Perks

Today was my last day of work for the summer. Five months of working at Soil Test Farm Consultants. It was a great job. Want me to list out a few of the perks? I thought you might. So I made this list.

• No name tag! (Remember this? This was when I swore I wouldn’t wear another name tag.)
• Wearing jeans, old, soft t-shirts, even older pumas (they got duct tape on them at month three), no make-up, and my hair in a pony tail.
• Drinking Diet Dr. Pepper through a straw that tastes how the Shell gas station smells.
• Driving at least 600 miles a week allowed for a lot of time to listen to the radio. This gave two perks in itself:
1. Knowing the words to every country song on the radio.
2. Listening to books on tape (Favorites included: Beatrice and Virgil, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, No Country for Old Men, The Scarlet Pimpernel.)

• Leaning how maps really work! I no longer get irrevocably lost! I now understand if a road is N.E. it means N.E. from a certain point and does not mean if you turn around then all the sudden that road becomes S.E.
• Naps on Mondays (I often had to wait for farmers to bring their soil samples to a designated point.)
• Lunch at home on Tuesdays.
• Driving past a mini-horse farm mini-horse farm! on Thursdays.

Great job, no?

But the biggest perk had nothing to do with books on tape, my work “uniform”, or discovering maps.

The biggest perk was I got to work with my dad.

• He shared sips of his Diet Pepsi whenever I was around.
• We drove miles and miles together listening to political or classic country radio. He entertained me with stories and discussed life.
• He bought me gas-station corn dogs for breakfast and occasional lunch at Inca’s.
• Many mornings he walked me out to my truck to give me a hug and send me on my way.
• My dad reminisced at the office in the a.m. and shared his pretzels with me in the p.m.
• He never got too mad at me when I messed up (and I messed up a lot).

And the best of all of these was that we got to spend more time together this summer than we have ever spent.