update

I made a new logo for jblend productions last night. For inspiration, I grifted a pet shop boys single cover from 1995. Atop four saturated backgrounds, four words rest. The words Love, Passion, Sex and Money stand out above the colorful background. I took that background, darkened it and added bright blue beveled buttons in the Jaguar (OS X) style. I guess I'll bring my journal into the new year with a 10.2 style. I suspect that only big fans of Mac design (and/or pet shop boys music) will understand the homage.

Scratchy, dry sore throat has plagued me the past week. And I've been waking up with plugged up ears. It's frightening. Was that a grey hair that I saw above my forehead this morning in the mirror? I blinked and it disappeared. In a flash, I threw on my glasses. But by the time I came back to the mirror, leaned in, and tried to find it again, it had escaped. (Did it fall out? That would be an altogether worse problem. I'd rather have grey hair than no hair!)

The tin tin out mix of paninero is on my playlist, which matches my new desktop scheme quite nicely.

This morning, I browsed the press release that Mark sent me. It was the Virginia Partisan's endorsements for city council. One of the people mentioned is a Del Ray resident and familiar face. Bob Krupika (love the last name) doesn't live very far from me. He's marched at the Stonewall parade in New York, along with his wife. I was charmed at the idea of a decent family man marching for our rights. What a nice gesture! So, slumped over my duvet with sleep still in my eyes, I vowed to go vote for him in the caucus election today. Not an hour later, I happened to see him just across the room from me at the coffee shop where he's as frequent a customer as I am. I like the idea of seeing your town councilperson at the neighborhood pub.

Work has been busy for me lately. I just started a Spanish class. It's not difficult, but it takes up a lot of my time at work. So every hour I have in the office is full of work. My inbox towers and it doth truly runneth over.

Running pal Alejandro and I went to see Pedro Almodovar's film, Hable Con Ella (Talk to her). It didn't disappoint. I've really enjoyed his other films, which usually include drag queens, death or insanity. This one touched on female bullfighters, gorings and coma patient rape. In a word, charming. I mean it -- the characters were truly engaging. The story had a great flow and there were absolutely no formulas: rarities in cinema these days!

Neighbor and friend Henry and I have grown much closer lately. I've been invited to his family functions, even. His brother's birthday party was fun. We went to a nice place, Sequoia, which looks out on the Georgetown harbor. The company was good. The food was well prepared with outstanding eye appeal. My favorite dish was the breaded goat cheese salad. The little balls of goat cheese were rolled in toasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds and paprika. The salad was dark garden greens in a light, sweet vinegrette. Yummy.

Henry's become more than just a "call up and watch a movie with" sort of friend. We've been talking more. Our conversations have delved deeper. Surprisingly, the path towards physical intimacy was an easy, comfortable one to take with Henry. We had felt (or at least I had felt) an unguarded conversational intimacy with him for months now. (We met in late summer/early fall.)

With Henry, I don't have to let my guard down… simply because it's never been up. I appreciate that. For the first time in a while, I've found myself entering into a relationship that I haven't actively engineered. I haven't run the pi square analyses. The Kai squared chaos modelings have yet to be made. The future history is, at least for now, unwritten.

That's a completely new feeling for me. "To be or not to be… let our hearts discover," as Sinatra reminds us.

There's a feeling like a journey is beginning. I'm not nervous about it at all. It's reassuring and warm. And did I mention huggable? Very huggable.