I'm finding myself in quite a quandary, and while of course only I can make the final decision, I was hoping you good folks might have some enlightenment to bestow upon me during my deliberations. 
I'll try to present the Cliff's Notes version with a minimum of identifying info!
I am currently unemployed, and probably aiming for graduate school (a Ph.D. program) within the next 2 years. In order to stand a solid chance at getting in to a good graduate school, I really ought to add a bit more "research experience" to my resume.
I am about equi-distant from 2 good schools - one isn't the world's most famous school but has a few famous professors I would like to work with, and the other is a very famous school that also has very famous professors.
One option: apply for a full time research assistant job at Very Famous School. It wouldn't be exactly the sub-field I'm most interested in. Also, this school is a 45 minute drive with no traffic, and I would be hitting massive rush hour both ways. I'm sure I'd be looking at somewhere around 3-4 hours of driving each day, which would leave little time for more exciting things, such as horseback riding (my big passion) and spending time with the dog and the BF (which they appreciate!). I do worry about Rascal spending so much time alone - 9-5 wouldn't be so bad, but 6 or 7 to 5 (when BF gets home) would be hard on him. However, if I could actually land the job, it would look fantastic on my resume and would probably give me some good experience/skill-building to help me decide whether or not I want to jump in to grad school, and there are dog alternatives, so... :-\
Another option is to volunteer my services part time at either university and to pick up a part-time "filler" job. This is appealing to me because I could set my hours to avoid rush hour and have a lot more flexibility in my schedule for things like traveling, horse shows, minding the dog, etc. However, I've been told that a part-time gig wouldn't look nearly as good on my resume, and what I would be doing would be pretty much exclusively "b*tch work" with very little actual, serious contribution to the research. While I would still be doing grunt work as a full-timer, I would at least have a much better chance at getting into the "real" research, which would give me a stronger leg-up for grad school applications (both in strength of recommendations ("she's great at filing" vs. "she's great at writing articles";) and in actual work experiences.
Option #3 I'm barely even considering, but it would involve moving about 3 hours away to be a full time research assistant at Different Very Famous School, but in an area I'm much more interested. But I don't want to move out of the apartment BF and I share (4 mo. left on the lease anyway), and I don't want to move, only to move again next summer if I end up going to grad school.
The full time positions are September->September, full year commitment. I will probably be applying to schools this year, and would be finalizing school plans in spring/summer (April-May ish) to start next fall.
So, if you took the time to read all this, thank you! And if you have any words of wisdom for me, thank you for those, too!