when your mind's made up

i've finally come up for air. still feel kind of blitzed from the long job, but i have a few things to mention.

didn't watch the oscars, due to deadline mania, but i heard they were boring anyway. still, i was really happy the next day when 00soul told me that the best song award went to "falling slowly," from once (which i rhapsodized about in a recent post. he described how glen hansard got to say his thank-you piece, but marketa irglova (that's them up there, from the movie) didn't, and how after the break jon stewart took her back out to the podium. that was so cool, and i was absurdly touched that this little song from that little movie beat three tunes from disney's big-budget princess flick enchanted (plus something from august rush).

i was also glad to read that the ballots from decline-to-state voters in cali will be counted, after a big brouhaha about tens of thousands of them being thrown out b/c the voter didn't fill in an extra bubble on the ballot that nobody else had to fill out. this affects me b/c i am a d-to-s voter, who voted democratic, albeit absentee. so i had to request a democratic ballot, and i don't remember seeing that bubble on the ballot card. which doesn't mean it wasn't there ... but i'm not sure if i really was affected or not. anyway, it's still good.

last week i went to a lovely birthday dinner party and had a grand time socializing. but i was seated next to a guy who was so annoying i nearly stabbed him with my steak knife. he proudly announced he is a libertarian, but he's never voted (this guy is two years older than me, and a textbook case of why i hate my generation). it wasn't so much his political views -- although he did say silly things, like that bush is the best president since calvin coolidge -- but that he insisted on telling me what i thought. i.e., as i am a liberal, i obviously believe that bush knew about 9/11 and let it happen. which i actually don't believe. and other things of this nature. and it's like, hey, fucker. don't put words in my mouth. i was irritated by that, and other things he said, but i also tried to laugh it off. still, the discussion became quite heated, and so then i just started talking to someone else. it was a party, after all, and i didn't want to get into a screaming match with an obvious idiot (who was, in any case, massively outnumbered). but he kind of wouldn't leave it alone, even after i stopped responding, and another person at the table had to check him. he mentioned during the course of our conversation that he's been at odds with all of his friends for like seven years now, and he's starting (!) to wonder if maybe he's wrong. later, i told him he was lucky not to be sitting next to 00soul -- who, it turns out, he really admires and insisted on meeting. so i introduced them and went on to talk to more interesting people.

last monday i went to the echoplex to see rickie lee jones perform, and reviewed it for citybeat's local-music issue. she's one of my faves; i was really happy when i got to interview her for a CB cover story last year. the show was really wonderful -- a nice encapsulation of a lot of her work through the years. it was supposed to be the last night of her month-long residency there, but each show proved increasingly popular, so she'll play another gig there tomorrow night. and she might be back again sometime ... you never know.

finally, 00soul and i had our anniversary dinner -- a month late -- last night. we went to this french place, cafe du village, in larchmont village. it came highly recommended by coiledsoul, and we loved it. it was pretty chilly out, but we still asked to sit on the back patio. they turned on a heater for us, and we were the only ones in this calm little space lined with ficus trees and strung with lights. it was like a private dinner -- very lady and the tramp, ahaha. we brought our own wine (no liquor license ... and no corkage fee!), which the waiter opened right away. he gave us two blue glass tumblers to drink from, so we couldn't really see the qualities of the wine, but it was a nice french pinot noir from TJ's that worked well with the food.

we went with all the classics: savory-sweet onion soup, garlicky, tender escargots. they offered some nice crusty/chewy bread and salty-good tapenade to start -- we asked for more bread later, to soak up some of the butter/garlic/parsley escargot juice. mmmmm. for entrees, 00soul had duck in peppercorn sauce, and i had lamb chops in mustard sauce. both came with green beans and skinny fries, which were quite good and also useful for soaking up the delicious sauces. for dessert we shared a huge chunk of tarte tatin with ice cream. the service was efficient and unobtrusive, and the waiter even ran after me down the street when i accidentally left my shawl behind. total bill with tip: $82. worth it.