june 27, 2001. The most heart-warming thing happened to me this afternoon. One of my bosses called me down into the office to talk about my laptop 'problem.' I had just finished an excellent (free) lunch and a wonderful hour of chat with my sadly departing Reading professor, so I was feeling pretty mellow when I received the summons. After all, I thought as I tripped lightly down the hill, what else could they do to me? Still, serenity isn't quite in my nature, so I had to wilfully keep myself from fretting by imagining pleasant outcomes. Like, um…the department had investigated my work and had come quickly to the decision that my peace of mind was too important to risk - so they had decided to give me a raise and pay off the whole amount in gratitude for blessing them with my fine incisive mind. Or, er…the university had taken up my case and decided that I would not be the sacrificial lamb of justice: my bill was to be paid to set an example and all students and staff would have a chance to purchase reasonable levels of insurance in the future. Silly stuff, but it kept my mind from chewing itself to death. The office was like a furnace. I began sweating immediately, all over. Good news, said the big boss lady. I've arranged to knock the bill down to $300. The director is doing this as a favour and this is the only one she'll do for us. We've used up our chit. I began to feel cautiously optimistic. Why were there so many people in the office listening to this conversation? And we all felt bad about it, so we held a bake sale today and raised more than half of the money left: $160. Everything after that was one sweaty blur of ecstasy. The scene I lived was so much like my fantasy that I couldn't believe it at first: they had held a secret bake sale? They had pulled strings? Hubbanah? Wha? Whojema? I am over the moon with joy. Not just because the bill was reduced and half the money raised already (although that is extra candy-flavoured wonderful) but because it totally restores my faith in humanity. I had struggled for days with the ugly feeling that my employers and my university were holding me in a vise of procedure and policy designed to extract the maximum amount of work and money from me with as little as possible given to me in return. Frankly, the university can go hang - it watched me wriggle on a hook of debt and sent a bill to my parents. My department, however, is full of truly wonderful people. "Phil's faith was on a constant treadmill of destruction and restoration." - son of interflux this time 2 years ago: The 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' Drinking Game. I'm really excited about this, Martha