Late February and early March are gloomy times in State College.

Winter, realizing it's on the way out, starts acting neurotic just to be annoying. One day it's raining sideways; two days later girls are pulling out the mini-skirts. School has been going since last September, but there are still eight more weeks (eight long, grueling weeks) left.

Hands are cracked. Snow is sooty. Football season is just a memory.

Thankfully, we have that one-week grace period, that blissful bacchanal -- spring break.

Spring is a simpler time, the beginning of the part of the year when we don't have to wear pants. Lucky us, that's not the only thing we have to be excited about.

This particular spring is going to rock hardcore. Pennsylvania, now a key state in the Democratic primaries, will have a front seat to the heavyweight match-up: Barack "alypse Now" Obama vs. Hillary "George" Clinton. Fergie ("Big Girls Don't Cry, but They Do Pee Themselves") is bringing her fergalicious ferg-fest to the Beav. Rita's is coming back from hibernation.

This week's Venues is getting in on the action, too. We've purged our mailboxes of the morass of free CDs promoters send our way and we've compiled a list of concerts to check out during break.

Whatever you're doing next week, enjoy it.

Whether your idea of recharging is grinding on that fine young dude or dudette at a wet T-shirt contest in Daytona Beach, or simply enjoying a week without calculus homework, spring break has you covered.

Billy Wellock is a sophomore in the division of undergraduate studies and The Daily Collegian's Venues chief. Depending on when you read this, he may not be wearing pants. His e-mail is waw5010@psu.edu.