i biked home from minneapolis at ten, with no lights. the city was sleeping, and i felt pleasantly safe and alone inside of it. the waxing moon watched over me, and i serenaded the shadows, singing as i went. it was a sultry summer sunday night. the loveliest part was the cottonwood chaff illuminated by street lamps, blowing.

whizzed past traffic on my bike during rush hour!

i love bike commuting.

working girl

i became a bicycle commuter! praise be for the twin cities' amazing network of bike trails.

special feature: things i did on a bicycle today

• wore my red skirt tucked into my blue spandex superhero leggings and felt a little bit like wonder woman
• rode home with an orange in each pocket; they made a charming "bong, bong, bong, bong" rhythm against my thighs when i biked up hills
• rode over some very rad bridges, including the irene hixon whitney bridge between loring park and the walker sculpture garden and this neat pedestrian/bike bridge, which spirals up and down on each end!
• rode down hills with no hands and felt exhilerated
• felt the poetry of the railroad age in america when i rode over this particular wooden bridge on the luce line that smells like coal and some other thing that reeks vaguely of pollution and industry. i always gag and feel sympathy for people in factories and building railroad lines in the 19th century.
• took a new route home from uptown; luce line the whole way, and it was exquisitely lovely
• saw what appeared to be the first soccer and softball games of the season in a smattering of parks
• rode home with the world on fire through the tree branches. sunset to dusk, and i did my last stretch in the lovely gloaming.

after a morning bike lock debachle, i biked to common ground meditation center, my favorite spirituality hub, even though i was doomed to be half an hour late. i missed the meditation, but was just in time for the dharma talk, which, fittingly enough, was on determination and being resolute.

i was unexpectedly taken out to breakfast at the seward cafe, a collectively owned and run restaurant with an emphasis on local, organic, sustainable food. i am now officially in love with the place. anywhere that has a free box and a hand-drawn menu gives me palpitations. i had a gluten-free, vegan rice-millet-corn pancake with blueberries, tahini, and maple syrup! a highly allergic girl's dream come true! hibiscus tea is the ideal drink for a warm, sunny, delicious spring day.

today was so phenomenal that i'm tempted to write about the whole thing. but that would defeat the purpose of the word "best," so that's all i've got.

until tomorrow!

i spent my day at in the heart of the beast's open workshops for the may day parade. few things make me happier than paper mache - warm wheatpaste, meditative concentration, losing yourself to your project amid a joyful hubbub, creating beauty out of lost and discarded things, bringing forth form where there was nothing. i'm making a big ol' barn owl. it's a good time for resurrection.

on part of a fourteen mile bike ride on the luce line trail, i rode through a delightfully cool and dark tunnel, refreshing after sun-drenched, sweaty, singing spring. the bicycle is one of the best inventions of all time.