classroom and take turns flipping crepes to help ring in the French New Year. The idea is that by holding a piece of gold in your left hand and the crepe pan in the right to flip, you'll have good luck for the year. And considering I've been late to French everyday since 10th grade, it's looking like my hopes for exemption are nonexistent and I have to take the FRAP exam, so I need every ounce of luck this day will give me. Plus crepes are like the refined and skinny French relative to the pancake. Need I say more about my love for this day?

Also I realized that St. Patrick's Day (my favorite spring holiday) is on the first Saturday of Spring Break and I will be at one of my favorite places on earth, SEAGROVE. Hola throw down! And don't ask me why St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays, because I honestly don't think I could tell you. It probably is because I'm a sucker for any reason to celebrate, and holidays are the highlights of my month.

New Year's Eve ...you dress in sparkly dresses and don't have a curfew. Need I say more?

Bowl games...yes, this is a holiday. I love just rooting for the SEC and the lightheartedness of the games. This includes the SUPA BOWL.

Valentine's Day...so this one means almost nothing to me except as an excuse to eat a heart shaped anything and get a little "lovie" present from my mom.

St. Patrick's Day...still have no idea why I like this holiday so much.

The First Day of SPRING...true life: I hate being cold more than Auburn football and math homework.

Easter...HE has risen! Annnnnd you get to wear a pretty new sundress. #baptistbling

Cinco de Mayo...do I take Spanish? Nope. Do I eat at Moe's/Lapaz/Pablo's enough that I might as well have my nationality questioned by? Yessir. Oh wait I'm paler than casper and that confirms me to a heritage of Anglo-Saxon/German/Dutch/other sun cursed peoples.

Memorial Day...Peace. Love. Lake. And barbeque.

SUMMER...this is a holiday all to itself.

4th of July...2nd favorite holiday. Fireworks, barbeque, homemade peach ice cream, lake again, and red white and blue. True or false: I was out of the country last year for this holiday and will be also this year. True. Deuces America.

First Day of School...okay I really like new school supplies and the return of routine. I promise I'm a real person!

Labor Day Weekend...this year, I made a point to buy a coke and some gasoline. Since I was seventeen and everything. Thug life.

FOOTBALL SEASON...Alabama, Mountain Brook (in total denial that this is over. Well at least I still "have to" go watch Goob play), Sunday Night Football, and everything that goes into this perfect time of year.

Halloween...I like this holiday and everything, but if the movie Hocus Pocus wasn't in existence, I would have zero interest whatsoever.

Thanksgiving...food coma and more football.

Festivus...tradish for my father, my brother, and I. Total Seinfield Move.

My birthday...I went there.

Christmas...annnnnnnnd the ultimate grand supreme title goes to St. Nick. I obsess over all things Christmas to the point of almost unhealthiness.

Holiday: A day of festivity or recreation when no work is done.

In this case, I consider senior year a holiday in of itself. Dress up days, Dead Days, and T-shirt days are holidays. Days when there is a school play that you go to during school hours, that's even a holiday too. I can always find an excuse to celebrate something, anything, and everything. If I had a particularly hard math test earlier during the day and a free evening, going out to dinner with my mom at Chez Fon Fon is a holiday.


Friend's birthdays. Times where you get all dolled up and go out dancing. Pep rallies, football games, or a friday night that has no plans at all. Impromptu lake trips. Concerts, especially the outdoor sort. A particularly warm day in March that cuts all ties to the cold dreariness of winter. Any day at the beach. Even just a day when you have a really great outfit on. I think you get the point.


After a while, the same day over and over again gets uncontrollably monotonous. Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to school, eat lunch, do homework, go to practice, go to bible study, do homework, cram in dinner somewhere in there, go to sleep late, and repeat. I've found that this reoccurring cycle is so dull and exhausting that I have no other choice but to seek out the reasons to celebrate. Some days they can be big reasons, some days they can be small reasons, and some days, you don't realize what you have to celebrate until the day has already passed. 


Probably at this point you are emotionally brain fried by my incessant rambling, but here's the closing argument. This is one of my New Year's resolutions (holidays-they're everywhere!), along with stop texting while driving and to moisturize more. I resolve to treat every day like a holiday and to pointedly seek out the "just because" moments and dwell upon those. 2012 is not the year to be stuck in routine. It's the year to celebrate. And celebrate I shall.


Happy, Merry, Joyeux Sunday morning at 1:00 AM!
Ali


"Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend. " -The Holiday