1. One nice thing about February is that it's a low-expectation month. So yes, it's cold and dreary, but when the sun breaks through for a few minutes (not pictured), it seems like a nice surprise, something to feel good about. It's not like March and (especially) April, when spring mercilessly teases you; when you're tired of harbingers and want the real thing. In February, you can enjoy what you get. If it's nothing, no big deal; you weren't expecting anything anyway.
2. It's also an Olympics month this year, as I'm sure you've noticed.
3. I didn't have many expectations for the Olympics this year, but I've been enjoying a few things. For me, highlights have included the insane/burnout snowboarders, the downhill skiers, and -- maybe best of all -- the very gay figure skating competition (especially the men, but only because they just finished; I'm sure I'll enjoy the women, too). I don't follow figure skating outside of the Olympics, but as someone who's been watching regularly for probably ____ decades, it's great to see a sport that, after years of denial, seems to have arrived at a perfect intersection of athletic ability, artistry, and gay realness.
4. I feel like skating went through a phase when they were trying to pretend that it was only about athletic ability, but this year, something's different. The sport, like certain politicians over the years has 'evolved.' All of the men who won medals (gay or not), in addition to their quad jumps, move with a fluidity that's best described as 'gay' (by which I mean you can't imagine the style existing but for the tradition out of which it arose). It's beautiful and inspiring to watch. This gayness has been embraced by the commentators, also: it's so much more fun -- and enlightening, because he knows what he's talking about -- to listen to Johnny Weir than the monotone, humorless robots the networks use for so many of the other sports. The lesson is clear: the more gay the Olympics become, the better they'll be to watch and, let's assume, participate in. Being seriously gay and seriously athletic are not at all exclusive conditions. This slightly gay Olympics is only just the beginning, but it makes me look forward to the increasingly gay Olympics of the future.
5. On a similar note, between Olympic events, I've also been watching the rebooted "Queer Eye" on Netflix. This show, in which five 'very gay' guys each week visit someone (usually a straight guy, but not always) to give this person a makeover, is a good reminder why reality television has done wayyyyyyyyyyy more for gay representation over the past two decades than any Hollywood movie or television show. There's no sense of wanting to 'tone it down' for anyone, which feels refreshing and important if you've been getting by on the pitiful scraps of gay life we're regularly given by Hollywood (as if they're doing us some kind of big favor by acknowledging our existence). Watch the show and you'll see what I mean: the entire Hollywood-industrial complex needs to spend a week with the "Fab Five" and learn to stop offering up the same sad tropes that have no basis in reality.
6. Like the Olympics, Hollywood needs a big injection of gay realness, whether it comes from the Fab Five or somewhere else.
7. And then whatever parts of the world that are still in denial can be next. My expectations remain low, but at this point, anything real feels like a gift.