do you believe you're the victim of a great compromise?

Strangely, considering that I'm not getting paid, I spent most of the day at the office. Maybe it's not so strange when you consider that I get copious high-quality free drinks -- I'm particularly excited that they've brought back both my favorite Tejava iced teas and my favorite Martinellis sparkling apple juice. But considering that I had four meetings, a lunch, and a dinner scheduled for today, as well as an appointment with the onsite allergist, I put in a full day's work.

I have to decide tonight what I'm going to say to the two teams who are recruiting me, since I owe them an answer tomorrow and will be in SF most of the afternoon with Irish Matt. I think I know what my answer will be, but I'm going to sleep on it, so I'm actually going to go to bed soon. And then once I make a decision, I'm not going to have any more meetings or work-related events until I'm actually getting recompensed for my presence.

Today was good, though; my meetings were more fun than anything else, and lunch was with Gyre and Lizzie (even though Lizzie left for another company down the road, the traitor). Dinner was with Laura, which was fun, even though we didn't do any crafting. And I left campus for a couple of hours in the afternoon to meet up with Claudia at a nice day spa in Cupertino to get pedicures -- I hadn't gotten a pedicure since Katie came out to visit in February, and my feet were definitely showing the effects of too much flip-flop wearing. Now they're buffed, scoured, and my toenails are a delightful magenta, so I'm quite happy.

The only slightly sad thing is that my allergist has recommended doing allergy shots twice a week for three months. She says that it will clear up my weed and grass allergies, which may help to prevent future food reactions, which I suppose is a good thing. But, she was very annoyed to find out that Chandlord is leasing me a carpeted apartment -- she wasn't mad at Chandlord herself (and in fact doesn't know who Chandlord is), but said that I really should have gone for hardwood floors because of my severe dust allergy. So she gave me a catalogue of dust-mite-preventing mattress and pillowcovers, which is almost like buying bedding, which of course makes me happy. Too bad the apartment is going to cost me the gross GDP of a small Iowa town, which will limit my bedding procurement. Sigh.