The Second Shift

Today starts two weeks of me working second shift.  I am filling in for someone who is vacationing.  I volunteered initially for the first week (this week), but no one wanted to substitute the second week, so I'm doing it next week, too.

I don't know what to think.  I remember ushering after a temp job on weekday evenings, but the last time I had a stint working from the afternoon till deep into the evening was this information retention company about 15 years ago, and that lasted about a few months, I think.  I liked it, even though the people I was working with were weird and self-absorbed.

The thing I'm looking forward to most, and I've spoken about this before, is having the area all to myself.  Eventually; I get there at 3:30 (so I better not have any issues finding parking where I want), which is when most of the people I work with (especially in my main area) are long gone.  Two people in the adjoining area leave at 5:30, and the other person I start my shift work with leaves at 6:30.  I should have more than five hours with the run of the place all to myself.  And I look forward to doing whatever I want with very few people even knowing I'm there.

With that said, I am absolutely terrified that I'll fall asleep.  I continue to take these after-dinner, early evening naps brought on by the lockdown.  I guess I can time that up with my lunch (well, dinner).  But I wonder if I'll get bored and start to get tired.  The amount of work I get will dictate how alert I'll be, I think.  I have never worked this late there before.  From 1:30 to 10, yes, but not two hours later.  So will there be work from 10 until midnight?  Will there be anyone who needs something from the filing department late at night?  Don't know.

Now, if there isn't work to do (and that includes cleaning, which we need to do more often), instead of dozing off to sleep, maybe I can just go on the Internet.  Oh, or maybe I can finally reconcile my expense list for August!  Or, I can poop after the big dinner I know Mother will pack for me for dinner!  Maybe I'll be resourceful enough to find something to do, even if it's not work.

In the meantime, it's weird to be up for so long before work.  I don't like it because inevitably my energy will dip.  For example, last night, because I didn't get a nap in (I had to mow a lawn and in the evening this college thing was moved up ... I didn't get a nap in), I fell asleep at 11 p.m. and woke up around 2 with the satellite radio still playing.  Too late to take the shower I wanted to take, so I thrashed around in bed while Father was up late at night until, say, 6.  Woke up a bit past 10, and I've been up since.  Now, I think I can take in another nap, and I have to blog post this, and I will take a shower before I go into work.  But while I like not hitting the snooze button twice and fighting my body to get up a half-hour after the alarm first rings, I think being 5 1/2 hours up before going to work will lead to disaster.  But, like I said before, if there's a lot of work to do, I won't be tired.

I think by the end of this two-week stint I'll be unhappy that I'll have to go back to working days.  We'll see.