I think I tested as Nouveau Riche because I chose what I could afford rather than what I'd like. The budget ain't never going to run to a Corot, and I didn't inherit any.

Whee! I'm off to have the hair colored. No more gray for me! At least for 8 weeks.

The D.A. said today that he would probably seek the death penalty for the suicidal man who left his S.U.V. on a track.

This sounds overzealous to me.

I can give my job title when asked what I do, or mention that I work at a type of place, name our big-name client, or say I'm in IT, but lately I've just been saying, "I'm a digital buttmonkey."

It makes for entertaining double-takes.

16 Bohemian Mix 40 Close-In Couples 07 Money & Brains 31 Urban Achievers 59 Urban Elders

those numbers don't mean anything though, right? I'd need to log in to get the concentration.

Me: I work in environmental publishing.

Listener: [thinks -- Hippy treehugger liberal with no money.*] That's nice.

Me: I do web-work.

Listener: [thinks -- Techno-geek with no off-line friends.] That's nice.

I really prefer gatherings where I'm not assumed to be my job.

 *Well, ok, fair cop. But still.

Right, that's just a classification.

I ran the stats for my second to last Michigan address: Executive Suites , Movers & Shakers, Suburban Sprawl, Upper Crust and Young Influentials. Yeah, those were the days.

Of course $1K/month gets you more room in West LA than in Birmingham, MI. Doesn't look as swish, but much nicer to live alone in.

And that was $1K sharing -- I should check and see what $3K can get me here.

Birmingham was like being an Application Architect in content management. Most people just said "Huh?" so I mostly said I lived in Detroit for that year. Except in Aspen -- when I said I lived in Metro Detroit, they asked "Birmingham?" straight off.

Oh, the places you live when shackled to ultra-bougie family.

Hey, I lived in Birmingham. For like three weeks, but still.

I think that, for NYC, my definition of what separates "old money" (or whatever the current equivalent is) from "new money" would be: If your three-year-old didn't get into any of the nursery schools you applied to, is there someone you could call who could fix that?

There was a scandal a few years ago where a stock broker essentially engaged in some insider trading in exchange for getting his 2-year-old twins in the 92nd Street Y nursery school. I think that was a classic example of trying to break into NYC society -- he had the money to pay for it, but didn't have the right connections. I know of at least two people who, in similar situations, were able to call on old friends from Spence or wherever and get their kid into a school, without having to offer anything in exchange.