The Summer of Tomatoes Inaugerates

After months of unemployment, I finally have a job. I started a paid internship for the summer with Monsanto this week. Yes, that Monsanto. No, I don't care. I'm too in love with the idea of improving crops.

What am I doing? Well, if I told you I'd have to kill you. Seriously, I don't want to get dooced, so don't expect me to write any essays about my job any time soon. That said, here's what I can tell you:

I was hired to breed pathogen-resistant tomatoes this summer. Btw, long term projects are a longtime nemesis of mine and I'm looking forward to the face-off.

I've decided I'm going to pour my heart and soul into this job. I've got the capacity to do not just a good job, but an outstanding one, and now's the time to show it.

The job is in the neighboring town of Woodland, so I'm taking the Yolobus from Davis to Woodland and then biking the remaining four miles. I just got back from my first round trip that way. The good news is that it's definitely doable and I'll be getting good exercise this summer. The bad news is that it was raining on my way back, so I'm drying off as I write this.

The "site", as it's called, is the size of a small college campus. People actually use communal, floating bikes to get from place to place. I do too, because while riding a cruiser on loose gravel may be like walking on ice, riding a road bike on loose gravel is like walking on ice with stilts.

For the first time in my life I'm being paid by salary rather than by the hour and I am rather stoked. Not only am I being paid rather well, but if, including transit time, I happen to work two eleven-hour days in a row, nobody minds (except maybe Jill). Speaking in hypotheticals, of course...