Work Saga

The new line of work is going OK. I suppose.

I got some special advanced secret training today, so now I have an idea of what some of my duties may include.

Or not. Nothing is yet set in stone. But it seems to me that if I was selected for some training that not everyone got, then that must mean something.

It still remains to be seen what my duty hours will be. Will I get the night shift and resume my zombie hours? Will I ever see the sun again? Will I show up to work as the day is ending for everyone else, and get home when the day is just starting for everyone else?

Well that may not be so horrible. Some people can handle the night shift, some can't. Truth be known I am one of those who CAN sleep all day and do other stuff all night.

But the flip side of this coin is that I have had night shifts before. I love the working hours - but you really do turn into a zombie. Even on your days off you keep zombie hours. You find it difficult to do seemingly simple things, like go to the bank. The darn bank closes before you wake up and opens up after you are asleep. If you need to buy something, good luck. You find that the stores close around the time you really want to roll out. 9 PM suddenly seems "early". 8 AM is "late".

Your life really is turned upside down. You become a creature of the night - seeking the darkness and shunning the sunlight. You never get to see your day shift friends, because they are all saying "it is late and I am tired" when you are just waking up!

And do not even get me started on weekends! You do not have any. Lets say you work on Saturday and get Sunday off. OK great! Sunday off huh? Well not exactly. See you show up to work at say 10 PM SATURDAY. Then you are let off at 8 AM or 10 AM SUNDAY - assuming a 10 or 12 hour shift. If you are working 8 hours then you get off at 6 AM.

But still - it really does not matter what your hours are. The point is you get out Sunday MORNING. Good luck getting anything done. You will go home, eat "dinner" - maybe have an after work beer (at 9 AM) then crash. You wake up on your "day off" sometime later that afternoon. After the day is over.

And lets say you work Monday - Friday. OK great. You show up Friday night, get off Saturday morning. Then you sleep all day Saturday (pissed that day away) - which of course means you are awake all night. Not such a bad thing really - there are lots of things to do Saturday night. But then you sleep all day Sunday and are up all night again - so that Monday you sleep all day to work all night.

And so on. The best case in this situation is that you work Sunday and have Saturday and Friday off. Then you get out of work Friday morning and force yourself to stay awake. Friday evening you are tired so you sleep. Then you can get up at a reasonable time Saturday for some sun time. I would be able to do things like use the boat and/or Waverunner. Or just hang out with day shift people. Have a beer at a reasonable hour of the day where people do not look at you like you are mad because you want to drink at 8 AM. HEY! I was working all freaking night! It is 8 AM to you but it is 8 PM to me! So lay off and give me a damn beer OK!?!?!? What the hell do you mean the bar is closed?

You daytime people NEED people like me. People like me keep the world functioning while you sleep. We are the guardians of the night, watching over the planet while all the normal people slumber. And then how do you pay us back? By mowing your lawn at 11 AM.

But the chance still remains of a day shift. The stuff I learned today happens over a transitional period. It starts during the night shift, but then gets passed off to the day shift. So maybe I will get to be "normal" and arrive to work in the morning.

This also presents interesting problems. For one, I become a rat stuck in the great race to nowhere. I so love morning hush hour traffic! Nothing says "what a pleasant morning this is" like being stuck in horrible traffic with tens of thousands of other angry people. But I believe the morning shift would actually require me to be on the clock at about the same time morning rush hour starts to build. I would actually leave the house BEFORE things stacked up, which should put me in clear traffic all the way to work. This is good.

But am I really a day shift person? Sure, I can adapt. Anyone can adapt to anything if they have to. It is part of the whole evolution thing. The world throws a problem at you - you either adapt or die. So yea, I could survive on a day shift. It would actually allow me to be far more normal. My days off would truly be "days off". I would still get up in the morning, leaving me all day to get something done.

But all this is moot really. I will get whatever I get. I can not do anything about it one way or the other.

Adapt or die.