Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Toad The Wet Sprocket – Walk On The Ocean

I’m at work right now, so this will be brief. Attentive readers will note that it is 3:45am Central time as I write this. Yes, I am now working the night shift, which runs from midnight to 9am. The 9am part is just a fiction, though. At the beginning and end of each shift we attend a meeting, which is basically where the people going off shift bring the people coming on shift up to speed on what’s happening. The midnight meeting is always pretty brief, but the morning meeting takes forever. And then after the morning meeting is over, usually extra time has to be spent meeting with a few other people, updating them on stuff that didn’t need to be discussed in the general meeting. It looks like I’ll usually get done between 9:30am and 10:30am.

I don’t mind working the night shift, really. I like being awake at night, so that part doesn’t bother me. I just started on this last night, so I’m still adjusting to the schedule. To practice for it, Carrie (who is also on the night shift) and I stayed up all night on Sunday night watching movies. We made it until about 8am. We both were nodding off during the last movie, so she went home.

Carrie and I actually volunteered for the night shift. I know, it sounds crazy, but there’s a reason. First of all, we knew we wouldn’t be able to work normal hours all the time. The reason our hours changed is because IBM has a project that they need done by December. Consequently they’re working on it 24 hours a day, and bringing extra people (like Carrie and I) onto the project. We were told up front that we couldn’t always work normal hours. So knowing this, I figured that the night shift was best.

Why? My first reason was because the other non-standard shift runs from 4pm until midnight. That’s when people go out and do things, when I play softball, etc, etc. I wouldn’t want to work that shift.

Still, I could have worked half night shift and half normal shift, possibly. But I didn’t want to have to switch back and forth between them. Once I get used to night shift, I may as well stick with it. No point in confusing my poor body any more than is necessary.

Finally, I like the idea of working the graveyard shift. There are fewer people at work, and it seems more peaceful.

Plus, I fear the sun.

Ok, I’ll probably talk about this more later, but for now, I’m going to get back to work. Only about 4 more hours until the shift change meeting, woo-hoo!