here i go again

Cultural matters first:

• I just finished The Book of Salt by Monique Truong. It was a quick read - and rather poetic. From Amazon:

"The Book of Salt serves up a wholly original take on Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh."

• Starting this Sunday, The National Gallery of Art will be hosting an exhibit on Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. I'm looking forward to catching it.

On matters not-so-cultural-but-amusing-to-my-friends:

I've got two blind dates this weekend. That's right. Two. Blind. Dates.

On Friday I'm meeting a social worker, and I'm thinking about meeting up around U Street. Lots to do, and we can always have many drinks and go somewhere loud if things are embarrassingly awkward.

The public defender is lined up for Saturday. I'm thinking Adams Morgan might be good as there are many different places to have many different drinks and we can always go somewhere loug if things are embarrassingly awkward.

These guys have two things in common; I am their very first online blind date. So, it's like this experience might color the entire concept for them. If I hadn't been on so many really crappy dates already, I'd be overwhelmed by the responsibility. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm not going to try to look nice or be fun. I am looking forward to meeting them both and hope, for their sakes, that neither of them has a gas problem or wears tie chains 'cause you KNOW they'll be immortalized here if they do.

[I'm still thinking about setting up a private service among my friends where we share the profile names of all the scary/clueless asshats we've been out with. Just have to figure out a way around the libel issue...]