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Leap year is one those things that seems exciting when you see it on the calendar -- Wow! Rare event! So fun! -- but then it comes and you realize that you are just spending an extra day ensconced in the cold, dreary, and depressing days of February. What fun is that?

February 29 was inserted into our calendar every four years to make up for the small differences between the calendar year and the actual time it takes for the Earth to go around the sun. If that seems genius to you, then you might want to get your head examined.

Personally, I love February because it's short and sweet. Every year it feels like it passes quickly and we move into the month that heralds SPRING. But not this year. Here are 8 reasons leap year is a bummer:

• Leap year birthdays are awful: Can you imagine being born on a day that only happens every four years? Even if you DO celebrate on March 1 or February 28, it's still a giant bummer that you never really see your birthday each year. 

• It's a day without pay: If you're on an annual salary, you get paid for 365 days a year. During a leap year, you get paid for 366, but your salary doesn't reflect this. Bummer.

• It means MORE winter: Winter may end in March, but this year we have an extra day of the torture thanks to the ancients and their bad calendar-making decision.

More from The Stir: 7 Ways to Use Leap Year to Your Advantage (VIDEOS)

• It makes February less even: One thing I love about February is how easy it is to measure in my head. Valentine's Day, for instance, is exactly mid-month. But in a leap year, it's not. What fun is that? This makes math-challenged people like me more than a little testy.

• Another day of waiting: When you have something on the calendar you are excited for (Easter, a birthday, a trip), it's that much harder to get there.

• Smart people have alternatives: According to The New York Times, Astronomer Richard Conn Henry and the economist Steve Hanke proposed a new calendar that has a 364-day year and a “mini-month” every few years that balances the cosmic equation. Sign me up!

• Math hurts my head: The New York Times posits that leap year is "just one of many mathematically interesting opportunities to explore the calendar." Oh Lord. Math. Please. Make it stop.

• High pressure: An extra day makes me feel like I need to be all productive and what-not. I propose if we are going to keep this pesky date around, we make it a "leap into bed day" where we all get to sleep the whole day and not work. Who's with me?

Do you hate leap year, too?

Image via danielmoyle/Flickr