this seems to me like an especially good and worthy use of the internet's social networking potential...besides the ability to find random sex partners, ride shares, couches for sale and the like.

all the free wifi connections in my apartment complex in chicago, which i had been stealing for the past four months, suddenly ran out yesterday.

it is a dire situation. i did not realize how much i loved the internet until now, coming up on my third hour in caribou coffee, where i am paying for the privilege to a) drink weak tea b) surf blogs and do homework. i love it so because i am subjecting myself to this pukehole of a fake log cabin, where i'm pretty sure i just heard the fourth different rendition of "i've got you uder my skin" in the past 45 minutes. either that, or i'm living in the matrix.

pray for me.

pablohoney: sigh, i am tired, but do not want to retreat to my den of no internet
pablohoney: i do not think i can live w/o the internet
pablohoney: it's one of the great love stories of our time
friend: wow sounds like it
friend: and yet, it just doesn't love you back
pablohoney: i know
pablohoney: ungrateful bitch

While Hemal was off galavanting around India, I took over DCist HR duties. This basically meant receiving a bunch of emails, replying to ask for writing samples, and gently letting people down when their proposed posts turned out to be thousand word screeds decrying political correctness (and not even political correctness in DC). Above all, I just had to keep track of everybody.

I managed to mostly not screw things up. Hemal, being a much sweeter and thoughtful person than is really necessary, brought me back some Indian candy as a thank-you. Specifically, stuff from Cadbury India.

The basic formulations were familiar — fruit-flavored hard candies; chewy toffees; chocolate bars — but the flavors were subtly weird. The pineapple was stronger, somehow. The toffee was more lactic. It was different, but good.

With one exception: the chocolate. Really, it's hard to convey how bad it was. One bite and you could taste the dismissive imperial prejudices of the original chocolatier. Clearly, Cadbury did not spend a lot of time fretting about quality control in its India division. I never knew that a candy bar could be so bad that it's actually racist.

But the rest was tasty. Thanks, Hemal!

friday night - gingerman tavern: a friend held her birthday party here, and it was a thoroughly adorable place. tiny, cramped yet cozy front room and an expansive backroom with a few pool tables and plenty of room to mill about. all sorts of people - yuppies, hipsters, plenty of medill graduate students - hanging out in perfect harmony. and extremely attractive male and female bartenders. probably a good place to get a drink before a show at the metro.

saturday afternoon - the chicago lakefront path: despite it having snowed a few inches the night before, the lakefront path was cleared and, refreshingly, empty. i had a great seven-mile run from the belmont harbor almost down to navy pier and back. the snow stretching to the lake was beautiful to look at and the weather was sunny and crisp. i thought i was being all hardcore, running out saturday in the cold, but while running i noticed a dude KAYAKING IN THE LAKE. that, my friends, is hardcore.

saturday night - mama desta's red sea: hooray, good ethiopian food! in september i had gone to some place called ethiopian diamond and found it truly lacking. i went on to assume in my haughty manner that no decent ethiopian food could be found outside of d.c. well, i was proved wrong when i went out to mama desta's with some friends. i should have gone earlier - it's just a few blocks up from my apartment, and is super delicious and mostly affordable. good honey wine, friendly service, jolly little atmosphere. no awesome singing and dancing a la dukem, but that's okay.

sunday night - peter's lasagna and viewings of west wing + grey's anatomy: you probably can't get your hands on the lasagna part (though i think this was the recipe he used), but i was totally excited to sit down for two hours last night and watch these shows. i haven't seen west wing in, oh, approximately a billion years, but i thought last night's episode was really good. of course, just as it starts getting decent again, it gets canceled. le sigh. as for grey's anatomy, well, that show just gives me the warm fuzzies. i don't think i've laughed so hard in a long time as i did at the hot dog eating scene. but that may have just been the five glasses of wine.