Editor’s note:  The following diary notes have been culled from various e-mail posts to family and friends and reflect a different style and format than most of the other pages on this site.  We are now in January 1997 and it starts off quietly.  Normal choir practice and church and winding down from holidays.

The week of January 5-11 ... a visit to the retinal opthamologist shows great eyes (always a danger with HIV infection).  I speak to my old radio friend Dave Wohlman who is still at radio station KOME in San Jose CA.

Mario (my brother) turns 40 on Friday the 10th and my parents, his wife and her sister and husband (who is a lot of fun) all go to Raagnini, an upscale Indian restaurant near our house.  I am the only one really familiar with Indian cuisine, nonetheless everyone finds something to like.

Saturday night is the choir party at the church with appetizers, a choice of three hearty soups (believe me, these easily served as entrees), great desserts, and many bad and good limericks (the price of admission).

The week of January 12 - 18 ... it’s church week with bible studies on “Revelations” on Monday and the Old Testament on Tuesday, a vestry meeting on Wednesday and choir practice on Thursday nights.

Saturday, January 18, I fly to Los Angeles at 8 AM and pick up a Chrysler Sebring convertible (they are lovely).  The temperature is already 75 degrees (it was 4, yes 4, when I left NJ in the morning).

I arrive at David Littler’s and by 2 pm we are sitting at Louise’s Trattoria on Las Feliz for great Italian before taking a drive around nearby Griffith Park.  As it is a perfect day the views from the observatory are insane.

At 7 pm PST, David and I have dinner at the home of John deCarlo.  (His roomate Glen will join after dinner).  Also with us is Steffan Wachholtz who makes interior pieces out of various unrelated items.  It is wonderful food and even better conversation, but by 11 pm (2 am EST) my eyes are collapsing and David and I retire.

Sunday, January 19 and I sleep late as David goes off to worship service at All Saint’s in Beverly Hills.  I am missing the annual meeting at my Laguna Beach church as it would have required being up at 6 am and I would not have been able to spend any quality time with them.

David and I have brunch at the French Market and then I join John deCarlo.  He and I go to see the new house of his friends Tom and Bill which overlooks the Santa Monica Pier (and the ocean, obviously) and is in a California modern style.  Quite impressive.

John and I make plans to see them again later and we go to see Steffan’s workshop/showroom in Venice.  We drive through the areas where the Crips and Bloods (LA’s notorious gangs) make the nighttime dangerous (we are safe during the day).  His store on Abbot Kinney Blvd is an area of fancy objets d’art shops; the three of us have bloody marys at a small gay bar across the street.

By 5, John and I have to meet Tom and Bill again.  In Mr. deCarlo’s words:

"High Balls Ahoy!" at Luna Park (formerly the Rose Cafe if you remember, or better, underneath Studio One - now known as "Axis").  Truly slapstick, hosted by someone Larry Lott introduced me to years ago, the hilarious "Les Stephens."  He was a guest judge on the Rage "Gong Show" which has since transformed itself into the "Lovely Carol Show" which is equally as slapstick and may or may not have talent any given evening.  Either way . . . "High Balls" sounds worth going to.

We had drinks during the show and then wine with dinner at Bien Venuto on Santa Monica and La Cienega - always good food and fun waiters.  Tom and Bill went home early and I went to John’s house to watch the Absolutely Fabulous tv-movie.

Monday, January 20 and we wake up late.  David and I drive to Laguna Beach (taking the coast from Huntington Beach on south) and join Jean Kaye (a feisty senior citizen - divorced for many years, former longtime senior warden, you get the picture) for lunch at the Hotel Laguna (very good pasta and shellfish, overlooking the beach).  I shop for my normal surfer dude clothes at Hobie Sports (where they ship my stuff back home).  Look for new t-shirts this summer!

Dinner on Monday night is at David’s house (a two bedroom condo up the street from Spago’s in West Hollywood overlooking downtown LA) and is cooked by his new friend Phil.  Certain things on the menu work, some do not come out as well, nonetheless the three of us have a great conversation until delayed jet lag finally takes over and I crash right after 9 pm.

Tuesday, January 21 ... THIS IS THE GOOD PARAGRAPH ... After a leisurely morning (David goes to gym, I watch a gay documentary), he and I pick up Louise Brooks  (of whom you have heard before) who is bringing us to a run through of an upcoming episode of Frasier.

But first lunch!  This one at one of the Patina branches, the one on Melrose near the Paramount lot.  Perfectly presented food and not bad tasting either.  But certainly as much show...

