Went to Paris last weekend. Stayed in the Marais. Got soaked on the Eiffel Tower. Marvelled at the renovation of the Opera. Bought expensive stationery at the Galeries Lafayette and new CDs from Patricia Kaas!



Ate moules frites at a Belgian restaurant near Montmartre and found tiny, perfectly-formed crabs the size of the fingernail of your pinky inside the shells and inside the flesh of the mussels. I'd never seen that before, but was assured by the waiter that it was normal. They must grow the crabs and the mussels in the same tanks.



My French isn't as out of practice as I thought, though it's by no means fluent. I understood most of Buffy, le Vampire-Slayer.



Then this week I had dinner with Giovanni. I hadn't heard from him in weeks and was worried he had taken offense at something I might have said. Instead, a friend/mentor of his had died and he had been dealing with that. But Giovanni's very consistent, and seems to have handled everything with a certain maturity. I also got to meet the boyfriend, Giovanni (I kid you not!) who, behind his quietness, seems lovely. They're an annoyingly cute couple but it's hard to begrudge Giovanni the happiness he seems to find in the relationship. I'm glad we're rooted in friendship.



It's important now in light of certain situations I'm being asked to go through. Must act with grace, must act with patience, must have a vodka martini.