Bonus 2- Small Consolation

I'm not sure what just happened. I got an email from a consumer group, inviting me to a focus group on new beers. Um, two hours of drinking beer, with food provided, and an $85 check at the end of the night. Free food, free beer, and I get paid?! Is it just me, or does this sound like every guy's magical dream? I started drifting into Homer Simpson fantasy visions of swimming in a beer river and picking dollar bills off trees.

Reality check- they didn't need any more 29-year-olds for their study. D'oh. Before I knew it, the recruiting agent started signing me up for another study, about 100 times less magical. Now I'm enrolled in a stupid focus group on stupid Internet-based phone service, or stupid VoIP. What kind of crappy consolation prize is that? Sitting around talking about phones for two hours, in a stark room with a two-way mirror (this is true, I checked.) Not to mention the $85 check will be offset by the time I have to take off work to do the damn study. Bamboozled, I tellz ya.