In a run through, the cast moves through the whole show with very few pauses.  If one of them forgets a line, he just calls for it.  Plus there were only a few other people besides us.  Two looked like the niece and nephew of David Hyde Pierce (Niles) and he would explain what was happening during the breaks.  Since we looked decent, everyone treated us liked we belonged (both Jane Leeves and John Maloney both said hi to me).  It was an extraordinary experience.  The plot revolves around Frasier and Niles going to the home Maris has kicked Niles out of; catch it, it looks hilarious.

After a walk around the Paramount grounds and, of course, the company store (you have seen my Paramount baseball cap and portfolio, no?), I am on a high.  We drop Louise off (thank you again, Louise!) and refresh at David’s.

David, John deCarlo and I have dinner at 6:30 at Hamlet Garden near the Geffen (ne Westwood) Theater where we will see Love! Valour! Compassion!  Dinner is impeccable; the restaurant features a real hodge-podge of cuisines, all of which they pulled off.  The play, well, the play ...

THIS IS THE HIGHLIGHT ... Love! Valour! Compassion! is one of the best plays I have ever seen.  Terence McNally’s play about seven gay men over the course of three holiday weekends in upstate New York is amazing ... covering relationships, AIDS and physical perception among other issues.  Almost 3 hours long in 3 acts.  With Mario Cantone (yes, little Mario - lookin’ good too!) in the role of Buzz Hauser (made famous by Nathan Lane in NY but Mario is the role).

Too be honest, I am shaken when we leave so since John is going to bed early, David and I go for a drink.  Here are David’s comments about the next few hours at Numbers, an elegant bar where gentlemen of a certain age and, um, income can meet gentlemen of um, well … let’s just say they are working their way through college:

We didn't get out until 10:30.  Walked back to John's and got the car.  Tony and I were both so up that we decided we needed a drink.  So, of course, we had to go to Numbers for the famous "just one nightcap".  We closed the place!  There was a very cute boy "working" there who Mr. Vitale decided needed Lessons, so I sat through (and helped teach) "Up-market Hustling 101".  Tony gave him a graduation present and sent him over to a customer to put his newly acquired education to work!  It seemed to work as he left with the gentleman.  I certainly am glad they close the bars here at 2:00 a.m.

Wednesday, January 22 and lunch, again with David and John, at Crostini’s on La Cienega ... sort of upscale storefront ... good food, weird service.  You will note at this point that I did not go to LA to see many people; that instead this time I would concentrate on seeing only a few but making it quality time.

However, the next time I want to see Michael Grecco (yes, you see his photographs all the time in places like Entertainment Weekly) and Tony Jewiss+ (the canon to Bishop Fred Borsch) who saw me for a second and said we would get together the next time I was out.  He is very enjoyable and the person who got me the signature of the Archbishop of Canterbury on a youth group certificate (if you remember the Memorial Day 1996 post).

Oh yeah ... church ... that brings me back to that afternoon. While David naps, I shop and then we go to a 6 pm Eucharist at All Saints (his church) and hear an incredible sermon.  Then it’s drinks at a Rodeo Drive bar/restaurant, as we are having dinner afterward, and then return for a class on parables with the Bishop.  David again:

As soon as it was over, we set out (in the pouring rain - so what else is new this week) for Michael's Restaurant in Santa Monica.  It is on Third Street just North of Wilshire.  Lovely restaurant!!  Lovely service!! Lovely food!!

Thursday, January 23, I pack and get ready to leave LA.  David and I do one last fancy lunch at the restaurant at the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Blvd across from the Chateau Marmont (where I would stay again in a NY minute for its old world charm).

Checking out when we got there was the new band Jamiroquai.  If you know who they are, good for you, otherwise you are not going to care.  About the hotel, David, I am going to steal from you one more time:

Well, it had the most user "unfriendly" hotel lobby I have ever seen.  It certainly isn't comfortable in the least.  On the other hand, it has been a long time since I was in a hotel where the staff was much better dressed and much better looking than the clientele!!

Surprise!  The restaurant was not only attractive, it is Italian and the food is VERY good.  We were both blown away at just how good it was.  Much better than Patina.  I had the best calamari salad I have ever had (!) and a very good pasta dish.  Tony had a veal main course that he raved about.  A very happy send off for him.

We came back here, he put the top down as the sun had finally come out, and left at 1:30.  I think he really had a very good time and I know that I did.

This was a killer.  I am surprised you got this far.  Thanks!  Next, the Annual Meeting at Trinity on Sunday, January 26 followed by the extremely important brunch held by members of the Crix-List that leads to romance.  Stay tuned.

