Cruelest month?

Is it just me, or is everything just going straight to hell right around now?

I mean, on a macro scale, obviously the economy is horrific. And if you live in the northern half of this country, the weather this time of year is usually pretty dreary (though I have to exempt myself from most of that misery).

But on a micro scale, it seems like everywhere I go, people are sniping at each other. Two discussion boards I frequent are overwhelmed with cranky arguments. My classmates (and I) are tired and anxious, and one group of students has recently raised two semi-contentious issues in a way that seems to do nothing but antagonize people. And if the pair next to me in the coffeeshop don't stop reading their writing to each other (in carrying voices) I think I will strangle them.

Have I just fallen into a local vortex, or are others suffering this way?

Comments

[The History Enthusiast]

Oh, I'm definitely having a crappy month. And, I was thinking yesterday about how February just sucks in so many ways.

[Dr. Moonbeam]

I'm not sure if things are genuinely worse all around, or if one just notices them more in phases, as it were? If you start off being grumpy, then things that might not bug you at another time will now.

[Another Damned Medievalist]

Have you noticed I haven't even posted anything super-filtered lately re my life or my department? It's just simmering ...

[sabrina]

sounds like February to me.

[Thoroughly Educated]

It seems unusually bad around here. I mean, I'm creating my own little vortex, but it seems there are more grad students making emergency psych services appointments, more serious illnesses, more general exhaustion, administrators on edge (different dire budget news every week doesn't help), etc. etc.

[life_of_a_fool]

Not only have I been irritable, but I've been really intolerant of other people's irritability (pot - kettle? yeah I know).

[Dr. Crazy]

February sucks. February is the worst. Totally.

[Susan]

Count me in! I was just saying to Politica, "I'm grumpy all the time these days. I want to get back to being my usual more-fun-to-hang-out-with-self."

[Laura (geekymom)]

My first boyfriend in college dumped me in February, like a week before Valentine's. He felt horrible about it. The next February (we'd become friends), he got dumped, so we collectively decided that February was the worst month--not April--and that we should drink our way through it together. It worked out well. :) So I suggest a stiff drink or two. It's what's getting me by.

[Rev Dr Mom]

Teh suck here, too.

[jo(e)]

It's February. The longest month.

[phd me]

Yes! I was misstating Eliot's quote to some students just the other day because, at this point, February is cruel, cold and crappy. Everyone is cranky and I just want to crash until April. Aggh!

[timna]

you mean it's not just me?

[Sisyphus]

Hey, maybe it's not just me and my students?

We also have the Death Plague Cold going around here, which seems to be knocking people out for weeks at a time. Makes everyone grumpy.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Heh! Thanks, people, it's at least nice to know that misery loves company. I sort of don't dare talk to people (that is, other than friends who will put up with my bitching) because I'm so grumpy, they're so grumpy, everything gets blown out of proportion!

I am on a committee right now, some members of which are being Quite Annoying, and I know other members feel the way I do about this, but I don't dare raise the issue of the annoyingness because, while I believe it's objectively there, I think we'd all end up up in each others' faces and it would end not well.

Because it's February. Thank God March has a spring break in it.