Rejoice! The Ides of March!

Nerd Alert:

I love the Ides of March. When the calendar rolls around to the second week of March, I get a little bit giddy.

"The Ides of March are upon us!" I think gleefully to myself.
"Beware the Ides of March!" my geekometer screams.
"It's almost St. Patrick's Day!" cackles my inner-Leprechaun.

I've been enamored with these Ides ever since I read Julius Caesar in high school. I can't even explain why I clutched onto this line and refused to let it go.

I sort of feel like I should have an Ides of March party each year. You'd come, right? Who wouldn't want to come to a snazzy party with plenty of wine and laurel wreaths for everyone? Party-goers would bring a favorite quote (or book?) to swap. We'd have miniature dagger party favors and spend the evening playing "Pin the 23 daggers on Caesar." How macabre! How delightful! My fabulous party would make people stop saying beware and start saying "REJOICE! The Ides of March draws near!"

Y'all. I'm not even kidding. Ides of March party, 2013. Watch for it.

In the meantime, here are some fun facts about the Ides of March:

• According to wikipedia, the Ides was originally used to denote the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, but the 13th day of all other months. (This makes me thankful I wasn't alive back in the day in Rome, because I would never keep that straight.)
• George Clooney directed and starred in a film in 2011 titled The Ides of March, which sort of proves he's lame, because this movie has nothing at all to do with Shakespeare, Caesar, or soothsaying.  And it wasn't even released in March! Eesh. Way to muck up a good thing, Clooney.
• The Ides of March even looks good in the 1930's: