i'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden...

Because it'd probably be a lot more interesting! Here's the deal about why this job is hard. Anyone can crank out a 16-hour shift in the factory. You break up your day into 2-hour increments, thank Steve Jobs and his magicians regularly for the genius that is ipod, and keep your third eye on the prize of disembarking in a relatively short time.
The snag? Down time. I have read until my eyes are blurred, talked until I no longer have ANY desire to "get to know your neighbor", consumed coffee in amounts unhealthy to any organizm with a beating heart...which is now beating SUPER fast, and have come full circle to complacency.
Someone does my laundry, cooks all my food, and people are generally super nice, unless they're complaining about money. The joke "That's why it's called fishing and not catching" is wearing thin. Punctuated by glorious days in Dutch Harbor (this last offload was a balmy 38 degrees and sun sun sun!) the mundane reality is I have imposed this upon myself. No "poor me's" but I do keep writing myself notes to find later saying things like "Remember how you feel at this moment, DON'T come back" or "It REALLY is time to move on". It's amazing how quickly amnesia sets in and you trick yourself into thinking you can put in for just one more season. Probably some evolutionary trick our brains developed in order to have multiple children.
In short, life is actually pretty sweet right now. In a Splenda, bland, brain-wave altering way.