“Spring is in the air. Everywhere I look around!”

Well this isn’t necessarily the case, but while piecing together this Spring Guide, it reminded me of the Palmolive commercial that used this song to promote its fresh-scented cleaning products. While I don’t expect flowers to magically bloom on the walls and floors of The Daily office, I do hope I can shed the 10-pound winter coat before this quarter ends.

This Spring Guide is our attempt to ring in the season for the Northwestern and Evanston communities. With the joys of club sport victories and the sunken treasures of Lake Michigan, there’s much to look forward to this spring. I’m looking forward to running my first half-marathon in May. This will be the only time I have ever run more than seven miles at once, so the next nine weeks should be interesting. Training began this week, and so far my stamina is up to two miles. I certainly think I’m on a roll. My ultimate goal is that with the addition of the warm weather plus the motivation from the hard working parkour members you’re about to read about, I can pull it together in time to squeak out a 13.1-mile marathon.

So grab a Mai Tai–virgin if you’re under 21–sit back and let these stories of spring events warm you just enough to make it through the next few weeks. Only 17 days till this is all supposed to end (though we know it will take longer).

Happy (almost) spring!