"I see funny people."

"And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!"  Let's hope it's the sun. Let's hope it's a weather report with good news such as the temperature soaring above 32 degrees.  Spring in Wisconsin is a fickle thing.  In one week we can go from snowplowing driveways to sitting in blazing hot 70 degree weather watching a baseball game or a track meet.  (Seventy degrees is hot after months of freezing weather.)  It's the waiting for those "outside days" that makes it seem like spring will never arrive.  How to keep ourselves occupied inside while waiting to enjoy outside is the question.
Share something silly with the people you spend time with.  Introduce your children to the cartoons you enjoyed as a child.  Stay up late on Friday night and remind yourself why Monty Python and the Holy Grail was so funny when you were in high school or college.  ("It's just a flesh wound!")  Check out your favorite John Hughes 80's movie and relive teen angst at its best....or worst.  Indulge yourself with a guilty pleasure, a musical.

How could anyone watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and not crack a smile?  Think you have the winter blues?  Try being snowbound in the mountains for months with seven angry women.  With a songs like "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" and "Lonesome Polecat", this musical is the epitome of what the genre is all about.  An interesting or quirky little story made into a stage or screen spectacle thanks to a liberal sprinkling of singing and dancing.  Not cheerful enough?  How about Singin' in the Rain?  The Sound Of Music?  The practically perfect Mary Poppins?  For something classy, there's My Fair Lady.  If you like to gamble on love, pull out Guys and Dolls.  For sweeping drama and heartbreak, Show Boat or West Side Story are just the ticket.  Watching with the kids?  Then you can't go wrong with The Wizard of Oz.  You don't have to go back fifty years or more to find a good musical.  Remember this?  "I laughed.  I cried.  It was better than Cats!"  Cats ran on Broadway for eighteen years, the longest run in history until is was surpassed by The Phantom of the Opera.

Realistically, most people can only pull out their favorite musicals when their better half is in the woods or out on the ice.  Most guys won't sit through a musical.  Due to the vast selection at your library, that isn't an issue.  Check out National Lampoon's Vacation, it will help you recall your last summer family car trip.  Or try calling on Ghostbusters, the music alone will put a smile on your face.  Too much weekend and not enough activities planned?  There are four Indiana Jones movies to choose from as well as six Starwars episodes to ponder.  Lately, Ferris Bueller's Day Off has been played at our house to rave reviews.  I guess the idea of "playing hooky" never goes out of style.  In winter, each day can seem to repeat itself over and over.  Watch Groundhog Day to find out what you could be doing with those lost hours.

There's no guarantee that we will be doing the Snoopy happy dance in a field of flowers any time soon.  Might as well plan on Spring coming when it normally does to Wisconsin, in June.  Meanwhile, share some DVD brain candy with your fellow sufferers and know that the sun will come out tomorrow, there's no place like home, and tomorrow is another new day.  Or as James Fennimore Cooper so eloquently put it, "Stay alive, no matter what occurs!"  Sometimes winter is just about surviving.