I’m in another fancy schmancy New York hotel tonight, for which I think the firm pays about $280 a night. There’s some sort of nature theme going on in here, with photos of wood, grass, and ivy on the wardrobe, entertainment center (with LCD flat screen TV), and writing desk, respectively. The couch against the window is low to the ground, with three square taupe pillows. The headboard to the king-size bed (the smallest king size bed I’ve ever seen) appears to be made out of a sound-absorbing (yeah, baby, you know what that’s for) felt material. There’s an orchid blossom in a 2-inch-square glass container on the bedside table, as is on the writing desk, and a banana leaf in a taller container in the bathroom. The bedside table folds out like an old-fashioned card table, with supports that slide out.

There’s a luxurious feeling of quiet and calm in this room, which is what you pay for. On the other hand, one orchid is sort of wilting, and one of the bottles of Frederic Fekkai products in the bathroom has a stray hair clinging to the bottom.

But still, I can’t complain.

I’ve had an odd schedule the past few days. Since Fearless T was getting married on Sunday last, and I didn’t want to pay for a trip down, I scheduled a firm visit on Monday morning and had them fly me in on Saturday night. Since that firm didn’t pay for a hotel (boo! Now is not the time to be skimping on offerees, people), I stayed with MattSal and his courteous, pleasant roommate, who guided me, MattSal, and MattSal’s sig-oth through a Turkish meal for dinner. (The yogurt-dill thingee was awesome, but the salmon in fig leaves disappointing.)

On Sunday, an old friend from DC days, along with two other passengers, picked me up and drove to Fearless T’s wedding, a mostly traditional Jewish affair, except with a few omissions. The program explained that Fearless T and her husband had chosen to omit them due to their “paternalistic and mercantile nature,” which was not what they wanted their marriage to reflect. Yay, Fearless T! She has wanted to be married for so very long.

I’ve been to a Jewish wedding before, but this one was large (300 guests) and enthusiastic and at times almost frenetic, what with the groom’s friends bounce-dancing him to and fro, and a hora that lasted nearly 40 minutes. Dang! Them Jews know how to party.

It was a nice chance to catch up with a couple people from DC days whom I hadn’t seen in a number of years. One had gotten married and was prettily plump, one had gotten skinnier and glowy, one had gotten back together with the sig-oth he’d dumped, one had started business school and suggested we go skiing sometime. I felt very much a non-Jew, just like the old DC days.

After the wedding, I saw Dr. C, who drove over from the Bronx, where she’s an internal medicine resident, and we had dinner with the grad student with whom I secretly replaced MattSal. You know these grad students, they’re all the same anyway. Heh. Actually, it was very nice to eat lovely Indian food with Dr. C and MattSal’s roommate. Dr. C is as tall and gentle and languorous as ever, but somewhere along the years, she also became this total hottie, rocking that multi-ethnic, almond-eyed thing. Did I just miss it in college?

I saw one of my short-listed firms on Monday, and came away a little stunned and wordless, especially because of my second interviewer, who used to head up the publications department at a think tank, and said things like, “When I was younger, I thought it was terrible to be part of the system. That it was enough to stand on the sidelines and criticizing the system. But I grew tired of not having any effect on anything. The system isn’t going to go away any time soon. Capitalism is a very well-running machine now. There are stress points, and whenever I do business in a foreign country where there are those stress points, like a place where the rich-poor gap is huge, I spend all my free time socializing with influential people like bankers and lawyers – I’m not talking to gardeners here – telling them that they need to change the system in their country, that they need to pay their taxes and decrease that gap.”

Damn. I didn’t expect to be listening to an former Marxist-turned-corporate lawyer. I brought this conversation up with the next person I talked to, a very recent hire – she started 1.5 months ago, and she said, “Yeah, I try to check in with myself to see if I’m comfortable with the work that I’m doing. So far, nothing too bad.”

Weird, intense people. Not a real comfy place.

Ooh, my $26 spicy tuna roll has arrived. (Yes, $26 fucking dollars -- $16 for the roll, $3 for service charge, $3 for room charge, and $3 for tip.)

After I saw the weird intense firm, I went back to MattSal’s, packed up my stuff, and went back to Crimson City. Where I had the firm dinner, with all its amusements.

This morning I went to employment law class, had lunch, packed, read some employment law cases, and came back to New York on a bad, bumpy ride prolonged by some delays on the ground. Hence, lots of circling and unease in the stomach area. Ugh.

And now I’m sitting in this cool, quiet schmancy hotel room, in its shades of muted browns and grays, and it’s time to eat my $26 sushi roll, take a shower, pull on my terry cloth robe, and go to bed.

Tomorrow, I’m seeing the firm I saw on 10/27. This is part of my ploy – I’m spending the turkey day with Double M and her family in DC, and since I felt I should see a couple firms again, I thought, “Why not have them pay for my flight down to DC too?” It was no problem to book a trip from Crimson City to New York and “back to” DC with one firm, and then book the opposite trip at the end of Thanksgiving break. Most delightful. And really not of consequence to the firms – it’s the same price for them. Oh, if only I could sponge off these firms forever! (In my defense, it’s not true sponging – after all, I do have to visit them. It’s more like… serendipity.)

Okay, on to the sushi!