Saturday Morning Reflections

The past week was insane at the office, especially when a defective Windows download crashed my office computer network, basically leaving the firm dead in the water for most of Thursday. To add to the mix, my roommate advised me that he has decided to get out of the Navy early, so I will be going through the routine of finding a new roommate who is both responsible and compatible. So far the weekend is making up for it all. Last night the boyfriend and I spent a relaxing evening at his beautiful home over dinner and then watching a video. He continues to amaze me with his gentleness, sensitivity and beautiful heart. He truly is a sweetheart and I consider myself so very, very lucky to have found him. I am savoring getting to know him on a deeper and deeper basis. At times I still feel he's almost too good to be true and hope that our relationship becomes even deeper and enduring.

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Tonight we have a fundraiser to attend featuring Leslie Jordan who has starred in Sordid Lives and appeared on Will & Grace. His show is called My Trip Down the Pink Carpet and is reportedly hysterically funny. We will be going to a post-show event where we hopefully will get to meet Jordan as well. Tomorrow will likely be the last of the Sunday afternoon pool parties at the home of some friends in Virginia Beach.

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On a sad note, I have been watching the news coverage of the devastation in the Galveston-Houston area where I lived during my days as in-house counsel to Union Texas Petroleum, an independent international oil company. I was particularly saddened to see that Brennan's of Houston, Brennan's was totally destroyed by a fire. Brennan's was a favorite spot to take visiting out of town guests for the fabulous brunch that was one of its trademark offerings. It was among the first places my oldest daughter went out as a baby (a photo of the patio balcony - one of a number of elegant rooms - where we often sat is set out below). The restaurant also was the location of a scene in the movie Terms of Endearment. I suspect it will be one of many old haunts that will have been destroyed or severely damaged by Hurricane Ike. Here are some highlights from the Houston Chronicle:

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Brennan's Restaurant, a Midtown institution famous for its turtle soup and bananas foster and a time-honored eatery among local society, was ruined by the blaze. A 45-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter, along with a third man who was not related to them, were taking refuge from the storm inside the brick structure. . . . Reached on his cellular phone, Alex Brennan-Martin, Brennan's co-owner and part of a family of famed New Orleans restaurateurs, declined to comment, apparently too emotional to speak.

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In 2005, Houston Chronicle restaurant reviewer Alison Cook included a personal note that rang true with many who grew up with Brennan's as a touchstone for a fancy night out. "I have a long and mostly happy history with this restaurant, which opened in the former Junior League building in 1967," Cook wrote. "Through my post-college jobs, Brennan's was a place where I got comfortable with fine dining, where I discovered the joys of Meursault wines, learned to eat grillade and grits, and decided that 'brunch' was a word to be welcomed instead of feared.

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Brennan's traces its history to a New Orleans restaurant of the same name opened in 1946 by Owen Edward Brennan. The son of a local shipyard worker, Brennan had already staked a claim on the local landscape when he acquired the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street three years earlier. The Absinthe House was built in 1798 and was known to be pirate Jean Lafitte's secret hangout, and after buying it, Brennan staged lifelike mannequins of the notorious Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in what he called the "Secret Room" — the room in which a pact was supposedly made to assist in New Orleans' defense against the British at the Battle of New Orleans.