Well, not really. But the more I look, the more the contrasts between this summer and the last pop out, for better or for worse. I’ve taken a job this summer as an industrial designer for a company that makes mass-retail patio furniture; for comparison, last summer I worked as a landscaper.

Last summer, my morning commute was a two minute bike ride; this summer, I cram myself onto the subway and head into the heart of downtown to the office, at Richmond and Bay. Last summer I spent the days planting trees, lifting rocks, pulling weeds and mowing lawns - there are times I would have killed to sit in an air-conditioned office. Now, I sit in an air-conditioned office in front of a 22″ widescreen monitor, sketching and modelling chairs in CAD - by the time my half-hour lunch break rolls around, I’m dying to get outside. My wage was 1.5x lower last summer, but I worked 1.5x more hours. At the beginning of last summer, I bought a pair of steel-toed workboots; this summer I bought a pair of black leather loafers (they cost less than half what the boots did - go figure). The first few weeks on the job last summer, I went to bed at 9:00 and was still tired when I woke up; this year I’m still tired, but it’s because I’ve been out drinking with my friends too many nights in a row. Last summer, the boss would take us out for wings and beer; today, the boss was going to take us for a powerlunch at a trendy Japanese restaurant (something came up, so we ordered gourmet sandwiches instead). Last summer, my collar was the bluest of blues (assuming it wasn’t caked with dirt, that is); this summer, I actually have a collar, and it’s weird.

So which do I like better? It’s hard to say. It counts for something that I’m actually working in my chosen profession, but the work I’m doing is driven solely by marketing trends, arbitrary styling, and obscene ornamentation - in my eyes, the anthithesis of what design should be. Workign downtown is actually the best part of the job, though, and I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it when I get a Metropass in June.

I’m not forgetful enough to say that landscaping was a picnic, but to paraphrase Calvin’s dad, manual labour builds character. You need to shovel shit for a while (figuratively, but in landscaping it was literal as well) to appreciate the actual value of a dollar. If I forget it by the end of the summer, this is written permission to hit me with the landscaping implement of your choice.