Still not entirely sure how to handle my newfound not-fucked status.

I sent my HR goddess Lisa flowers today (nothing extravagant, just a little potted bouquet) for her help, and I stopped in to thank my boss Jonathan this morning. "We were all rooting for you," he says.

I'm not entirely sure what everyone knows or thinks, but I have a job, and that's all that matters now.

My interview with the console team got postponed till tomorrow. I did see the people though - and they seem dreadfully eager to get me onto their team. I would like to see this game through to finaling, though - that would be late September.

This weekend was fun and productive. I did my laundry (go me!) on Saturday and then Hunter and I went to Jenna's housewarming party, which was quite lovely. Her house is gorgeous - although the Mardi Gras theme brought back horrible memories of New Orleans last November. We won't go there.

Sunday, Hunter and I went out to Palo Alto and got a tour of Stanford from our old friend Joshy. It was just delightful. It was like old times - we talked for hours and after walking around campus all day, we had a lovely Indian dinner in downtown Palo Alto. He was one of those people we looked up to as undergrads, and it's a great feeling to be able to keep the friendship going.

Of course, he's another one of our friends who is curing cancer for a living. He's getting his Chemistry PhD there at Stanford (insanely smart yet insanely charismatic and funny too. one of those rare ones.), and right now he's "trying to put the tops and bottoms together" for various cancer-type drug molecules.

And we're making video games.

Well, everyone has to do something, I guess...

---

There's no right answer.

To get my Master's or not?

It's SO expensive. So expensive! $28,500 a year. I've already got more than that in loans from last year; I'd be doubling my debt by continuing. And the program certainly hasn't been impressing me with their lack of concern for students lately.

How much am I willing to pay for a piece of paper?

And am I ready to admit that I paid $30,000 to get to this job and the Disney job? That's essentially what happened... if I don't go back.

But I need to produce $2,000+ in cash in 2 weeks to go back to school, and I just don't feel terribly motivated to DO that. (In addition to the loans, mind you.)

Unless this extended internship relies on credit - which I don't think it does, since it has been phrased "internship has been extended" and not "co-op has been granted."

I dunno.

Dunno dunno dunno.

But $60,000 in debt works out to like $500 a month in loan payments for a long time. 10-20 years or so.

And that's really icky.

I can hear the clock ticking up to the minute that my window of opportunity slams down upon my fingers.

Time to make a choice.

tick tick tick tick...