I am sitting
behind the scenes in the chaotic auction sequence, but my mind is still reeling from the events. The last hour and a half was a blur. A blur of success, indeed, but one that came at a very high cost, especially to my dignity.
At the last minute, one of our auction participants became ill. There was no one willing to participate in the preprint programs with a set number of participants, so I begged, bribed, and asked every member of my team to come in and fill out the paper. Of all the people available who were not physically needed to help with the auction, those who remained were married or seriously involved with someone.
Everyone except me.
I moaned, I cajoled, I even begged, but in an ironic twist that many of the employees took pleasure in, I became number twenty on
