METRO READ Ugly Americans- Ben Mezrich

For those of you who don't know Ben Mezrich, he is known for writing books about Ivy League kids doing remarkable things. His first book was Bringing Down the House: The Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. It was later turned into the movie 21. Maybe even more well known is his recent book, The Accidental Billionaires, which chronicles Mark Zuckerberg and a behind the scenes look at Facebook. (I read this book as well, while it was good- I'd suggest just seeing the movie.) What I have grown to appreciate about Ben Mezrich is that his books, while highly entertaining-- are still non-fiction. If you continue to read this blog you'll quickly learn that I rarely read fiction. Nothing against it-- I just have found that there are plenty of interesting things to read about that are real, and those are the things that I prefer.

Ugly Americans is about a Princeton Alumni named John Malcolm (a pseudonym), who ends up working as an assistant daytime trader in Japan, after a fluke meeting at a Princeton football game(Malcolm played for the Princeton). Basically this book highlights a time in the 1990's where American Hedge Fund Cowboys were taking advantage of loopholes that existed in the outdated and inefficient Japanese Stock Market-- the Nikkei. The Yakuza, which is basically the Japanese mob gets involved, and things get dodgy. There's also a sideline developing love story between Malcolm and a native Japanese girl named Sayo. I'd say-o there's something for everyone in this book.

New job, new beginnings...new commute.

Friends, I am happy to report that as of March 7th, I am back among the employed. I have taken a position with DLA Piper, LLP in Washington, DC. I am happy to be working, and to have expendable income once again. However, as the title of this post would imply, with my new job comes a new commute. I am now officially one of those "commuters." I have a SmartTrip card, and I always have a pair of pumps in my bag. I drive to the Vienna metro station, hop on the Orange line, then the Red line, then finally after about an hour and 20 minutes door to door, I arrive at work. I've had to sort of monitor my natural tendencies on the metro as well (note-- no one wants to talk to me at 7:30 AM. No one. Also- no one says Bless you.) But now I feel accustomed to the cultural norms of mass transit, and so I sit quietly and stare sraight ahead-- and if someone sneezes....well I still say bless you. (Sorry I'm not sorry- not saying bless you is rude.)

The commute, you can imagine has been an adjustment. But it is not without its perks. I've always been a big reader-- but through grad school I became only a big purchaser of books. I have quite a collection built up of things I wanted to read, but would put up on the shelf-- "when I finish grad school I'll read this." Well, the time is now. My kindle is working overtime, and it's nice to sort of escape in the morning. When I finish a book, my first instinct is to share it with someone else, so I thought, well, why not include it in MLC? A sort of Metro Book Review. So stay tuned for my latest Metro Reads along with my wines (and sometimes whines) of choice......

Inexcusable...

It's inexcusable really. The amount of time that I've let go in between blog posts. In that spirit I'm not going to make any excuses. What's done is done. The past is in the past. All I can do now is go forward. To make it up to you and to kick off my comeback I'm going to post a new wine recommendation. I bought this particular red at World Market, during their huge red wine sale. (Coincidentally, and serendipitously their large wine sale coincided directly with my first few days of unemployment. Sometimes things just work out.) It's called Tilia, it is a red wine, and it has a pretty picture of a tree on the bottle. Pick up a bottle today. You'll be glad you did.