Where is My Life?
Lets say that I skip my usual apologies for my lollybloggerness, so that I canget right down to the story.
My tale begins almost four weeks ago in another season on a day that has been come to known as Snowpocolypse 2006. I woke up relatively early after staying up late the past night to go see "V for Vendetta", a very excellent movie which seems unfairly classified as an action film. Shani had stayed over that night, and as usual I didn't sleep that well being unused to not having my bed to myself (...and not for any other reason). Anyways the world was a very snowy wasteland and I dreaded going outside. Unfortunately there were a plethora of activities that I had to do that day.
Of course there was the shovelling of the mounds of snow. A very tiring task which took me almost a hour and a half. After that there was the preparations for my friend's sons birthday party. He was turning four and of course I had yet to buy a gift. So we had to drive on the horrible roads to the local Toys R Us to search for a present. Eventually we picked up something and we headed out to the party on the north end. Another example of driving hell I assure you. The party was nice, the birthday boy very cute, and it was good to see all my friends who I never get to see (I just had the thought that I should abbreviate this often used phrase to "f.w.i.n.g.t.s"). Him turning four made me feel my age, and I really felt like joining the other kids in running around without any cares smashing the pinata.
To stay for a while I had to sacrifice my plans on a short nap that afternoon, so I drove Shani home and headed all the way back home to the south side. I was only there a short time before I had to head back into the icy hell to my first night shift in the northwest at a cement plant. I was really dreading going to work that night for good reason; I hadn't had a lot of sleep, I had not had a restful day, I had no caffeine and the long night loomed endlessly. Obviously I survived that night, but only by a small margin I assure you for the purpose of being dramatic.
The first night was actually the hardest we all worked that entire project. Everyone seemed to jump into the tasks and we got a lot done. Despite all the activity the twelve hour night seemed to drag on, but eventually it ended. Honestly at the end of shift I was more exhausted than I've ever been before in my life. It's a small miracle that I managed to drive home without falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into a lamp post. It's like my dad says, "Luckily the car knows it's way home." I've never loved my bed so much as I did that morning when I got home.
So this began my routine of sleeping all day, waking up for an hour, then going to work. In contrast to the first day we did almost nothing the next few days. The day shift finished most of the stuff we had to do so we were on standby. This meant doing a few little jobs here and there with the rest of our time being spent in our trailer doing nothing. If you think twleve hours is a long work shift wait till you spend it doing almost nothing. I felt almost criminal on Sunday night to be getting double time to sit and play cards. It wasn't too bad to hang out with the other guys as we had a lot of other people my age on the night crew, which was quite different from the old and bitter bricklayers that I'm accustomed too. So time was wasted, thirty bucks was lost, and eventually we had work to do. I won't bore you with actual details of the work but suffice it to say my involvement was confined to sweeping, carrying, and fetching. Except for the time when they let me handle a power tool, and for when I had the pleasure of painting a pipe with very sticky tar.
The project went on with me working for thirteen days straight. I'm not sure how other people handle working graveyards on a permanent basis, but all I know is that by the end I was starting to get very tired. I was also really missing any kind of a social life and the smallest amount of leisure time. Judging by the morale I wasn't alone. I managed to see Shani a few times in the morning when I would pick her up and we would go out for a McDonald's breakfast.
There would have been a fourteenth night, but that was the first game of Purgatory so I took it off. When I told my boss he said that I didn't need to come back Saturday night then either. I assumed at first that he was being snotty because of my request but he explained that Friday was going to be the last day anyways. I was relieved at that because Saturday was Paradise Lost, but I was sad to not be getting another night of double time.
I'll continue my exciting tale another day as this is getting long, and I am growing weary.
My tale begins almost four weeks ago in another season on a day that has been come to known as Snowpocolypse 2006. I woke up relatively early after staying up late the past night to go see "V for Vendetta", a very excellent movie which seems unfairly classified as an action film. Shani had stayed over that night, and as usual I didn't sleep that well being unused to not having my bed to myself (...and not for any other reason). Anyways the world was a very snowy wasteland and I dreaded going outside. Unfortunately there were a plethora of activities that I had to do that day.
Of course there was the shovelling of the mounds of snow. A very tiring task which took me almost a hour and a half. After that there was the preparations for my friend's sons birthday party. He was turning four and of course I had yet to buy a gift. So we had to drive on the horrible roads to the local Toys R Us to search for a present. Eventually we picked up something and we headed out to the party on the north end. Another example of driving hell I assure you. The party was nice, the birthday boy very cute, and it was good to see all my friends who I never get to see (I just had the thought that I should abbreviate this often used phrase to "f.w.i.n.g.t.s"). Him turning four made me feel my age, and I really felt like joining the other kids in running around without any cares smashing the pinata.
To stay for a while I had to sacrifice my plans on a short nap that afternoon, so I drove Shani home and headed all the way back home to the south side. I was only there a short time before I had to head back into the icy hell to my first night shift in the northwest at a cement plant. I was really dreading going to work that night for good reason; I hadn't had a lot of sleep, I had not had a restful day, I had no caffeine and the long night loomed endlessly. Obviously I survived that night, but only by a small margin I assure you for the purpose of being dramatic.
The first night was actually the hardest we all worked that entire project. Everyone seemed to jump into the tasks and we got a lot done. Despite all the activity the twelve hour night seemed to drag on, but eventually it ended. Honestly at the end of shift I was more exhausted than I've ever been before in my life. It's a small miracle that I managed to drive home without falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into a lamp post. It's like my dad says, "Luckily the car knows it's way home." I've never loved my bed so much as I did that morning when I got home.
So this began my routine of sleeping all day, waking up for an hour, then going to work. In contrast to the first day we did almost nothing the next few days. The day shift finished most of the stuff we had to do so we were on standby. This meant doing a few little jobs here and there with the rest of our time being spent in our trailer doing nothing. If you think twleve hours is a long work shift wait till you spend it doing almost nothing. I felt almost criminal on Sunday night to be getting double time to sit and play cards. It wasn't too bad to hang out with the other guys as we had a lot of other people my age on the night crew, which was quite different from the old and bitter bricklayers that I'm accustomed too. So time was wasted, thirty bucks was lost, and eventually we had work to do. I won't bore you with actual details of the work but suffice it to say my involvement was confined to sweeping, carrying, and fetching. Except for the time when they let me handle a power tool, and for when I had the pleasure of painting a pipe with very sticky tar.
The project went on with me working for thirteen days straight. I'm not sure how other people handle working graveyards on a permanent basis, but all I know is that by the end I was starting to get very tired. I was also really missing any kind of a social life and the smallest amount of leisure time. Judging by the morale I wasn't alone. I managed to see Shani a few times in the morning when I would pick her up and we would go out for a McDonald's breakfast.
There would have been a fourteenth night, but that was the first game of Purgatory so I took it off. When I told my boss he said that I didn't need to come back Saturday night then either. I assumed at first that he was being snotty because of my request but he explained that Friday was going to be the last day anyways. I was relieved at that because Saturday was Paradise Lost, but I was sad to not be getting another night of double time.
I'll continue my exciting tale another day as this is getting long, and I am growing weary.
posted by Eman at 11:00 PM
1 Comments:
I'd definitely be in the hate category. Which is odd because I'm a complete night owl. I think I much prefer to be doing my own thing at night rather than working.
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