>Anyhow, upon arrival at the George Fox College campus where the conference was held, I met another kid who made me feel a lot better. He had been contacted late because the girl who previously had the position had quit, so he gets to work ten hour days counting shells. That's it. He counts shells for an archeologist. Everyone offer a sigh of sympathy.

That sounds like a cool weekend. The shell-counting guy reminded me of a job I heard about once. Depending on the mood I'm in, it seems like either the best or worst job you could ever have:
There's this place on a Pacific island where they breed endangered turtles to put back in the wild, and apparently when the hatchlings are being raised in a tank they grow too much algae on their shells, which has some sort of adverse effect. So there is a guy whose sole purpose in life is to sit on the beach with a toothbrush and scrub baby turtles.

Brunnen-"true story"G