Exploring Brooklyn Park

This weekend has been another one of exploring the many parks and lakes and beautiful Minnesota scenery. The highlight of my week, however, was meeting Scott Marble from Brooklyn Park. I'd been introduced to Scott through another friend, Steph Courdin. Both Scott and Steph are working hard to find ways to put an end to ALS -- a disease they both have.

Steph has created the ALS Never Surrender foundation - a non-profit organization aimed at creating the first ALS BioMetric and Telemetry Patient Application by collecting real time data that will help in better understanding the disease. Scott, along with his husband and care-giver, Shaun, are advocates for those with ALS, attending events such as their recent trip to Washington DC last month to lobby for legislature that will help ALS patients.

All my friends will undoubtedly be hearing more from me as we begin what I think of as "Carpe Diem Season" and I start my fund-raising efforts. For now, I just wanted to meet Scott and Shaun and get myself invited onto their Minneapolis walk team, Marble's Marvels!

As is my weekly tradition, I'll keep this short and sweet and just end with some of my photos from the week.

Wearing quilled earrings I'd bought from the Edina Art Fair.

Hanging out with a "Tater" at the Brooklyn Park Tater Days Festival

Checking out the Mississippi River!

Meeting Scott Marble

Dancing to Music by Boogie Wonderland

Lake Bryant

Riley Lake - Also played tennis at the park here!

A Happy Solo Weekend

One of my resolutions for 2016 was to write a weekly blog post about what makes me happy, and though I haven't had 100% success, I've been pretty good with my happy blog posts. Honestly, all these happiness activities and projects really have made a big difference in helping me realize what a wonderful life I have. In fact, I think this is the most stress-free my life has ever been...  I'm healthy, the kids are grown up and all doing well, I love the work I do.. When I was back in Colorado over Memorial Day sitting in my beautiful back yard, drinking a margarita with a friend, I said: "I feel like this is the happiest I've ever been. I have everything I ever wanted."

But they say happiness is the journey not the destination and that you need to have some stress because part of the happiness comes from meeting challenges or overcoming sad stuff.

What do I have to be unhappy about? Actually, nothing..  I don't want to whine or complain, because I do have everything I ever wanted.  But, the one not-perfect thing that I'm pretty sure I'll experience off and on for the rest of my life is that I still get lonely. I used to attribute that to being single, but now I don't think it has anything to do with my relationship status...  These days, it's more about not really being "home."

I've been surprised at how easy it has been to meet people here in Minnesota. There are a lot of Meetups and everyone I meet is so friendly. During the week I met up with a new friend for tennis and dinner and another evening I went to a Meetup and music at Lake Harriet.

But when Friday rolled around and I had absolutely nothing on my calendar for the weekend, I was missing my friends from Colorado. Even though I could have gone to Meetups or found someone to go explore with me, I spent the weekend alone..  I just didn't feel in the mood to socialize with people I didn't know very well.

As it turns out, I had fun on my solo weekend. I did a lot of girly stuff like go to another art fair, got a facial, and I even went to a movie on my own! (First time for that!)  It even looked like I was going to be the only one in the whole theater which was actually very cool... I was pretending like I was rich and getting a private showing of You Before Me. But then two other women came in, so it sort of ruined my fantasy..

I had a big ice cream cone and walked around 3 more lakes (making a dent in seeing Minnesota's 10,000+ lakes) and enjoyed a shopping spree at Dollar Tree  (what great deals!!)

So I overcame the "challenge" (if you can call it that) of feeling lonely and ended up having another excellent weekend! Man, I am getting SO good at this happiness stuff!

Beautiful June Weekend

I really can't express how much I love the beautiful weekends I've been enjoying, both last weekend in Colorado and this weekend, back in Minnesota. Instead, I'll just post some of the pictures with some captions.

One thing I'll note, though, is that when I was home in Colorado, sitting in the stands of Folsom Field at the Bolder Boulder and looking out at the beautiful mountains, I thought how much I take that beauty for granted. I didn't want to leave.

I arrived back in Minnesota at 1:30am, having to go to work bright and early with a bad cold and in rainy weather. However, my cold and the weather cleared up and this weekend, as I was enjoying the beautiful lakes and green parks I thought how lucky I was to be getting to spend the summer in a new lovely place! How awesome that I get to experience this most gorgeous time of year here!

Gal Pal Brunch at my house in Colorado, complete with mimosas!

My 18th consecutive Bolder Boulder - Perfect weather and wonderful Memorial Day Celebration, remembering Chris, Uncle Neal and other veterans who lost their lives for our country.

Surprise gift from Matt and Stella waiting for me back in Minnesota!

 Went to dinner and to a fun comedy show in downtown Minneapolis.

Edina Art Fair had so many fun and colorful creations on display. I bought a few gifts and things for myself!

This was new! Chicken Salad in a bread cone!

Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park. Fun performance!

Lake Nokomis - Yet another of Minnesota's scenic lakes