In the midst of all our Thanksgiving thankfulness last week, there was something I was decidedly unthankful about:
It's part of a new policy at the TV station where I work (a policy that only applied to producers and anchors, not reporters & photographers, but I digress...).
I did not whine about working from 12am-8am on Black Friday. Well, technically I did whine, but only to all my coworkers, my mom, DH, and the mailman.
I did not complain. Ok, again, I sorta complained, but only to those I knew would have sympathy on me.
I did not try to stage a socialist-esque march on management. Well, I guess I did threaten to quit once or twice and urged my coworkers to follow me to freedom...
I just came to work looking like this:
Yeah, I don't look good in the mornings... oh wait, the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT... without makeup on.
I staggered into work wearing my old college sweats.
I didn't even bother wearing deodorant.
And my show?
Here's the timeline of my day/night/morning:
5pm: Finish Thanksgiving dinner. Hope the trytophan in the turkey will put me to sleep, and attempt to take a nap. Fail.
6pm: Flip on the bedside lamp and try to read a few chapters of the Jodi Picoult book I picked up from the library over the weekend. June Nealon has me hooked. This is hopeless.
7:30pm: Give up. After 2.5 hours of tossing and turning, I return downstairs to play with the baby before her bedtime. Nurse her one last time (sigh), then lay her down to sleep.
8:30pm: Persuade DH to give me a full-body massage in hopes of soothing me to sleep. I know this won't work, but I'm just using my anticipated exhaustion as an excuse for some much-needed pampering.
9pm: DH tucks me into bed, admonishing me to stay there until my alarm goes off. I stare at the clock. The minutes tick by. My eyes do not close. I start thinking about ideas for my blog and begin writing next week's posts in my head.
10pm: Utterly frustrated, I drag myself out of bed and put on my shoes. I walk out the garage door loaded down with virtually all our Thanksgiving leftovers in hopes that food will make up for lack of sleep.
10:15pm: Arrive at work two hours early for my shift. The night crew is shocked to see me so early. Then they see my hair/face/clothes. I think they understand now.
10:30pm-2:30am: Work my little tail off, knowing I will ultimately crash and be absolutely useless. MUST.GET.WORK.DONE. Finally, something I can succeed at tonight.
2:30am: Finish with my producerly duties. Begin blogging in earnest. I am amazed how many bloggers are actually awake at this hour. I guess it is still only 11:30 in California.
5am-7am: Watch helplessly as the most pathetic morning newscast in history goes on air. Hang my head in shame.
7:15am: Rejoice as my relief arrives. Bust out of the doors so fast I might have broken a world record... and my coccyx (that's a whole other story).
8am: Finally home. Finally able to sleep. At last.
I know I don't have that much room to complain. DH has been working overnights for YEARS now... but I am a grade-A wuss. There's a reason I didn't schedule a class in college before
I know everybody has to go through their lumps on the job. I really am thankful just to have have a job these days. But now?
...I'm just happy I don't have to
do that again any time soon.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 02, 2009
.
You can leave a response
and follow any responses to this entry through the
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.
Oh wow! What a night! I can be paged any time of the day or night with my job, but I'm only awake long enough to fix whatever problem it is, then go back to bed. It does take a while to get back to sleep sometimes.
Ugh! Graveyard is not fun! I am so glad you wont be doing it again for a while. People who can stay awake all night amaze me!
Hahahaha...you said coccyx...hahaha...
~Working Mommy
Come on by, stay for a while and leave a comment or two!!
Reminds me of our trip to colorado last week. I got to drive all through the night while husband and baby slept and when my husband took over, he chatted away the hole time and wouldn't let me get a wink of sleep. I was crabby (still am) from lack of sleep. Hopefully this weekend I can catch up!
I would have whined. A lot.
Oh that sucks. I am sad to say if I were in your shoes I couldn't have done it. I'm sadly {& oh so pathetically} in bed & headed to sleep by 9.
I do the same thing w/ blogs - write them in my head while I'm trying to go to sleep. I never do remember them tho.
I would have complained the whole time too. My DH has to work the evening shift at his job (2:00 - 10:30 pm) so I feel your sympathy.
Karen
It sounds as though you made real good use of your time even though it was in the middle of the night!
I would have complained the whole shift....under my breath of course. Thank you for stopping by my blog by the way!
YEAH, I couldn't do it...that's for sure.
Aww, that's a shame. I remember my first graveyard shift, being greeted by a team of 25 blokes, all swearing and talking nonsense about one thing or another. I tried to go with the flow through the tiredness but knew it was never going to work...I eventually got it sorted to my liking but I would like to think I'll never have to do it again. Oh, then I went and had three kids in quick succession; if that's not constant night shift, I don't know what is!
Great blog, it's lovely to meet you. Your wee lass is adorable! x
I'm thinking your non-emmy show was probably not seen by many people...they were probably all in the middle of their turkey coma's anyway.
Brutal! I would be a wuss too. Oh...but I would actually say that the mere fact that you did it, means you are not a wuss. So whatever you make of that...
You have every right to whine about having to work on such a sacred night!! No judgement here! There is something about being at work when you know that everyone else is snuggled up sleeping at home that just ruins your night!!!
What Jodi Picoult book are you reading? I LOVE HER!!!! I have read all of her books except for the new one. Now I have a baby and thus the time for fiction book reading has gone away, along with my sanity at times. :)
It would work for me. I don't sleep during the night hours anyway.
I would complain, too. I'm not a stay-up-all-night type at all!
I don't think I could do it. Hubs used to shift work and it was a PITA for all of us.