I am an Ortega employee. That’s right, I work at Ortega. Therefore, I must be a miserable, depressed person that hates my job and only works there because I take lots of drugs and dining services doesn’t do a drug test. Right, Mr. Marshall?

Wrong. I am a senior and have worked at Ortega since the very first week of my freshman year, and I love it. It is a fun and convenient job that doesn’t interfere with my classes. And I think if you actually came into Ortega (oh, the horror), you would see that most of my coworkers (and good friends) feel the same way. Secondly, I don’t take drugs; I don’t even smoke pot. Ever.

Over the years, I have read many unoriginal articles by dorm-dwelling freshmen complaining about dining commons food. For a while I thought that, even though I always liked the food in the commons, perhaps this whining was justified, and I was too influenced by my own bias to write a valid defense of Ortega, Carrillo and DLG. But with four years of UCSB experience behind me, I have concluded otherwise.

I suppose it’s only fair for me to acknowledge that I took a leave of absence from my job last year to study abroad in Spain. I spent the first month of my year-long EAP experience living in the dorms at the University of Alcal