Brooklyn has never had lobster. How is that possible?! So, I invited him to dinner at the home I am house sitting at and I plan to wow him with my culinary skills. To start? A simple arugula, pine nut, and shaved parmesan salad with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. To end? Pate de Fruit in assorted tropical flavors. To drink? New Zealand S.Blanc from the Marlborough Region. Amazing? Yes, it will be.

The first movie Guillermo and I ever watched together was The Birds. We sat on folding chairs in his kitchen, long before it would ever be our kitchen. At the beginning, the main character (played by the epic Tippi Hedren) is in a pet shop buying lovebirds. I’d heard about these birds throughout my life, usually referring to me and a girl on the playground, but now realized I’d never actually seen what they look like. They’re multicolored, no taller than the average pigeon, and can only be sold in pairs. The shopkeeper tells Tippi what the French call them: les inséparables. And as she did, Guillermo took hold of my hand and smiled. I counted each tattoo going up his arm, and down the other, and the two I knew were inside his shirt on each shoulder. We each have exactly seven.

Since the earliest days of home recording and sharing music (which is, in my lifetime, marked by laying belly down on the floor of my room, big plastic Sally Jesse glasses pressed against a tiny plastic boombox, waiting for B96 to play the hit song of the moment so that I could hit record) the art of the Mixtape has been studied and practiced. After a bit of reflection, I’ve created four different categories of most important Mixtapes Genres and surveyed friends for songs that they feel belong on each list. The results are below. Please add your additions in the comments.

Just Friends/Songs We Both Enjoy
Just Friends But I Want Something More
I’m in Super Serious Love With You Forever and Always
I Think We Should Break Up And I’m Trying To Be Subtle By Saying It Though A Mix Tape

I’ve thought about this post a lot over the past few months. I thought about it when I submitted my farewell post back in December. I thought about it when I said goodbye to each and everyone one of my friends in DC whom I love dearly. I thought about it when I rushed to grab a bagel and lox and honey tea for the road from “So’s Your Mom” as a friend and I boarded a moving truck, pulled out of my small side street in Adams Morgan and onto the highway, pasted the monuments, the offices, the Virginia woods, the southern states.

I’ve thought about this post a lot.

I had the birthday that almost wasn’t. The night before I had met up with a friend for Pho, knowing I was sick, he offered to drive up to the curb and pick me up, then drive me the few blocks to my condo. I had all of my belongings in my hand, including my phone and walked 8 feet to his car. I remembered looking at my phone in my hand in the car. I then hug him goodbye and get out of the car and walk the 8 feet to my door, unlock it, place everything on the chair next to the door and walk my dog. When I got back in I went for my phone so that I could call Brooklyn back in order to coordinate our plans for my bday but my phone wasn’t there. Hell, it was in his car.

Last Thursday, for insurance purposes, my boyfriend and I became registered domestic partners in the District of Columbia. We met with some attorneys, signed some forms, woke up early and went down to the Department of Health and filed said forms. He went off to work and I went home. It was the least romantic thing I’ve ever done, and that includes having explosive diarrhea at Wrigley Field. We had always figured that an official declaration of our love was in the works, but (like Tina and Ike) love had nothing to do with it.

Guillermo and I basically began living together that weekend we first met. It was only until the end of this past summer, when I returned from my year in Japan, that we made it official. We were attached at the hip from the very beginning of our relationship, which didn’t make continuing it on opposite sides of the world any easier. For the record, I have never lived with a boyfriend before.

As a bisexual in Los Angeles, a never-ending landscape comprised of gays, breeders, and the indifferent, I feel like I can offer reasonable pieces of advice to people of all sexual orientations. These are some of the no-nos when it comes to first meeting a potential mate on Match.com

While half of you likely despise this Hallmark holiday, the other half enjoy the company of a friend or loved one on this day and take it for what it’s worth. I personally have mixed feelings on Valentine’s Day because while I detest that it exists as a quintessential capitalistic holiday I still don’t mind celebrating in my own way, especially because I personally have someone in my life who means the world to me.

I’ve never wanted to check the box next to bisexual, but I do NOT fit neatly into the other boxes either. My philosophy is: why should I have to chose a man or a woman when overall, there are so many people that just aren’t right for me. I decided to try my luck on Match.com in late November of last year, and because this dating website doesn’t allow you to say that you are interested in both men and women at the same time, I decided to switch my profile back and forth every 2-3 weeks.