[This was a break in posts.]

When last we met, I was getting off the plane from Los Angeles (January 23).  Little did I know what life had in store for me!

Friday, January 24 and Saturday, January 25 were taken up with relaxing and catching up because Sunday, January 26 was a full day.  It started off with Trinity Church’s Annual Meeting.  We only had one service that day, and for you Episcopalians, we used the 1928 Book of Common Prayer with hymns of the era.  It is my church’s 125th anniversary this year so we’ve been going back to the past to relive our history.  It was a great service!

Annual meetings at our church are more like boxing matches than some other places but this was relatively civil (and I emphasize relative).  But I was glad to zip out at 1 pm because I had to get into NYC for a brunch at Woodies in the West Village.  I almost did not go to this because I had to be back in Cranford by 5 pm for a SuperBowl party at the choirmaster’s house (Jim and Jamie, whom I have mentioned).  But I will explain why:

As many of you know, I take the drug Crixivan, a protease inhibitor, which I believe to be responsible for my relatively good recent health (it drove my viral load to undetectable, for instance).  I am also a member of a computer mailing list for people who take the drug, and, in December, one of the posters suggested that those in the NYC area might want to meet for brunch to get to see each other face-to-face.

My ulterior reason for going was to see what Bryan Johnson (bryanj on the list) looked like.  I’d always been fascinated by his posts, his sense of humor and his deep knowledge, not only of medical issues but also of literature (he’d often sign off with poetry such as t.s. elliot or even his own accomplished writing).  So I had to see what he looked like!

Plus my friend Steve Ratzel was going to be there, and he had recently been having boyfriend problems so I wanted to be able to talk to him.  Anyway, to make a long story short, in I went.  About ten of us were there, me arriving almost an hour late.  Steve and I sat together but Bryan was diagonally away from me plus a couple of seats so I wasn’t really able to talk to him during the brunch.  But I did notice that he was extremely cute and had the most amazing eyes (absolutely huge pupils).  I had to get to know this man!

What to do?  At the end of the brunch I decided to pick up the tab for everyone.  As most of you know, this is something I would have done anyway so it was not unusual for me but it was definitely noticed by Bryan. Then in my recap the next day for the crix-list (the mailing list), I called him “a young cutie” to see if it would get his attention.

It did!  I received a post from him in a couple of days indicating that he would like to meet me.  So over the next few days we corresponded by e-mail and then by telephone.  The whole week was rather mundane except for that ... normal bible studies, choir practice, work at the shop, etc plus a small party on Friday for the Wayfarers, our church’s young adults group.  But it was all overshadowed by this anticipation.

Saturday, February 1, and Bryan and I meet for dinner at 6 pm and then attend a dance performance by Simone Forti, a dancer/performance artist (probably in her sixties) who has worked with such luminaries as John Cage.

There is no other way to put this except to say that from the first few minutes of dinner I was captivated.  We had a drink before the performance and perhaps a few too many after, but when I dropped him off at his apartment (a beautiful one in the East Village), I think we both felt a great deal of desire.  But except for a brief kiss ... nothing.  We decide to hold off until the right time.

Warning:  Bryan will take up a lot of the rest of this post!  I did not expect to see him again until the next weekend, but we wind up talking on Tuesday and he invites me into the city for dinner.  And indeed that is all we do, some food and some talk (plus I catch his cold from kissing ... my first gift from him!).  I miss the chance to meet Bishop Doss (our area bishop) which many of you know would have been important to me.  So this must really have been special!  Many of you also remember that this is the day that I saw my doctor and got those amazing test results.

Friday, February 7, we meet again, this time to go see John Leguizamo in “The Pest” which is sort of a subversive (Bryan’s word so I am stealing it) “Dumb and Dumber.”  Try to catch it.

As both of us have colds, we end the evening early (at 9 pm) and I drive back to Cranford where I get the chance to see Brother Cleve and his wife, the Lady Diane.  Believe it or not, one of his best friends has been living in Cranford for years so I go over and we enjoy margaritas.  I have not seen Diane in a few years so it really was wonderful.

Saturday, February 8 ... I take Ralph Taylor, along with the choirmaster (Jim Lenney) and his boyfriend (of 25 years) Jamie to see the NY Philharmonic under Kurt Masur perform Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with the Westminster Symphonic Choir and the American Boychoir (under James Litton) and soloists Jerry Hadley, Thomas Hampson, and Carol Vaness.  All the people I might want to see, all under one roof!

