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I have plenty of big things on my mind, in my own little sphere and reaching out around this planet and beyond.

But today, I just had some fun.

I rode my bike through a gorgeous summer day to Valerie’s house (45-minute ride). We hung out at her place a bit, then walked to these tennis courts in her neighborhood right on the lake. You could see the lake and the beach from the court! And it was surrounded by sweet, swaying evergreens that caught the wind and sun beautifully. It was just a perfect Midwestern summer day.

This is our second time playing, and she’s already improved noticeably. We got into a great hitting groove for a while there, and it was an excellent workout. I really got in the zone with my serve, and I can see that the lessons I got from my coach are still paying off in improved play.

After an hour of tennis, we walked to Metropolis, where I got a bag of freshly roasted beans (French roast) and a free cup of the coffee of the day (yum). We walked back to her place and hung out a little more, before I biked back home to make my 5:30 phone meeting with a brand new client. I was going to help her plant her garden in the community plot today, but we ran out of time.

This evening, I will be making rainbow cupcakes to take to what some friends have termed their Gay Party, the night before the pride parade. This should be a hoot!

Here’s Valerie at my house for our T-shirt deconstruction party. She made a skirt out of seven T-shirt panels. My creation is the blue shirt with stripey touches on the couch.

I hope I get around to posting about my visit to Long Island & New York in May, but for now, here are some teasers.

My friend efrat and her husband dan are both artistic people. They live in dan’s grandparents’ 100-year-old house, and they have kept many of the objects that have lived in the house, and let them keep living there. Every nook and corner offers another attention-grabbing mini art installation to admire.

They live right on the waterfront. These are the pretty rocks on the beach:

Hot chocolate supreme, from MarieBelle in SoHo.

The boy:

The blanket fort:

I am in a great mood today. It’s March, it’s sunny, and it’s in the 40s, which to anyone who’s just endured a Chicago winter is reason to celebrate. I’m about to jump out of my skin with excitement about the slowly blossoming beautiful weather. I rode my bike to the Latino grocery store in my neighborhood and got the stuff to make chile con queso from scratch (using the recipe that my New Mexican friend Daniel created, with lots of garlic, onions, salsa, fresh roasted green chile, cheese, and milk — the stuff is ridiculously good), and chicken fajitas with all the fixins (roasted onions, red and yellow bell pepper, and garlic; fresh flour and corn tortillas; and fresh guacamole, grated cheese, and Mexican sour cream).

The chile just came out of the oven, and the house smells like heaven. This recipe makes the best queso I have ever eaten — and being from Texas and loving Mexican food, I have tried a few! And this grocery store has some of the most amazing cheeses with various chopped chiles incorporated, such as firecracker jack, a high-quality cheddar-jack blend with both red and green chiles. I am one of the very few non-Latinos I see shopping at this store. It’s one of those relatively undiscovered secrets, and I love it. They are starting to recognize me there, and this sweet (and cute) guy in the deli lights up with this huge grin every time I go there. Possibly he does that with everyone, but I prefer to think I am special. Finally, I will be making margaritas with salt rims. Mmmm!

My friend Valerie’s coming over for dinner and a PJ party, and we are going to kick off reading Your Money or Your Life together, the third book in our reading and discussion series. It’s so much more enjoyable and beneficial to read a book with a smart friend. Our discussions are terrific, and everything sinks in much better. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful friends!

I got to interview two very smart, driven, and NICE people today, one an architect with the firm that developed the master plan for the planet’s first GREEN CITY, the other a female CEO of a very successful and fun company that she founded and which has been in business for more than 40 years. She says she never plans to retire. I learned a lot from both of them, things that I can apply to my own life and work immediately. I feel very inspired. I have gotten to interview a lot of cool people and organizations lately, like NASA (for a story on their green projects)!

And this is good, because this week, I have felt sort of aimless and ambling. I think that’s natural after the last few intense weeks I had. But I don’t want to get lazy. And this day has so far been just the kick in the butt I needed.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :)

Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve written here that I almost forgot how to log in to the dashboard to update!

I have been DATING, in the traditional (yet modern) sense, for the past six weeks. Wow, this’ll wise a girl up fast! Interacting with the modern man in the wild. Fascinating stuff! And now I get why Googling a person is desirable — never did before.

I have also been spending a lot of time with friends, I’ve hired a part-time freelancer to work for me 15-20 hours a week and that is going very well, and I’m learning how to truly have fun again while single. MY way. Not the way anyone says you’re supposed to. What is fun to me? How do I want to spend my time? How can I expand my horizons, get a little out of my comfort zone to grow and mature, live as honestly as I can? How can I make this business — and my life — into exactly what I want them to be? I am seeing progress on multiple fronts, and it feels really good.

I’m reading Radical Honesty with a friend, and loving it. We have a conversation every Sunday about the concepts and the applications to our own lives.

I’m amazed at how much more I understand now than I did a year ago — yet almost daily more aware that there is far more to know than I ever can. A heartbreaking yet beautiful truth.