romance

February 16

Last Saturday I had dinner at Lily Thai in Williamsburg. The owner, Bouey, is a friend of my friend Yishane Lee, who met her back when Bouey was a manager at Montien in the East Village. Yishane's boyfriend at the time had lived in Thailand and was living in the East Village, and he befriended Bouey. Yishane inherited both Bouey and an appreciation of the Boston Red Sox from him.
He’s long-gone, though, and we were at Lily Thai with Yishane’s fiancé, Ray Garcia, my friend Birdman aka professor David Krauss, and friend and publicist Ben Schmerler and his wife Eve, whose last name escapes me at the moment.
As a rule, I avoid becoming too close socially to publicists for professional reasons, but I was friends with Ben from back when he worked at Zagat, so I’m stuck. You can’t very well disown friends just because they change jobs; it’s rude.
Bouey is glad, in an Asian motherly sort of way, that Yishane is getting married and, also in an Asian motherly sort of way, is bugging her about having kids already.
I also had a light dinner on Valentine’s Day with Yishane and Ray, which would be pathetic and third-wheelish, except we were meeting with Raquel Algarin, who is performing their wedding ceremony. Yishane has asked me to officiate at the wedding ceremony with Raquel (she wanted me to officiate alone, but I'm not an officiant and New York is apparently the only state that doesn’t allow you to quickly sign up online as a generic minister so you can marry people — uh, perform the ceremony, that is). I think that’s a hell of an honor, and if you don’t have a loved one to spend Valentine’s Day with, spending it with people who want you to marry them is nice.
Come to think of it, Valentine’s Day is a stupid holiday, but it’s always nice to spend time with people who want you to marry them.
We met at Guantanamera, a Cuban restaurant on the Upper West Side where the wedding will be held, on April Fool's Day. The bar will open an hour before the ceremony begins.
Gotta love that.

What we ate at Lily Thai:
spring rolls
curry puffs
Green papaya salad
beef salad
Tamarind duck
basil with pork
green curry with beef
red curry with pork
perhaps some dishes that I have forgotten
rice