The One With the Ultimate Makeover

February is my second-favorite month. I love that it only has 28 days, except when that oddity known as Leap Year makes it an uneven 29. I love days off school courtesy of long-dead presidents. I thoroughly {heart} Valentine's Day... love and candy and frosted sugar cookies, all inextricably entwined... more on that later...

AND I adore Groundhog Day. Why? Because of Bill Murray, Andie McDowell, and, yes, Punxsatawny Phil. On February 2nd, somewhere in Pennsylvania they pulled a rodent out of a cage to predict the weather... whilst I was wrapped up in a blanket watching Groundhog Day. We quote lines from that movie all the time... It has become a family tradition of sorts. But what I love most about the movie is Phil Connors’ (yes, he shares a name with the groundhog) transformation at the end of the movie. I love a good makeover, and this one is ultimately more satisfying than the physical kind.

Finding that he, alone, is repeating the same day over and over, he goes through various stages of coping, including taking advantage of the lack of consequences, repeated suicide attempts, and using his knowledge of the other characters (and that there is no tomorrow) to indulge his worldly appetites. But eventually he chooses to be good. But not just good... He develops new talents and begins to spend his days performing acts of service. He learns how to be unselfish. He makes friends of everyone in the town. It is when he realizes he can actually be happy even while repeating the same day over and over, that he is finally able to move on to tomorrow.

So much of real life is the same day over and over. We go to school or work, or care for our families. I think I just like knowing that I can have a transformation if I want it, too. Learn something new... step out of my comfort zone and make a CD. Practice and make perfect. Read something great. Be a cool friend. Change my whole heart. Every day is a new opportunity to choose how to spend my extra time... and yesterday is not so important. I love that. February is pretty much amazing. It is 10:46 a.m. and I am still in my pajamas. What is wrong with this picture?