Author: Jeff Tabaco

I just received a nice e-mail from Lisa Butenhoff, communications manager at Food & Friends, thanking me for plugging Dining Out for Life on my blog. That reminded me to remind you locals that today’s the day: dozens of D.C.-area restaurants will donate a part of their sales to help fund Food & Friends’ assistance to people with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. Tonight Thom and I are having dinner at Carlyle with a group from the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance (AGLA).

[Update (19:39): Well, that was nice time. However, Thom hadn’t been feeling well all afternoon, so by the time we got to the restaurant he had a huge headache and was really out of it, really frazzled. We decided to sit at a table by ourselves, but did get to talk briefly with the AGLA president a couple of times during the evening. The place was packed, which is great: Carlyle is donating not just a part, but 100% of the day’s take to Food & Friends. What a dinner it was. Really great food, atmosphere, and service.

[We’re back home now, and Thom’s still a little fatigued, so he’s having a lie-down. Poor boy.]

Today the company I work for has its annual awards meeting, and I’m reminded of something I saw in Terrance‘s blog. Hopefully there won’t be any Starbucks-like shenanigans at our shindig: check out this item in The Stranger (scroll down to Thu., Feb. 24, and don’t miss the audio clip). Yikes.

[Update (15:58): I got an award for “Best Clutch Perfomer”! Yes, I was initally lost on the sports analogy. But hey, it came with an Amazon.com gift certificate: time to go shopping!]

All evening I’ve been trying to get to Flickr, but the site is recovering from a power failure, or rather, it’s “having a massage,” according to its standard downtime message.

Well, it’s been down for so long, at this rate it better be getting a happy ending.

[Update (00:23): It’s back up and running. Oh, Flickr, never leave me again.]

Last week was a bit of a slog, which is why I haven’t written at all. I hadn’t been getting much sleep; late yesterday afternoon I was feeling sort of light-headed, and I think my body had had enough and decided to shut down for a while. I lay down for a nap, and woke up about five hours later. My sleep cycles are all out of whack, but hopefully if I get to bed at a decent time tonight (i.e., not 4:30 a.m. like last night), then I can get my groove back. Zzz. I am, like Alex, lazy:

In more interesting news, some upcoming events:

• Mar. 10: Dining Out for Life, in which participating restaurants donate a percentage of their sales to Food & Friends.
• Mar. 19-20: Thom and I will be out of town for the wedding of our friends Sheldon and Gretchyn.
• Apr. 6: David Sedaris at Lisner Auditorium.
• Apr. 8: Tori Amos at Warner Theatre. (We got tickets yesterday.)
• Apr. 16-18: Thom’s mom is coming up to visit us, and then the three of us will spend a long weekend in New York.

Recently while browsing the newly listed blogs on QueerFilter, I came across one called Rebel Prince, like mine, so I had to check it out. It’s written by Eric, a gay teenager (and fellow Rufus Wainwright fan) who’s in the process of coming out. Yesterday he came out to his parents, and I’m really happy for him. They’re taking it pretty well. I know for many of us, coming out was much different. The first person I came out to was my best friend, when I was a junior in high school, and I didn’t come out to my parents and other friends until I was a sophomore in college. Even now, as my parents and I have settled into something approximating an understanding about it, it’s still mostly unspoken. Stories like Eric’s remind me how the climate has changed in some ways and keep me hopeful and encouraged about gay youth and acceptance.

Last night I went over to Gene‘s and we watched a couple of great movies: Yes Nurse! No Nurse!, a fun musical from the Netherlands based on a 1960s TV series, and Best in Show, which I’d seen before but not in its entirety, I realized.

Speaking of movies, the Academy Awards are tonight. Eh. Some of you may remember my “pick the winners” contest from a few years ago, but since then my interest in the Oscars has waned a bit. I used to make a point to watch all the Best Picture nominees, but of this year’s group, I’ve only seen The Aviator, which was quite good by the way, better than I had expected. I think I’ll TiVo the Oscars and after it’s started, skim for interesting bits. (I don’t say this often enough, but I love you, 30-second skip button.)

[Addendum 1 (Feb. 28): Some quick asides: (a) Cintra Wilson’s Oscar review in Salon is hilarious; (b) for me the star of the evening was Roy Christopher’s set design, with its hundreds of screens embedded in the stage floor and streaming out of the proscenium over the audience; and (c) it turns out that Jorge Drexler, who composed the nominated song from The Motorcycle Diaries (“Al otro lado del rio”) and performed it in the movie, was not pleased that Antonio Banderas was chosen to sing it for the ceremony. Not pleased at all.]

[Addendum 2: Did you see Billy Crudup as the cashier in that MasterCard commercial that takes place in a convenience store? Who knew that he’s been the voice behind all these “priceless” commercials? Maybe you, but not I. Good on them for bringing him out in front of the camera. (He’s such a cutie.) The Times picks this ad as one of their favorites during the Oscars.]

Thom is at Sheldon’s this weekend for their gaming group, and I’ve just been lazing about the condo. I had somewhat ambitiously planned to go into the office for a bit and then maybe go downtown for some shopping or museum-ing. But nah. Maybe tomorrow. Right. I should at least go across the street to the Safeway; we’re out of soda.

Anyway, I just got a call from Adam that made my day. (Background: he and I work together, and he also has a part-time job at Second Story Books in Bethesda.) “Do you have a City Paper?” he asked. I didn’t, so I looked online. He directed me to an “I Saw You” ad. Adam has an admirer:

Why I keep coming back

2/20/05-2nd Story Books-Bethesda- U the incredibly sexy WM staffer-shaved head, incredible smile. Me recurring WM customer-shaved head-knit cap-blue coat- U once commented on my regularity. Ur sexy smile keeps drawing me back. Care to really talk and get to know each other? Can’t stop thinking about you. Love to write your intimate bio.

Aww, how cute. I ribbed him about it and we had a good laugh… ’cause Adam is straight (though as gay-friendly as they come, which is one reason we get along so well, and probably why he set off this guy’s gaydar). I can’t wait to see how all this plays out.

If you happen to be in Bethesda, stop by Second Story and ask for Adam. Tell him I sent you. And ask to write his intimate bio.

Our trip to the Pennsylvania Ballet earlier this month has got me on a dance kick, as it were. Tonight we’re going to see the Washington Ballet in a new production of Rite of Spring, choreographed by Trey McIntyre. Also on the program are George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto and Christopher Wheeldon’s There Where She Loved (music by Chopin and Weill). This program opens tonight at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre and runs through Feb. 27.