Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Joys of Working Graveyard

Some of the perks of working graveyard.
I'll list these not in order of importance but just the order of when I think of the subject.

1. I work when everyone is sleeping so therefore I don't talk to people much. Because of this I end up talking to random people on my cell phone for hours on the weekends, or when I decide that going to bed before Noon is overrated.

1.5. It's hard for me to wake up "at night" especially when I go back to bed from 9p.m. to Midnight. Yeah, as you probably guessed, I don't wake up at midnight. My shift starts at 1a.m. therefore I wake up at 1a.m.. Therefore my hair and my makeup suffers, and my co-workers suffer seeing me at "my best." Like today when I came to work. I woke up at 1a.m. (I showered the night/day before) ran to the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth, pulled my hair into a ponytail, got dressed, grabbed my container of juice along with a tuperware full of milk, and a box of Chex Cereal and ran out the door. I walked into work fully thinking I was totally okay, 15 minutes late as usual (I think my clocks are off) and sat down. Did you see anything I missed?
Yup, you guessed it! My makeup!
Yea, didn't wear it today. I'm going with the natural look. I think it's a good look... for today. Tomorrow I'll make sure I don't forget to put on my face.

2. I'm a normal person and when I get off work I just want to go catch a flick or go out to eat... too bad for me that the theaters and restaurants are closed for "dinner entrees" until "dinner time." Therefore if I want to eat at Little Ceasers, Red Robin, or McDonalds I have to eat it for breakfast. LAME!
A week ago I went to McDonalds with the full intention of ordering one of their new breakfast burritos--with french fries on the side. Yea, as soon as the words fries came out of my mouth the woman at the receiving end of the microphone said "I'm soo sorry mam but we don't serve french fries for at least another two hours. Would you like two hashbrowns for $0.99?" I agreed on the SUBSTITUTE. A lame substitute, but fattening potatoes nonetheless.

3. When I respond back to posts on facebook people wonder why I'm up at 4am and wide awake.

4. I call friends at 9:30 in the morning and want to chat for atleast an hour. Instead I get their voicemail because they are in class.

5. When people call me at three in the afternoon it makes me angry. One, because it wakes me up and two it's 3 a.m. to me! How happy would you be to get a phone call at 3a.m.?

6. When I don't wake up to go to Kung Fu or Tai Chi I feel bad. You should not have to decide between sleep and exercise, especially when your exercise is fighting people. ;)

7. Oh yeah, this was about work. When I try to write stories at three in the morning my writing becomes a bit lazy. I'm surprised the newscast even turns out as good as it does.

8. At about 5a.m. when our show starts I start to wonder if my job is even important.

9. Ok, so I thought this blog was going to be a lot longer, but alas, it's the end of my shift and I'm tired and upset that I'm not gonna get a Little Ceasers $5.00 pizza after work, so I'm going to end this entry.

10. Thanks for listening. I hope this shift ends soon, but there are some good things about working when it's dark. When I come up with some I'll write a new entry.

4 comments:

erin and todd said...

Hi Ranae-

Thanks for letting me know about your blog via Facebook. :) It's fun to read about your crazy night shift job. I couldn't do it--but good for you!! Now that I've found your blog, I'll add it to mine and you can add my blog to all of your nightly reading! Hope you are doing great!

-Erin (and Todd) Fugal

Natalie | Make Today Great said...

Aw hon, when I first got here, I worked form 2:30 to 10:30 a.m. -- for all those reasons. It stinks. I totally feel for you. I would get up at 2, hurry and get ready and then head off to work, no makeup and wearing jeans.
The worse part was, the coworkers start wandering in at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. looking awesome, and I'm like hello, I've been here for five hours in my ponytail and hoodie.
And my editors would yell and cuss at me for being lazy in my writing. I wasn't being lazy, I was trying -- but brains don't function at that time!
I admire your ambition, I quit and took a job I like more, but that's not as exciting. I just hated sleeping all day and getting nothing done!
Sorry, just totally vented on your blog...just know that I feel your pain. I hate this time after graduation where we have to "pay our dues" or whatever.

Tayna said...

Ranae! Your job sounds so intense. It would be so weird to completely shift night and day roles. You are so amazing! Love you tons!

Oh, and I finally made my own blog: http://onelifenoregrets.blogspot.com

Dancinbackwards said...

You're my FAVORITE!!!

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