Richard Marx...and that guy from Vertical Horizon

Just thought I'd do a quick catch-up on recent happenings. The first being that we went a whole week with no snow here in the Cleve. What's more, the weather was between 40 and 60 degrees every day. The two feet of snow in my yard melted (the 5 foot mound where my snow service dumps all my driveway snow after removing it will take a bit more time). Of course, it's snowing as I write this, so the warm spell was short-lived, but the point is that a week with no snow is AMAZING and makes me feel less like complaining now that it's back. Because believe it or not people, we're on the downward side of this hump, and in a matter of weeks we could be through with the snow altogether.

After a hiatus of several months, I returned to the world of shopping. I hadn't been purposely withholding retail therapy from myself, I've just been busy. But enough is enough, and I needed some new clothes. My favorite store is of course Anthropologie, but it's a store that's particularly dangerous to peruse. You'll want everything you see, and everything costs like $300. Such a dirty trick. I entered the dressing room with enough clothes to constitute a downpayment on a house were I to buy them all but managed to whittle it down to 3 items, which cost me a total of $150. Not bad. I then rewarded myself with an hour at Plato's Closet, where, by comparison, $110 bought me 15 items. I love Plato's for that very reason. Your money goes so far there. So why do I go to Anthropologie at all? Because sometimes you just need an outfit that makes you feel as adorable as Zooey Deschanel.

And now a few words about my Valentines Day date: Richard Marx. Several friends laughed when I asked if they'd be interested in going, and I just don't understand it. What's not to love about Richard Marx? Having seem Bryan Adams last year, I knew as soon as I saw the advertisement that I'd be going to see Richard too. He came to town with Matt Scannell (of Vertical Horizon), and I cannot say enough about how great the concert was. Just them and their acoustic guitars, they took turns playing their hits. But they'd both play each song, back each other up, etc, and they even played a few songs they've written together in the course of doing these shows. The night left me wondering why more artists don't double up like this. Not only does it have that delightful 'crossroads' feel to it, but the audience basically gets two concerts. Can you say bonus? I can.

Between the concert, the warm weather, the underdog victories of both Hickory the Scottish Deerhound and the Cleveland Cavaliers (did I really just make that comparison?), and the fact that there's no work tomorrow, this was a red-letter week. Here's hoping for another.

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