Monday, March 22, 2004

My Lover's Name is Music...

The first day of spring brought with it a pretty nice weekend in the Toledo area. That's what I hear, anyway. I was in Stow and Cleveland, and on the first day of spring, it snowed. A lot.

It always snows there. I don't know how people can stand to live there. It's kind of a fun area, but this winter has just sucked. It keeps snowing and snowing and snowing, throwing in a nice day here and there for a tease. Then the snow comes back. It's relentless, and I think living there would eventually just suck the soul right out of your body.

Actually, you'd probably just get used to it.

Snow aside, it was a good weekend. A long weekend would have been nice, so I could have seen more of the NCAA Tournament, but I really can't complain too much.

The plan for Friday called for me to drive over to Brandi's immediately after work. That was altered a little bit, as Brandi drove to her parents' house in Clyde to get her new car. Since Clyde is right between Toledo and Stow, I stopped there on my way. We hung out for a while and went out to dinner that night with her parents. I can't remember the name of the place where we ate, but it was a Mexican place in Bellevue, and the food was great. Brandi's stepmom gave me a book, which will always put me in a good mood. The book was Mystic River, which I started on Saturday. If I like it, I'll probably see the movie when it comes out on DVD.

We drove from there to Brandi's place in Stow. We had to drive separately, but it's not a bad drive. Of course, I like to drive anyway, but I don't think Brandi is especially fond of it, particularly since she was in an accident just last week. At any rate, when we got to Stow, Brandi took me for a ride in her new car. It's a 99 Sunfire, and it's pretty cool. We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, including a USA Today featuring an article about the upcoming 3rd Harry Potter movie.

Saturday did not start in a promising fashion. Last week I received the title of my own car, which was recently purchased outright from a lease, so I needed to go to the local BMV to try to get new plates. After getting there and standing in line for fifteen minutes, I couldn't get them because I wasn't carrying anything with my Social Security number printed on it. That was irritating, to say the least. And now I'm technically driving my own car illegally, since my old tags expired on Saturday (please don't report me). I'm not especially concerned about it, though. I'm going to get it taken care of this week, whichever night the BMV office in Bowling Green is open past 5:00.

The day got much better after that. Brandi and I watched some tournament basketball on TV, then headed up to Cleveland. We had tickets to see Edwin McCain in concert at The Odeon in the Flats that night. We left early, partially because we planned to eat beforehand at the BW3 we knew was near the venue, and partially because I wasn't 100% sure how to get there. I've been there before, and Brandi and I both have a working knowledge of Cleveland, so we made it without too much trouble.

I'll get more in-depth about the show later on, but for now let's just say that it was awesome. As we headed back to Brandi's car afterwards is when it started to snow. As we got out of downtown Cleveland and headed south on I-77 is when it started to snow heavily. When we got onto the turnpike heading east, we were just being dumped on. The snow was so thick that it felt like I was constantly driving under an overpass. Oh yeah, and I was also driving Brandi's car for essentially the first time, so it was a little nerve-racking. We got through it, though--I just drove slowly and focused on the road, and everything was fine.

Sunday was mostly a lazy day, as Sundays generally are and should be. Brandi went to the YMCA where she works so she could work out, while I stayed in bed until 12:30. We watched basketball for a while after she got back, then went to the laundromat and also got her car washed. We watched more basketball when we got home, napped, watched TV, and ate pizza.

More later on the show.

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