Today I found myself once again doing what might be the worst job I have ever had. For one of my jobs, I am a lab assistant for a proffesor who studies organic agriculture. One of the crops she is studying is, of all the wonderful things to be working with, onions. Usually I am really lucky and get stuck with the strawberries.  But not this week. This week I have the lovely task of processing onion sample. This means that I sort through very large onions, get the leaf count, leaf area, and then cut them all up and put them in the drying oven. In a few more weeks I put them through a grinder.

So–what makes this so bad. First, it takes a long time. Second, the onions are very large. They do not sell them this big in the grocery store. And of course, the very worst thing is the lovely smell. Here’s a little botany–onions have a lot of sulfur compounds, and when they are cut up, they release sulfuric acid that irritates eyes. Not a lot I can do about it. Luckily, there are good old latex gloves that prevent my hands from smelling like onions for weeks.

I was sitting working on my onions and thinking about how awful it was, but realized I didn’t mind it. It felt a little strange. Lately I’ve actually had a hard time enjoying myself, but found myself in the best of moods when I was done. Partly I think it was because it went quickly.  I’m one quarter of the way done so far. It’s going a little faster than I anticipated.  I was also listening to good music, and no one was around so I could occasionally sing and dance to it. Very fun. I also like not being supervised and working by myself. It allows me to do tasks my way, and not worry about details too much. One last thing, its nice to stay busy and get done what needs to be done. Being lazy never brings that satisfied happiness, although it feels good at the time. Even staying busy with not so fun tasks is better than doing nothing.