Sometimes the world just stops making sense.

I got a phone call at 2:00 this afternoon asking if I could please go to the firm's recruitment dinner at my old law school. When is it? Tonight. The thing is, I went to law school in Massachusetts.

This dinner will entail a last-minute round-trip plane ticket ($350 each way), cab fare (probably $100 total), and quite possibly a hotel room (another $300), not to mention the cost of a meal at one of Boston's better restaurants. In other words, the firm I work for wants to spend about $1500 on my dinner tonight. And I'm just one of probably a couple of dozen lawyers they need to go.

I won't be able to make it to dinner tonight, since I've got work to do and haven't had a chance to juggle my schedule. Which is a shame, because I love expensive dining, especially on somebody else's tab. My disappointment is tempered by the rumor that the firm has moved the recruiting dinner from L'Espalier - one of the best restaurants anywhere - to Radius - a decent restaurant but not certainly worth a 400-mile round trip. And besides, something tells me that a rushed $1500 dinner won't go down too smooth.

I think I'll make a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner tonight.