i have slain the evil spirit of birdlady

I woke this morning to a response from birdlady. Just so everyone knows, at the suggestion of my prof, I wrote her a very nice, very clear email yesterday explaining that I will not meet with her Monday and that I will not work for her this summer. I was braced for angry phone calls or, at the least, angry emails, but no. I got a very kind, relatively contrite message apologizing for making me uncomfortable and explaining that she was just trying to give me the advice no one had given her, but acknowledging that she probably "overstepped."

Wow. If she had only been so kind and respectful throughout the semester, we wouldn't be here right now. The lesson, I think, is this: only the attorneys with money can afford to treat their underlings like crap, b/c at least there will be some financial incentive for some of the underlings to stay. For me, making the peanuts she was going to pay didn't even begin to balance out the misery I would have worked under. Now maybe birdlady will be nicer to the next poor student who comes along.