I was realizing the other day as we were walking up the mountain in the rain that most of my working life has been spent as little more than a mule. Haul a LICOR suitcase up a mountain, move soil cores from the field to the lab, move rebar and PVC pipe and car batteries around in the desert, haul water and hay to the horses, move frozen burgers from the FSA truck to the restaurant freezer, dirty dishes to the washer, plates full of food to the customers, and sticky garbage bags out to the dump. I just graduated from Cornell University, and the most I can say is that I've graduated from my pre-Cornell days as a waitress hauling garbage, to a research assistant with a slightly more expensive load to move from one place to another.

I go back and forth between thinking, "I can't believe someone is PAYING me to have this much fun," to thinking "How the hell did I get suckered into doing this for only $13.50 an hour." I guess that's the eternal debate with any job, and as long as the first one wins out your doing OK. So far it is.

The other debate I love bringing up with people is the classic mosquitos vs. cold debate. Would you rather spend a day in the field shivering, or relentlessly swatting at mosquitos? Of course, the ideal would be a warm breeze, just strong enough to keep the mosquitos down, but that's a rare find in the arctic, where wind means plummeting temperatures. And the worst is buggy and wet, since they can fly in all but the most torrential of rains.

The only definitive conclusion we've come to is that when it's warm and buggy, cold is better, and when it's cold, buggy is better.