Dinner is a disaster.  Unfortunately, we eat at Sfuzzi’s which used to be incredible but which has changed hands.  The food is terrible.  What a way to start the evening.  Nonetheless, we all get over it and enjoy the performance.  Jim and I are particularly impressed with the Boychoir (Jim knows Jimmy Litton personally).  Voices like angels.

After the performance, Ralph goes back to his friend’s apartment on the Upper East Side and we drive back in light snow to have pizza and more drinks at Jim and Jamie’s.

Sunday, February 9, I have a relaxing day and then drive into NYC again to have Thai food with Bryan at the Lemongrass.  He is still getting over the cold and rather than go out to a movie after, I insist he go home to bed (alas, alone and without me!).

Monday, February 10 and I must now go five days without seeing him.  Monday is my bible study on the Book of Revelation.  This is an amazing course taught by our rector, Craig Wylie.  He really is an inspiring instructor, leading us gently down paths of understanding without making us squirm as students!  A side note:  if you are in Cranford on Sunday, April 13, we will be reading it aloud after the 10 am service.  And in the beginning of the Book, it tells of a special blessing for all who hear it in its entirety, so I highly recommend your presence!

Tuesday, February 11 is our Mardi Gras party.  Almost 100 parishioners attend with costumes and incredible New Orleans food (jambalaya, etc).  This is an amazing turnout for our congregation and everyone has a fantastic time.

Wednesday, February 12 is Ash Wednesday with a choral performance by our choir.  Quite beautiful.  On tv, Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew meet the Borg in the Delta Quadrant!

Thursday, February 13, my parents leave for two weeks in Florida!  The whole house to myself!  And as a special present, Bryan consents to spend Valentine’s day weekend in Cranford with me!!!  Choir practice as usual.

Friday, February 14 and I wait until almost 10 pm for Bryan’s arrival (he had to work late).  Ah, anticipation certainly makes for heightened pleasure on Valentine’s day!

Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 15 ... I will not go into great detail about the weekend (out of respect for Bryan, obviously) but it was all I could hope for.  We share details of our lives and our desires and there definitely seems to be something happening.  On Saturday night, Jim and Jamie have us over for dinner and everything goes swimmingly.  The rest of the weekend goes well and Bryan returns to NYC on Sunday evening.

February 16-20 ... again a simple week.  Wednesday night I go into the city to see “Boyfriends” with Bryan.  It is an English version of “Love! Valour! Compassion!” in the sense that it deals with three gay couples on a weekend in the country.  Rather low budget but catch it if it comes your way.  This time Bryan comes back to nj with me (hey, the parents are still out of town!).  Thursday night, choir and then ...

The weekend, February 21 - 23 ... Friday night I pick up Bryan who arrives by bus at 7:30 pm but I have to go immediately to a Vestry meeting at the church.  So he gets to relax around the house while I work!  Then I have a semi-annual Vestry Retreat (ok, we do not go anywhere but that is what it is called) most of the day on Saturday.  So Bryan gets to play housewife!

We still get quality time together however and get to try South Indian food on Saturday night (most of us are familiar with the cuisine of North India, curries and the like - this is vegetarian and very different).

On Sunday morning, Bryan comes to mass with me and gets to meet the whole congregation.  He must like me!  Sunday afternoon we hang around Jim and Jamie’s drinking bloody marys until it is time for him to go.

Monday, February 24 ... St. Barnabas meeting ... I put this in so I can say hi to John Ross for everyone!

And now I leave you as I anticipate going to see Whoopi Goldberg in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” on Wednesday night with, well, I guess you know who!  Thursday night I plan on seeing my favorite band, Tool, in Asbury Park and it is the Ladies High Tea coming on Sunday.

Adelante!  tony

[Another post break.]

Hi everyone!  Remember me?  I know I have not been exactly Mr. Post recently but I think you know why.  Well, that and the new computer.  Of course, the e-mail program did not want to cross from the old cpu to the new.  The one program that I would like to be the easiest.  No surprise there.

So let us dive right in with Wednesday, February 26 … if you recall, the parents are still in Florida until the next day, so I take this day off from work.  I drive into nyc to meet Bryan around 4.  Then it is on to dinner at Joe Allen’s, a watering hole for Broadway types for years.  Unfortunately, there are not any stars that night.  But the food was excellent (I had a perch in an orange and asparagus sauce, Bryan had their famous meatloaf).  And then first row seats to Whoopi Goldberg in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”  Yes, front row, just to the left of the orchestra pit so we could stretch our legs.  Do I have to tell you it was incredible?  Whoopi really made the show her own.

