First Day at the FARM

Today was supposed to be just an "Orientation Day"...or so I thought. I arrived at the blueberry farm with expectations of a safety course and instructions on how to run the equipment, etc. However, I was unexpectedly thrown a full day of go go go go. I arrived at 10:00 a.m. We were immediately taken to the office and break room where we filled out the paperwork as well as our timecards. This is where I kicked myself for not bringing a water! So then they take us out to a huge shed piled stories high with boxes - flat boxes, that is. And flat boxes need to be folded. So Carrie, our manager, told us that we were going to fold boxes until everyone got there and they were ready to go through the safety stuff. TWO HOURS later, we broke for lunch, and then it was time for the safety/rules heart to heart. This is where I find that I cannot throw the blueberries. And I thought I had it made. So then they take us to the packaging barn. At this point, I still think this is an "Orientation Day" and that I was merely going to be taught how everything operates. However, I was immediatly ushered up onto a platform facing a long conveyer belt. Then I was given Blueberry 101. What to pick off, what not to pick off. Good berry, bad berry---Oh, I mean FRUIT. Apparently, according to veteran workers, the owners NEVER refer to the blueberries as BERRIES. They are FRUIT. And never forget it. Okay...so they are called blueBERRIES. We do not put blueFRUIT in our muffins. But whatever. The manager was never able to tell us what exactly was a good FRUIT and what wasn't. She always says, "Um, I really don't have a definite answer for you." Ok. Yeah. Anyway, to make a long story short, my work on the assembly line began and my eyes were greeted with sheets of blueberries before me, zooming by---and making me sick. Did I mention I get sick on a merryground? I got a little whoozy. ANd then when the belt would stop, I would lean to the side it was going, and almost fall over. Oh, so much better than the fair. Three hours and a pure hatred for FRUIT later I was relieved of my assembly duty and was shown how to work a machine that feeds the packages that the FRUIT goes into. And I thought the belt was bad. This was more stressful than Dorener test. I had to feed the containers through a machine, which then spit them out one by one and filled them with the blue fruit. It sounds easy when I'm writing this, and I'm sure it is for everyone else in the world. For me, however, the machine was the devil. Every other second the containers were getting jammed and at the same time it would shoot out two and then I would run low on containers and have to run and get more boxes and then the stockpile of blueberries would grow and start to smash and I'd have to run and smooth it down. WHoo! AND, I discovered during this tumultous time in my first day at a real job, that I am a klutz. I realized this as I took a huge stack of little clamshell containers out of the box and they flew EVERYWHERE with a crash. So then I had to unjam, smooth, refill AND clean up. Luckily I found an angel among the fruit. A Latina girl came to my rescue and says it happens to her all the time. I then go and watch her do my same job but only a hundred times better. Yeah, I'm sure it happens to her all the time......So finally, Carrie announces that we're done. SAVED. Pitted out. Stressed out. Broken Out. I was a mess. It was like a breath fresh air being able to clock out of that place at 5:30 p.m. And it was even more of a relief to hear that we probably wouldn't work until Monday. There is a higher power.

So yes. My first experience at a "REAL" job. A day at the FARM working with FRUIT. Today was an easy day, I hear. We will get to a point when we're working 7:00 a.m. to midnight. I'm so stoked for that! Think of the money. Think of the money. Think of the money.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

and not the blueberries