Huzzah!.... huzzah?..doh
Well today is payday, and my HR lady just handed me a check. When I greedily unwrapped it though, I found to my chagrin that they had undershot my agreed paygrade by two dollars. That may be peanuts to some but not to a poor grad student like yours truly. I immediately corrected her on this point, at which point she left to go check her "notes". I feel sick. I'm sure I've just descended to the circle of hell reserved for crumbums who chisel non-profits. I walked by her office just after that and I could swear that she shot me sort of look. Some sort of "why don't you go back to that insurance company you dirty shyster?" look. I may have been imagining that last bit, but I'm pretty sure she was thinking something along those lines. Later on, a co-worker and I were throwing out some of the old shit they have laying around here when he remarked "Well, I guess we just earned our $-- for the day". I grunted my assent and immediately felt like git. $-- was much less than what I had demanded from these poor hippies. In fact if you'd like to bring out your calculaters it was exactly 40% less... (Patrick's been stewing) I don't know if he was guessing what I made or if he really makes $--, but I didn't really enjoy hearing it.

HR lady just got back to me saying that the aggreement was indeed what I thought, but before she did so I was just about to go looking for the initial job ad to make sure I wasn't dreaming this up. I was that close to deciding I was delusional. Aiya! Why do these things happen to me? This happened before at Hathaway where I worked for my father.. (i.e descended to the circle of hell reserved for those who chisel their father's company) I must look like a sucker or something.

Actually I suppose you might say I'm more of a hooker with a heart of gold
(I wouldn't)