Lately I've recognized a fun pattern on my nights off where I'm tired and go to bed at the same time as Ross, but then wake up around 2am and don't fall asleep again until 7:30am. Awesome. It's probably the root cause of my bad mood today. I woke up at 2am Saturday morning and stayed up until 10:30am. Then I napped until 1pm. I stayed up after that and Ross and I went to my cousin John's basketball game and out to dinner with my Aunt Theresa, Uncle Charlie, and cousins John and Jimmy. Came home and accidentally fell asleep on the couch at 9pm but by then, I'd had 2 1/2 hours of sleep in the last 19 hours, so it's safe to say I had been awake a normal amount of time and didn't sleep the day away. I crawled into bed at 10pm, woke up at 1:30am, and have been awake ever since. I'll say it now and you can assume it holds true until next month when I'll say it again (I try to limit it, since it's really a self-evident truth): I HATE NIGHT SHIFT!
Secondly, when I do start to get sleepy again around 6am after killing time for several hours, the neighbor we share a wall with wakes up and starts smoking. I swear they sit in bed right on the other side of that wall and smoke a pack of extra-nicotine cigarettes for an hour and the smoke seeps through. The smoke is not coming through the vent, mind you, but the drywall itself, insulation and all. This makes me incredibly angry, causes my bronchioles to spasm and I start to wheeze and I absolutely cannot sleep by that point. I lay there for an hour and a half inhaling this second-hand smoke, working up a sweat because I'm so angry. It takes every once of my self-control not to start throwing things at the wall or to march up to their door and scream at them for being such idiots. The apartment complex won't do anything because, "they have a right to smoke in their apartment." Well, don't I have a right to breathe clean air in MY apartment?! I'm soooo over apartment living.
Which brings me to the fact that I'd love to start looking for a house, but I'm suddenly making less money than I did in Texas. Not only did I take a $2.50/hour pay cut, but I'm not used to having income taxes taken out of my paycheck. Night shift differential almost makes up the difference, but moving to day shift (while much improving my personal life) will not improve financial matters. Not that it looks like it'll happen soon anyway.
Recently, I added that application on Facebook that counts the most frequently-used words in your status updates. Here are mine:
1. work
2. night
3. tomorrow
4. days
5. good
6. Ross
7. baby
8. today
9. off
10. NICU
No surprises there!
Aww you poor thing!! Sounds like a tough day (or several). Here's an idea for the smoke- if you have any electrical outlets on that wall that you share with your neighbor, make sure they are screwed on tightly and fill the plug part with baby "safety" plugs. I remember from cheerleading camp in HS that we could unscrew the covers in each room w/ shared walls and look through at one another, so perhaps your apt is the same way?? Not sure what else to do, but that would drive me MAD as well. Love ya- hang in there!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily! I'm learning that I get pretty grumpy without sleep. I hope you're doing okay with the sleep deprivation that comes with a new addition to the household! And thanks for the safety plug idea. I put them on my Target shopping list :o)
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