9am: we began by sleeping in (which means that miraculously, zeke didn’t come in and meow at us at 5:30 when it started getting light), and woke to a blue blue sky, sunshine and mild temperatures.

10am: we took a walk through the leafy-green streets of ravenswood and met up with chelsea, lee, justin and cliff (our “chicago family”) for brunch at Over Easy, this breakfast spot on Damen that i’ve never been to but plan to go back soon, and often. (banana-rum french toast? yowsers!) we parted after breakfast, andy headed down to the class at IO that he’s auditing, and i headed home.

12pm: i’ve been wanting to own a bike for a long time now, not for serious rides across the city, (i’m not that hardcore, and more than a little afraid of riding in traffic) but just for toodling down to the grocery store or whatever. anyway, i found a guy on craigslist selling a bunch of bikes just a few blocks away, and went over to the sale and found a cute, vintage cruiser, complete with shiny chrome fenders and everything. since it’s actual vintage, not fake-vintage, it needs some work, but a few bolts, a kickstand and a rack on the back and it ought to be quite functional for errands. i’m getting really sick of being in the car since i started commuting to the south side a few months ago.

12:30pm: i rode my new bike home, changed into a sundress and headed up to javis st. beach for diane’s new baby (alexander)’s “coming out party.” it was a perfect day to be along the lake – dark blue waters dotted with bright white sailboats. i’m sorry i forgot my camera. anyway, after the bbq i walked home, stopping by the drop-off site where my CSA veggie share was waiting. i headed home with a sack full of fresh-from-the-fields salad greens and other goodies.

4pm: i changed clothes and headed over to foster st. beach for a run. the park was full of soccer games and people enjoying the sunny-not-too-humid weather. good people-watching while i ran, especially since the Falun Gong people were out doing their thing en masse. and yay, i’m almost over my cold and back to training again! i’ll save the details of that for the training log, and spare all of you who aren’t interested in the details of my running stats.

5:30pm: i got back home, iced my heel, showered and made some pasta for dinner and headed over to Webster Fitness Club to set up for for the second-to-last performance of Sandbox Theatre Project’s newest site-specific piece, CAN YOU SPOT ME? the show kicked ass, as usual. we’ve gotten a lot of great press, especially with news spots on WGN News and Metromix TV last week, which means that the last weekend is totally sold out. we’d extend, except that two of the four core STP company members, chelsea and lee, are getting married next weekend! so we’re all treking out to cali for the wedding. below, andy as rocco:

10pm: after the show we headed up to Sheffield’s, where Andy and Brooke were having a joint pre-birthday party. Sheffield’s gets my vote as one of the best bars in chicago because 1) it’s near an el stop, 2) it’s HUGE so if you just keep wandering from room to room you’ll eventually find a corner to hang out in, even on a friday night, and the back room seems to always been the chill actor hang-out and is relatively trixie- and chad-free 3) it has a pinball table and an old fashioned black and white photo booth, and a huge beer menu, from the very cheap to the hard to find, including my favorite, fat tire ale, which until a few months ago, couldn’t be found east of the rockies. anyway, all the good people in town were there, and andy, the popular half of this couple, for many obvious reasons, was well-loved. at some point in the evening we were introduced to the concept of couples pinball, in which each person controls flippers for one side of the table, and the game is played as a team. awww, cute. this dark fuzzy picture is us adapting our pinball style to work as a team. the couple who introduced andy to the idea promised to take us on a chicago pinball table tour/double date. ah, nerd love.

2am: on the way home we stopped in for a slice at Philly’s Best. the people that work there are SOOO rude (it’s supposed to be a gimmick, but it’s really just annoying, but then again, so are the late night customers they have to serve), but it can’t be denied that it’s open till 3am and has the best slice anywhere in town. took an el ride back to our car (thanks to PrideFest, lakeview was hopping at 2am last night, people out everywhere) and headed home.

days like this you can almost forget about winter in chicago.

and happy birthday to andy, who is officially 29 today!