Monday, November 13, 2006

post-PILA

once again this year, i spent the day after PILA waiting with baited breath for the slew of emails that would invariably show up in my inbox, saying i had bid too much for things i did not really need.

the thing was that this year, i had gone in with a foolproof plan. i was going to take a list, with the pre-determined prices of what i was willing to pay. well, i took a list. with about 20 items. unfortunately, i didn't think at all about prices. and when i am bidding, what is really going thru my head is, "bid higher!" rather than anything along the lines of, "that is too much to bid, laura!" i wish i could even pretend there is also ajeet's voice in my ear, saying, "it's for a good cause!" but i think that's just how i justify it after the fact.

before i even wake up on sunday, i have an email from an acquaintance, apologizing for the fact that she had out-bid me on the barbri coupons, and offering it to me b/c she realized that her firm pays for barbri and she can't even figure out why she bid. now i don't know if i posted about this, but if you know me, you know that i have been wanting this barbri coupon for a year now. i won it at last year's PILA and they let me out of it and all my friends told me to bail b/c firms pay directly for barbri. only all firms don't. and i get a stipend. a paltry stipend. so that saving $1000 would be awesome. so i have been spending two months gearing up to win this coupon. i can't even believe i let someone else get this! fortunately, it is mine nonetheless and this makes me very happy. yay for things i wanted!

then thru/out the day, i received 4 emails about things i had won. nothing ridiculous. whew. things i probably paid more for that i should have, and things i certainly didn't really need to get, but nothing absolutely absurd. so that's something. when i hadn't heard anything more for hours, i was relieved. and lexi told me that we had not won the mel the 3L cartoon and that despite our ferocious bidding war, someone else had snuck in and outbid us. to which i replied, "thank god."

but my friends had not heard about items they knew they had won. fear gripped me again. this means there could still be emails i hadn't received. pins and needles, pins and needles.

well, i have now received another 2 emails. (including the mel the 3L cartoon. lexi had bad intel, it seems.) which means i currently have 7 winning bids, and a crippling fear of what else lies in store. i'm not quite sure why part of my foolproof PILA plan for the year was to bind my hands so that i could not bid. dammit. that would have been brilliant. having not had the brilliant "bind my hands behind my back so i am unable to bid" plan until now, i will consider PILA a success if i make it out for under $1000. which means that if you see me panhandling in scott commons for the rest of the semester, please feed me. after all, i may have singlehandedly funded your unpaid summer job.

4 Comments:

Blogger Lexi said...

I am still VERY UPSET that they are not taking credit cards this year. I would not have aid as much for this stuff if I had thought I woud have had to pay this right away and not keep it on my credit card for a while. Also, I'm losing out on $200 in rewards points! And I am obsessed with getting rewards points! Gah!

2:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Can we get some details on the shameful acts?

3:45 PM  
Blogger laura said...

of course, b/c my detailing the things that embarass me will not make me want to die, nor will it further perpetuate the memory of anything terrible i did.

WAIT! YES IT WOULD!

3:50 PM  
Blogger Dellis said...

i'm happy to enjoy some of your winning bids.

8:13 PM  

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