I am sitting on my hotel bed, engulfed in my terrycloth hotel robe.

I got an offer from the morning callback today, which I was sure I had bombed. It was the first callback in which interviewers asked actual questions. To wit: “We’re in the business of advising clients on business matters. If you were the head of a company thinking about expanding into foreign markets, what kinds of concerns would you have?”

I mumbled something about different laws and jurisdictions.

“Well, let’s pretend that’s all taken care of by the general counsel lawyer. What else?”

I stared out the window for a full 10 seconds. “Ummm, I guess whether there was political stability, economic stability, whether the market could handle my product, maybe PR concerns if I’m using foreign labor…”

“Ah! You mean outsourcing.”

“Uh, yeah. Outsourcing.”

“And what about that concerns you?”

“Well, I think it probably wouldn’t have an effect on consumer trends overall, but there have been some PR fiascos with certain individuals or companies that use child labor in foreign countries.”

“Is PR the only problem? Anything else?”

“Well, if you’re talking about labor, then yeah, the moral aspect of it too. You don’t want to be taking advantage of a labor force, you want to be compensating them fairly – maybe not to American standards, but certainly to the standard of the local economy.”

Damn! That actually sounds pretty smart. In any case, British Interviewer Man gave me positive feedback on that.

Then the next interviewer asked me what case I’d run across in law school that made me really think. Gor! I babbled about a contracts case where the defendant later in life was one of the survivors of the Titanic before settling on my real answer of Fair Housing Act and employment discrimination cases, both of which are pretty compelling when you think about how the law can be used to ensure equal access for everyone.

I thought for a second that she might press me on if I thought corporate practice addressed those kinds of issues, but she instead asked what my favorite book was. I dragged out A.S. Byatt, whom I haven’t read for years, but demurred on the grounds that I was more likely to read a federal rule of evidence than a novel these days.

And 30 minutes later, I was offered a job. It was weird. They said they usually don’t offer on the spot, but that they thought I was really a Mighty Big Firm X kind of person.

I told them I felt like I was winning an Academy Award. And joked, “You like me, you really like me!” which British Interview Man didn’t pick up on, since he’s British and wouldn’t know the cultural reference to Sally Fields’ acceptance speech in the 1980s.

I think I was really tired. From not sleeping well because I had a pumpkin spice latte with an associate until 7:30 pm yesterday. And from the psychic drain of having to nod and say “uh huh” and “oh, really?” and “that’s interesting” to TWENTY-SEVEN people over the past three days.

My fault entirely, for being so damn indecisive and being unable to drop any callbacks.

The second firm I saw today is famous for being nice. And for being passive-aggressive. Mr. Rocks’ girlfriend works there, and Mrs. DefStave worked there too before moving to Crimson City with Mr. DefStave. Mrs. DefStave said a couple weeks ago: “I LOVED this Mighty Big Firm.”

Well, I must admit, I really liked the people there too. They just seemed like people I wouldn’t mind having lunch with. Mr. Rocks says it’s because they’re good at small talk. But I still hope they extend an offer, despite the fact that I was 5 minutes late to the interview (go, hk!).

The afternoon callback was the only firm so far that has offered a tour of the office, including the conference rooms, training rooms, word processing center, and cafeteria. It was a little weird, but refreshing. I started laughing silently to myself as the recruiting person and I walked around, and I guess I was grinning when we peeked into the training room, which might explain why some guy raised his Styrofoam cup in greeting, and the recruiting person asked, “Are you making faces at someone in there?” I denied it, saying that someone just raised his cup to us, and she said, “Oh, it’s because you’re drop-dead gorgeous.”

Someone sign me up for this firm!

After that callback, I dropped off a transcript that someone at one of the earlier callbacks had wanted, and then called Mr. Rocks for dinner. He said he could take a break for dinner, so I went down to his firm and we had dinner at a Swedish restaurant, where I had an unholy concoction of Chilean sea bass stewed in prunes, champagne and dried tomatoes. It was fouler than foul. And it cost $30. ‘S wack is what it is.

Now back in the hotel, and ready, oh so ready, for bed.

(15 minutes later) Grr! Stupid effing wireless. This is the third night in a row I've had to call and have technicians manually purchase wireless access for me. The same effing problem. Effing fix the problem or just purchase it til the end of my stay, for crissakes.

(2 minutes later) I can't believe it -- they won't charge it in advance. Have asked to speak with a supervisor.

(10 minutes later) Ah ha. Got a supervisor on the phone, who made the appropriate soothing noises and sounded like he would try to make everything work for me until Monday. Service, thou art revived! How lovely thou lookest.