After the show, and since it would be the last night with my parents out of town, Bryan comes back to NJ with me.  The next day I pick up the folks at the airport and it is back to normal (sigh) at the Cranford homestead.  If you recall, I was supposed to go see Tool in Asbury Park that night, but even though I am holding a $30 ticket, I go to choir practice instead.  I really need to practice for the upcoming Faure Requiem.  I am such a good boy!

Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 2 … Bryan is baby-sitting a house in Metuchen (a small town about 15 minutes from my house) for the weekend for his boss.  So I pick him up at the train station and we begin a perfectly domestic few days.  On Saturday, we drive down to Jezek Tool (the shop) so he can see where I work then we go back to Metuchen to relax (he grills us steaks in the backyard).

Sunday morning, I have to get up extremely early to attend mass and then on Sunday afternoon, my church is having the Annual Ladies High Tea.

Let me explain … this is almost like masquerade party as all the ladies of the parish (110 of them) dress in their finest and enjoy various teas, scones with lemon curd, watercress sandwiches and fancy desserts, all served by the “waiters” of the parish, namely us men!  Since I own my own tuxedo, I get to play maitre’d for the third year in a row (with my fake snooty English accent).  This has to be one of the best events that my church has.

Afterwards, I drive into NYC to have dinner with Bryan at Cucina della Fontana on Bleeker Street.  I tell you this so you can skip it.  The atmosphere was very nice but the food just was not up to snuff.  Then we go to Small’s, NY’s smallest bar – literally only six stools.  We go there to meet my friend Scott "Dangerboy" Reich.  He thus becomes the first of my Boston friends to meet Bryan.  B and I later take a walk around the East Village (I think he wants to show off his neighborhood so that I will not mind moving there, but that certainly is no problem!).

Monday, March 3 – Saturday, March 8 … a relatively quiet week.  Monday is the bi-weekly bible study on Revelations (drawing to a close at the end of the month).  Tuesday night, Bryan and I eat at Agrotikon, a Greek restaurant on East 14th Street.  I saw a review of it in the New Yorker so we decided to try it out.  It was not what you might think of as traditional – no moussaka, for instance.  But it was quite good.

On Saturday, Bryan returns to Metuchen to babysit his boss’s house again, this time for a whole week (yeah!).  But the first thing we do when I pick him up is drive back into NYC as he has a project he needs to do for the ACT UP demonstration on Wall Street on the 24th.  Yes, he is a young activist (probably one of the things that makes me like him).  And then it is back to playing domestic.

Sunday, March 9, I sing my first performance (other than mass) with the Trinity Adult Choir, our church choir.  We perform the Requiem by Gabriel Faure as well as his Cantique de Jean Racine, the first in church Latin, the second in French.  In addition, two instrumental pieces are also performed.  Personally, I think it was just glorious.  And it made me feel so incredibly warm to be singing with this group of people who envelop me with such good feelings.

Interestingly, all of my family is up in Connecticut for a surprise party.  Therefore, the only member of my family to be present is Bryan (I guess it just depends on how you define things, huh?).

March 9 - 14 … domestic bliss in Metuchen.  Obviously, Bryan is not too happy with commuting by train into NYC every morning, plus I really think we are two city boys, but otherwise it is a wonderful experience to be able to share that much quality time with him so soon in our relationship.

Thursday, March 13 … we decide to both play hooky from work and go into NYC to see museums.  Our first stop is the Dia Center for the Arts on West 22nd Street.  A fascinating place as each floor is devoted to one full installation.  There were four floors, the first dealing with just a few strings of yarn strung across the rooms (ok, perhaps even too minimalist for me), the second an incredibly detailed collage of one woman’s life (and I thought I was anal!).  To quote the catalog,

“this monumental work consists of 1589 panels of uniform size and format and 15 objects [like a giant robot!].  The work transcribes epochs of time and text into schematic, visual symbols.  It traces one hundred years of public and private history with mass media images, photographs, and postcards, many bearing handwritten notes and quotations.”

The next floor contained Juan Munoz’s “A Place Called Abroad.”  Here, the 7500 sq foot gallery is transformed into a street-like environment (but you can look into the edges of walls and elevator shafts).  Eerie and yet beautiful at the same time.

Then, on the roof of the building was Bryan’s favorite, and the reason we came in the first place. Don Graham has transformed the roof into a small-scale urban park for the Chelsea neighborhood.  The project includes the installation of a large-scale architectural glass pavilion, a circle inside the square which, because all the surfaces are two way mirror glass, gives you amazing visuals.  Hard to describe, but you really should see it.

