When I started I felt a combination of, uh, "ooginess" and cunning. While there is, to my knowledge, no formal rule forbidding it, I don't know of anyone working both places, let alone at exactly the same time. Four years ago, when I started in this industry, I worked with one guy at one of the companies, and then I bumped into him at the other company a few months later. (I haven't seen him ever again, by the way.) Other than that, I think I am the only person on Earth who's moonlighting in the same industry, and certainly the only person doing so in the same damn day for the past two weeks.
Now, I kind of think that, especially since testing season is limited, that people who like this line of work will double-dip. Are they not because the day would be so long? Or is it because they prefer one of the test scoring companies over the other, or otherwise feel some sense of company loyalty? I don't disparage either place; I think both companies have its advantages and disadvantages. But the paychecks I get from both places (although one is higher than the other because I work eight hours in one but four in the other) are equally legitimate. I need the money, and I need to work these projects while the sun is shining, to twist a farm analogy. So I go to one place in the morning and the other place at night. And I apparently am the only one, even though I don't know why.
I still am kind of afraid that I'll be found out. I don't tell anybody from either company I work for the other. I also am kind of scared whenever I zip open my backpack pouch where I keep both of my badges; I'm afraid that the one I'm not using at the time will fall out of my bag, or someone looking over my shoulder will spot the other badge in my bag. I then will have a lot of explaining to do, even though I really wouldn't know how to defend myself ... and that's assuming that I don't have anything to worry about since this isn't illegal, at least as far as I know. However, seeing that no one has "caught on" (if anybody really cares) kind of excites me. I feel like I'm a spy hiding in plain sight. I work at one place, then I work at another. And no one is paying attention that I (and I say this with a lot of ego) am getting away with it.
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However, the fatigue is catching up with me. My day/night is now over at the 10 o'clock hour, and I am wiped out. I barely have enough time to gather my thoughts to post on Wailing And Failing after being all pooped out in my day job (and in my previous job as a flu biller, too). But the past two weeks I literally have had no time, what with this night job but also doing my taxes and fulfilling my duties as alumni club president. I should do a Scheduled Post bomb so I don't have to worry about staying up past midnight, but when I try to do that I don't even know what I want to say. Only when the clock is about to strike midnight where I finally feel the need to blog about something, even though I have absolutely no energy with which to do it.
The commute from job to job has gotten worse the past couple of days. They were bad when I pulled off a similar feat last year; I needed to build in about 45 minutes to drive about 15 miles in afternoon rush. Up until Tuesday, however, that was cut down to about half an hour. I don't know what circumstances allowed such an easy and quick trip, and the rainy and gloomy weather the past couple of days is a reasonable reason why it's gotten so long. But I'm still kind of amazed how you can get a wide range of commute times on the same route on the same time of day.
Today I got out of my first job a bit past 4:30, but it took me until 5:30 to get to my night job. That was a couple minutes longer than Tuesday, and a lot longer than the 30, 35-minute sojourn through the southwestern metropolitan area. A total damn nightmare of stop-and-go, backed-up traffic. In the middle of this slog I felt a fatigue come over me the intensity of which I haven't felt in a long time. It was kind of close to the time when I fell asleep on the way home from my overnight holiday stocking position at Macy's. Not good at all, and an indication that my 16 1/4-hour workdays have finally caught up to me.
I need the money, especially after I okayed such extensive fixes to my car. But right now, as I type this, I would rather have a long day of sleeping in than the combined daily paychecks of both of these jobs I'm working now. Speaking of which, I should be sleeping now. I am getting up earlier than usually because one of my co-workers is celebrating a birthday and I'm picking up donuts for the whole room, and I need to get down to A Baker's Wife to make sure I get to work on time. I should have been in bed at least an hour ago. God, I hope I don't accidentally sleep in. Good night.
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