I miss...

...cities with real cabs. The kind where you get in and give him an address six or seven blocks from your current location, and he knows exactly where it is and how to get there quickly. The kind where he tells you the fare, and you give him a 20 and ask for 12 back (giving a very generous tip on such a short trip) and he actually has ones on hand to give you proper change. The kind where you don't feel guilty when you get out at the end of the ride.

Oh, and while we're on I misses, I miss real bars with real people, not barbie dolls with perfect hair and cakey makeup and the latest designer wear complete with the matching designer handbag. I miss places where you can go in jeans and a sweatshirt and still have the guy at the end of the bar give you a once over. Where the bartender sees you immediately and takes your order and you don't have to fight through six layers of cheesy 24-year-old men doling out lines about working for a diamond seller (y'know, because he's South African and everyone from South Africa must be in the diamond business) to get to the freaking bar. The kind of bar that doesn't emit girly screams because some dude who used to live in a nearby 'burb and now stars on some trashy teen drama (and looks like he wears makeup outside of the sound stage) decided to try it out for a night.

Yeah. It's been that kind of night.

Too LinkedIn?

Is anyone else creeped out by the intelligence of the LinkedIn system?

I joined it years ago from the e-invitation of a guy I met randomly who was one of the best networkers I'd ever met. At 27, he was already a VP at his company and had hundreds of contacts in his "network." I joined but didn't touch the thing to start building my own virtual network until last year in graduate school. Mostly thanks to the size of my graduate school class, I've edged my network up to 63 people. But I am constantly amazed at the other people the system singles out as "contacts" for me.

Sometimes when you accept an invitation to link up from a friend or colleague, LinkedIn brings up a screen to suggest other people in the system that "You Might Know." Usually it's other people you graduated with or worked directly with at one of your various jobs. But every once in a while, a seemingly completely random name pops up.

For example: A few months ago, the "You might know" prompt suggested a friend in DC whom I knew somewhat informally through my softball league. We had no professional ties or connections... but somehow the system associated us and floated me his name.

Or, more creepily, today I logged on and that same screen gave me the name of a random boy I met online and went out on a date with.

Seriously? I mean, really? Is this system monitoring all your online activities? Is LinkedIn really Big Brother under a more friendly moniker? Or are we really all cosmically connected in more ways than we could ever imagine? Forget six degrees. Maybe it's more like 2 or 3.

What can Brown do?

Another long neglected post... I painted my living room, oh, sometime around Labor Day. And I have yet to solicit feedback on the earthy brown color.

I'm not sure these photos do it justice. It's somewhere between caramel and pumpkin--a brown shade with an orange undertone. At first, I hated it. When the second coat went up and I sat down on the floor to admire my handiwork, I was horrified.

But now, I'm starting to get used to it--I don't mind it nearly as much. And I actually think that once I get around to putting some artwork on the walls, the color will be a nice complement to the rest of the room. My goal was to create a space that felt really warm and cozy. It's not perfect, but at least it has more character than the original color.

What do you think?? Should I change it again?

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Well, a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, anyway. This weekend I went to a tree lot near my office.

"What do you have in really, really, really small trees?" I asked. Lo and behold, he had about a dozen mini-trees, hidden behind the sales shed. I picked my little one out and he threw it into the backseat of my car. And now I have a Christmas tree.

It's actually the first Christmas tree I've gotten on my own. And no, it's certainly not the beautiful, giant tree we used to go hunting for when I was a kid. But it's just the perfect size for all my ornaments. AND it fits in my condo--it's not even in the way.

Now I just need to figure out where to put my wreath...