The next museum was the American Museum of Folk Art near Lincoln Center.  Henry Darger (who lived from 1892 until 1973) definitely had some repressed pedophiliac desires.  His paintings are characterized by hermaphroditic (and generally naked) young children in danger from depraved soldiers (it is said that many of the paintings were drawn from his deep knowledge of the Civil War).  In other paintings, the children are being protected by the Blegins, childlike creatures with wings, dragon tails and horns.  And I say repressed desires because it seems he wants to protect the children in his paintings, yet they are always in danger.  Quite phantasmagoric!

Then it was off to Tower Records (him for John Cage, me for Nick Cave, plus techno for both of us) and then to meet my parents for dinner.

Yes, the post does get interesting from this point on!  My parents were going to see the “King and I” (yes, with Lou Diamond Phillips) on Broadway and decided that they did not want to take the car into the city.  So since they knew that Bryan and I were going to be in the city, we might as well join them for dinner in the West Village.  This way we could drive them to the theatre afterward.  The only problem was that then they wanted us to pick them up at 11 pm and drive them back to Cranford!  Oh, well, Bryan said sure, why not, and that is exactly what we did.  Talk about odd for me!  But the folks loved him and we all had a good time, although I was quite tired after driving them back to Cranford and then us to Metuchen!

Friday, March 14, we spend our last night of domesticity in Metuchen before his boss comes home.  Saturday, March 15, Bryan spends most of the day here helping me hook up my new computer.  We stay for dinner at the folks’ house as my friend (and former exchange student) Masahiro Matsushita arrives for a few days.  This compounds the unusualness of the previous dinner as now it is the three of us and my parents!  Oh, well, again.  Everyone gets along.  Yes, as usual, I have worried for naught.  I drive Bryan back into NYC around midnight so I do not get very much sleep before church!  Sunday, March 16, it is drinks at Jim and Jamie’s (the choirmasters house) and then back to NYC for dinner.
 

Monday, March 17, it is the Revelations bible study.  Tuesday, March 18 and back to NYC for dinner at Borgo Antico, great Italian food on 13th Street near 5th.  Plus the staff is very nice, asking us if we want to sit next to each other or opposite.  I get home very late, but still cannot help myself – I stay up until 4 am working on Connections, the church newsletter (how can I resist the new computer?!?).
 

Wednesday, March 19, it is the traditional all night Vestry meeting.  Thursday, March 20 and choir and drinks.  Friday, March 21, it is 4 pm and I am awaiting Bryan’s arrival via bus from NYC.  We will play on the computer, go out to dinner, and then, without making a fuss, he will stay overnight.  Yes, with my parents in the house.  It seems that I am the only one worried about this, and my fears are probably groundless.  So a new day dawns!

[Another post break.]

Friday, March 21 – Sunday, March 23 … Well, this is interesting.  I had planned to go into NYC to have dinner with Bryan but then he decides to come into Cranford to spend the night.  And yes, my parents are going to be home.

But we want to spend the night together and this is the way to do it so he arrives from NYC on the bus at 6 pm and we go to Ange & Min’s (where I’ve been eating Italian food for the last 35 years) for dinner. To our surprise, my brother Mario and his new wife Mary Kay are there (and where I catch him drinking beers – yes, with mild cirrhosis of the liver).

We spend Saturday at lunch at the Cranford Diner and dinner with Masahiro, our family’s Japanese friend who has just arrived from Japan.  Palm Sunday … relaxing day at home working on new computer.  Sunday night, I drive into NY and have dinner with Bryan but first I managed to get into my first car crash.  Very minor, really, resulting from an old Lincoln stopping quickly in Manhattan and me whacking the back of him.  Damage is to the front end of the car and it’s just recently been all fixed up so it’s back to new!

Monday, March 24 – Wednesday, March 26 … pick up Bryan at work around 5 and take him to his doctor’s appointment, then dinner at Florent (fabulous French Moroccan food) in the meat-packing district to allay his fears about next day operation.  Our waiter is dressed in drag to look like Madonna (for a later Oscar’s party) but winds up looking more like Joan Crawford!

The next day, Bryan went into the hospital (Cabrini) in the morning to have plastic surgery to erase the scars from a lymphectomy a few months ago.  Although he is barely cognizant, I go and visit at night for a few hours.

On Wednesday, I pick up Bryan around noon and we hang out at his house for the afternoon; this is the first time that his cat, Rosebud, climbs on top of me.  I go home for dinner as Frank Loyacano (the artist for my Connections covers) is joining us.  He is my parents’ age and they discuss old times.

