There is not a lot of surety in this life, but there are some things that I can count on to reignite all of the passion and positivity in myself, and in life, that can too easily get buried under the remnants of a too-long winter.

This weekend included everything that I love most in my life: amazing friends, great food, community (the best I’ve ever known), innovation paired with intellectual inspiration, and most importantly, beautiful spring weather in Charlottesville which is incomparable.  This weekend, in and of itself, was greatness embodied.

On Friday I took the afternoon off from work — from ALL work — which is a rarity that must be celebrated in full.  It was 75 and absolutely gorgeous in Charlottesville, and day 2 of the Tom Tom Founders Festival.  Last year I arranged my entire schedule around the innovation talks on business and education (UVa President Teresa Sullivan was speaking), and I absolutely loved it.  This year, the talk of choice was on finding investors and funding in Charlottesville, with a panel assembled by a few of the numerous angel and private investing firms that are housed in our city.

The talk was great – not entirely for the content since none of it was particularly relevant to our business, but because real intellect and business conversation never fails to inspire me and always gets the wheels in my brain firing faster than I can keep up with.  This talk achieved exactly that.  By the end of the panel I couldn’t have told you exactly what was said, but I spent the next hour rattling off a stream of concepts and business development plans that were exploding out of my brain.

And of course, since I was ruminating on my new most passionate plans, I took to the kitchen.  A quick spring salad turned into a late lunch with grilled skirt steak, romaine, avocado, cucumber, and blackberries for a little sweetness.

The pace of my ideation slowed as the weekend progressed, but thankfully never stopped developing — and it is the surest sign that I am alive and well.

Friday night was the Block Party for Tom Tom Fest at McGuffy Art Center, which pretty much translated into drinks and socialization a la Friday’s After Five, but at a slightly different venue, and with cool lights to add a little flavor.

We had some of our MAD crew out spreading the good word and handing out MAD passes like they were critical AAA cards for health – pretty much because they are.

Saturday started with some much needed MADness, and the sweat out that I needed after some late night dinner/wine at Orzo.

Aside from the amazing 80 degree weather and the blooming of everything, spring was made official for me with the post-Saturday-MADness walk to Paradox followed by the City Market. Oh, and this, which is brilliant.

The next stop on the I love this city spring stroll was the Southern, which is now actually serving brunch, and an awesome one at that.

I had this killer frittata with bacon, and, of all things, green apples in it.  It was exactly what I needed, and was the only thing that got me through the next 2 hours of this three hour tour.

Since Tom Tom was still in full swing there were events everywhere, and people, but for the first time ever the Chili Cook-Off benefitting the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville which is such a worthy cause that it can actually make chili tasting feel noble.  It also totally justified a late morning beer -Three Notch’d espresso stout (not expresso, as it may read) to be specific.

After the cook off the weather seemed perfect for a little walk down Main Street to hit up the lululemon showroom.  On the way back we took a quick peek in to the old zinc, and soon-to-be 5 Penny Cafe, a great new spot that we’re checking out tonight at their VIP opening night that I can’t even begin to anticipate since food in Charlottesville is beyond words pretty much all of the time.

The evening was full of more amazingness as we MADbombed Bella’s Restaurant to check in with our clients Doug and Bella, and to wish our favorite bartender (and good friend) Ayo the very best on his last day behind the bar.  MADpasses flowed like the wine, and the conversation was of course of tremendous quality with so many of our favorite people in one place.

And that was the weekend, not in it’s entirety, and not nearly inclusive of everything, but it still seems more than ample to chock it up as an amazing prelude to summer and the community that is thriving here in this town and our tight and growing community of MADness — and that’s the surest thing I know.