Day One

Day One

The moment I’d been waiting for was merely minutes away when we (my boss, Hans, and I) pulled up to the Modesto lab (JL) this morning. I was going to see the big rig. The mobile unit. The lab with wheels.

The best way to describe it would be to call it a UPS truck minus the UPS-ness. Nothing special to the untrained eye. Nothing special to the trained eye! It’s just an amaizing thing though. It’s a mostly functioning lab! (In a few days/weeks it’ll hopefully be a FULLY functioning lab.) We can start the tests, but we need to be at JL to finish the testing.

This plant is different from the one I work for. Obviously. Meat vs. greens. It still smells, but it’s not a gut-wrenching, puking smell. There’s a different vibe here too. I don’t feel awkward or threatened walking around here compared to the plant in Greeley. The plant is near Gilroy and Salinas (2hours from Modesto) and it’s surrounded by the mountains. They aren’t the grand, purple majesty type, but they’re nice. It’s cool to see the mountains with the lettuce fields at the foothills.

It’s going to be a long night. I got up a little before 7am, it’s 7pm right now, and I’m supposed to work through the night running samples. Yes, I get to sleep during the day tomorrow, but I have to get through tonight first! Ce la vie. I asked for more, so I’m getting more. I was also told/asked today to stay for two weeks instead of the one. Imagine how tired I’m going to be in a few weeks: Two weeks of working in California, get back on a Saturday night, run home, work a day, do laundry, repack, head back to DIA Monday morning, fly to Ohio, work on my Grandma’s kitchen for a week, fly home, work a long week, head back to DIA again to pick up a friend who is coming to visit (yippee!!!), give a band concert, go hiking, etc with friend, drop friend off at DIA, work a few more days, get the weekend off. Phew! I got tired just typing it!

So cry, cry, cry. Everybody feel sorry for Colleen! She gets to travel and work and do what fun stuff! Boo-hoo. I know. Suck it up. ☺

I’ll let ya’ll know how the night and next day go. Happy eating.