Thursday, March 27 – Saturday, March 29 … Maundy Thursday choral service at Trinity.  Although sparsely attended (about as many people in the congregation as in the choir), we perform some lovely plainchant hymns.

As the shop is closed for Good Friday, I spend the day in NYC with Bryan (noon-10 pm); we just walk around as the weather is gorgeous.  Around 5 pm, we catch a showing of one of my favorite Art Deco movies, “The Black Cat” with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.  B knows all the juicy gossip about their performance together.  Afterwards, he is tired so I drop him off and have some Thai food by myself around the corner from his apartment.

On Saturday, I pick up Bryan in NYC at 4 and he spends the night again in Cranford.  Mom has bought him a chocolate pony to go with my chocolate bunny and Dad barely bats an eyelash when I go downstairs to get a glass of water for B around 11 pm.

Sunday, March 30 … Easter Sunday is incredible weather.  B joins me at church, sitting with Helen Kiamie (how to describe this Lebanese widow who loves her Scotch?) and then drinks at Jim and Jamie’s (yes, the organist and his boyfriend).

At 1, we arrive at Aunt Annie’s for the traditional Easter dinner of lasagna.  My mother’s Aunt Jean joins us this year and when indicating where Bryan should sit says “ok, your girlfriend, I mean your boy -, I mean, um, um, Bryan – you sit there.”  Also, my favorite cousin Carol, her daughter Nicole (her son Matt is working back in Connecticut – of course maybe he just wants an excuse not to come and to have the house for himself and his girlfriend), mom and dad, Aunt Annie and Uncle Emil.  Everyone is wonderful to B (even giving him lasagna and ham to take home).

We leave there around 6 and I take him back to NYC at 7 pm, then go for snacks at Orson’s.  That’s our new hangout, right around the corner from his apartment.  It has maybe seating for a dozen or so people for food and a bar (stocked very well).

Monday, March 31 … It’s a snow day here (so there is no Revelations class), we get a dusting but they receive 30” in Boston – the most since the Great Blizzard of 1978.

Tuesday, April 1, B and I go see “Boys Life 2” (four shorts, one of which received an Oscar nomination this year) in NYC after dinner at Holy Basil (Thai food).

Wednesday, April 2 … I am on a small committee at church which is working with Rowland in his journey to become a deacon.  We have our first diaconate meeting with Roland, John Witherington and Nancy Miller after dinner with Mike Gow, who comes to fix some computer glitches with my MSN program.

Thursday, April 3 … regular choir practice, then Mike Gow and John Beier come by, Mike to fix the final glitches and John to see the new computer.

Friday, April 4 through Sunday, April 6 and Bryan has never been to Boston so we go to spend the weekend.  We stay at Jeff Marshall’s new apartment in the Tony V memorial guest room.  I pick Bryan up in NYC at 6 pm and see the Hale-Bopp comet at a rest stop in NY (amazing to see without the distraction of city, or even suburban, lights).  We get to Boston at midnight where we just have drinks with Jeff and go to bed.

The next day, I take Bryan on a driving tour of Boston.  Our first stop is Lansdowne Street where to my surprise I see Jean Tasse and Tim McKenna.

After seeing Jeff’s new office, we have an incredible gastronomically delightful dinner at The Franklin Café in the South End with Albert O (sashimi-grade tuna loin) and his fiance, Jen (who has papadelle with lamb), Jeff (veal chop with mashed) and Alli Wong (balsamic chicken), and B (chicken livers in balsamic, chicken sausage ravioli).  In typical fashion, I have flubbed the schedule and Brother Cleve is accidentally left out.

We get to Bill’s Bar at 9:30 (Albert spinning) and see George Skaubitis (formerly of Warner Brothers and shocked to see me), Neal Robert, Ross Humphrey and Darren Hill (who you know from my posts of NYC supermodel partying).

We visit Axis to show B the site of my past “glory” (took photo booth pictures which are seen on the right) and go to WBCN to see Bill Abbate on air (yes, he mentions me).

The next morning, we go see Bill and Alice’s new house in Bradford (near Haverhill) and brunch at local place with them and Jeff and Alli.  We drive back to NYC around 4, drop B off at 9, back home by 10.

Interesting side note … Bryan gets to see another side of me, two in fact.  One is the “infamous Tony V” star of stage, screen etc.  I think he realizes now that there is a reason I don’t have the desire to go back on the air and be part of that whole scene.  The other is “Granny V” the old crone who pushes Jeff’s buttons and would just as soon stay home and watch the tube.  I hope that the current Tony just has the nicer parts of both of them.

