Spring Is In the Air: i.e. Melissa thinks she saw the sun

It's about that time of year again. The time when the frost clears up a little and the temperature starts to rise. A brief respite from winter that allows me to exit my home looking sickly pale from being holed up inside my wacked out apartment with its wild steam heater, now capturing all that Vitamin E from the freshly blazing sun. A time when all of my hopes and dreams come flooding back and I start thinking about sundresses and flip flops and riding my bicycle and skipping. Yes, there are visions of skipping...frolicking through fields of grass I've never seen before, sun glistening on the golden hair I don't have, baby calves being born in the barn I don't own. It's all very romantic. Now I realize that March is going to cruise in and sh*#tstorm on us with some arctic hail and what not. But, the point is, today, February 9th, rocking the 45 degree weather, I'm hopeful. Optimistic. WARM (-er).

And the New York Times was kind enough to bring me its travel show. If there's any hope for new beginnings, I think it starts with a trip. Hopping over that ocean and having a new experience in a foreign land. Ok, in this economy, any land, foreign or not. Heck, I'll hop over the Hudson River to Westchester to see something new. I'm itching to finish out this decade and get out there. So. You heard it here first: Japan '10. Who is coming with?