Good night, and good luck

It is tragically slow at work today. If I didn't have payroll to process, I might as well have stayed at home, tucked in bed with a big mug of tea and Baby Mama on DVD.

And it is damn cold, too. The heat in my office happens to be broken on the coldest day of the year. It's gotten to the point where I'm clenching my muscles for warmth and I have a brain-freeze that should only accompany some sort of frozen concoction.

In short, it is not a day for working. It is a day for online shopping, g-chatting, and scanning craigslist.

I scan craigslist all the time. I mean, sometimes I'm just curious what sort of "gigs" are out there. Just what is an "ETC" job? Best-of craigslist can provide hours of amusement. But the best section, of course, is the missed connections.

Admit it. You, too, read the missed connections. Sometimes they're insane or ridiculously ambiguous ("to the girl on the red line with a black jacket"). We all secretly long to be a missed connection. It can be an affirmation: that guy on the Metro really did smile at me for a second too long. Or you can post one yourself: Wonder if that girl at Starbucks enjoyed my witty exposition on the plight of the Arabica bean farmer? In the best case scenario, one of you posts, that hottie in black responds, and you drive off into the sunset together laughing at the improbability of it all.

I have been a missed connection. It really was quite flattering. It was from a guy who worked in my building, and I knew it was me because he quoted our conversation on the elevator one day. My friends encouraged me to email him and say thanks, which I did. He asked me to drinks, and I went, which was pretty dumb and vain considering I knew there nothing going on there. But, that was that, and I got the satisfaction of having been 'missed.'

Today, though... Today karma hit the nail on the head. I was reading the missed connections and came across a post with an ambiguous title. The post itself, though, was quite specific. Not about looks or location- it mentioned a specific website that I had referred someone to. Could it be him? No, unlikely. But it did get my hopes up. If it were him I'd be more than flattered. In fact, I might actually like this fellow.

I figured it couldn't hurt to email the poster. "Just checking" I wrote. "Is this for me?"

And this is the response I got: "Nope... it wasn't you. Good luck."

Ah, I should have known. Wishful thinking, right? Well, you win some, you lose some, and sometimes you've just got to stuff your face with a big ole piece of humble pie.