[Post break]

Monday, April 7 through Thursday, April 10 … and back to real life with my St Barnabas meeting in the evening.  Movie night on Tuesday is David Cronenberg’s “Crash” (unless you want to see shaved genitalia and fairly disgusting faux sex, I cannot recommend it), Wednesday has another diaconate meeting with our candidate Rowland Bonadie, Thursday it’s choir practice.

Friday, April 11, Bryan and I have dinner with his boss, Michelle, and her husband for Thai food at Holy Basil in the East Village.  Extremely good, and followed by pastries at Veneiero’s (open for over a hundred years).

Saturday, April 12, it’s Crix Brunch II.  Yes, if you recall, I first met Bryan face to face at the original brunch for users of Crixivan on January 26.  We all decide to meet again at the same spot, Woodie’s in the West Village.  Great brunch, great people, great … ooops, I was going to say great Kettle One vodka except we ran them out of it!  It was definitely fun making an appearance with Bryan as a couple since we didn’t even know each other the last time!

Sunday, April 13 – Thursday, April 17 … Sunday is our church’s reading of the Book of Revelations.  About a dozen of us have been studying the book during the course of the spring and we decide to do a public reading of it for the congregation.  Oh, well, there were almost 300 people for the “demonstration night” (Tupperware and the like) the previous Wednesday, our reading attracts only the students of the class.  It leads to my snide comment at the next Vestry meeting: “Our church is more interested in longer shelf-life than eternal life.”  I also realize that I have ignored a perfectly good opportunity to spread the good news by keeping my nose so far up in the air.

Tuesday night, Bryan and I have drinks and dinner with Ted Smith at a wonderful steak house near ConEd, where Ted has been working for seven years.  He will be leaving there on May 13 to work for Lotus Notes.  He is an old friend of David Littler (now in LA) from Fire Island days and a member of St. Luke in the Field’s in the Village.  Wednesday and Thursday are diaconate meeting and choir practice respectively.

Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19 are spent in the lovely southern New Jersey hamlet of Absecom with Ralph Taylor (another old friend of David’s who ironically has never met Ted Smith).  “Uncle Ralph” has invited Bryan and I down for the weekend to his spacious house in the country (albeit only seven miles from the casinos of Atlantic City).

Friday night we arrive around 8 pm and enjoy a delightful home-cooked meal and then the comfort of a warm room.  Saturday is Ralph’s birthday and we start with a trip further into the country to a great country inn/restaurant for lunch.  On the way back we stop at a local winery and then spend an hour or so in Atlantic City where Bryan has never been.

We go to the famous Steel Pier where Bryan and I ride a small roller-coaster (he loves them, I have acrophobia and this one dangles over the Atlantic Ocean – lovely!).  He then proceeds to win at the blackjack table!  Sensing a profitable day, we get out with the loot.  Dinner that night is with Ralph and some of his close friends in the area.  Yes, eight of us mad queens!  Ages ran from 27 to 80 and all political persuasions yet a wonderful time is had by all.  And Ralph even cooked and cleaned everything by himself!  Amazing!  We have to get home for church so we leave at 10 pm and get back to Cranford by midnight.

Sunday, April 20 to Saturday, April 26 … a simple week highlighted by a dentist appointment (no cavities) on Monday, Dangerboy Scott Reich’s birthday (he’s only 23!) on Tuesday, vestry meeting on Wednesday, choir on Thursday.

Bryan and I go to see “Chasing Amy” at the movies.  Highly recommended!  It’s the film about the guy who falls for the lesbian.  Much better than the premise, I assure you.  Bryan comes into Cranford on Friday evening for the weekend and we have a fun dinner Saturday night at Jim and Jamie’s (the church choirmaster and his boyfriend).

Sunday, April 27 my parents take me to eat (just the three of us) to a nice Italian restaurant for my birthday.  Actually, my birthday is April 28, on Monday, but Bryan and I are celebrating together in NYC with a dinner at the Paris Commune, an intimate French bistro in the West Village.  After a nice walk around, we go for a late night martini at Orson’s, “our bar” near his apartment, where we had drinks on our first date.  A very romantic evening.

Tuesday, April 29 … movie night is the re-release of “Pink Flamingoes” in NYC.  Bryan has never seen it, so he needs grossing out!  Wednesday I have dinner with Mario and MaryKay at Theresa’s Italian as a belated birthday dinner.  Isn’t life grand?