Nurses are lucky. Really. Regardless of how your 12 or 13 hour shift goes, you typically only work 3 of those shifts a week and you have the other 4 days to recover. Now, it's often not so neat and tidy. The weeks blend together, you work overtime, you may have kids and a husband at home, or another job, or you do something silly like start grad school and that eats up your free time...
But by and large, four days a week, I don't have to hear my alarm go off at 5am. The tradeoff for sometimes not working weekdays is that I do have to work weekends and holidays and evenings. But it's still a fairly decent trade. As these weekdays off draw all-too-rapidly to an end, I find myself cherishing every last minute. The fact of the matter is, I haven't worked just 3 days a week since July!
I was scheduled to work 6 days in a row this week between all the jobs I've picked up, but praise the Lord I got voluntarily cancelled from the NICU today! So this last, precious weekday off is like a ridiculously elusive snow day. It's shining and golden and I just want to eat it up.
So I thought I'd record it, lest any of it go to waste.
Around 0500, in the midst of a dream that work never called and I had to go in, I got the phone call saying I could take the day off in 4 hour blocks. I had a fleeting thought of regret that it was one less day to work with the babies before I'm done with that, too, but my eyelids sank closed again quickly and I slept on an off until 0815.
I leisurely rolled out of bed, started breakfast, got dressed, and then ate breakfast (a warm bowl of creamy raspberry buckwheat).
By 0905 I made a cup of green tea and started my quiet time, determined to make the most of not having to rush it. Also, I eat the last cookie out of the freezer. Because apparently I've decided breakfast deserves dessert too?
Oh, but then I remember I need to take my medicine and when I do, I find that my pill divider is empty, so I fill that. (You know, if you give a mouse a cookie...) I currently take accutane, Allegra, and a multivitamin in the morning. In the evening, I take another accutane, a calcium + vitamin D supplement, a vitamin B complex supplement, and a probiotic. I also take my Advair inhaler twice a day.
Now it's 0930. Back to the space heater and my quiet time on the couch. I do get distracted a few times. For example, while catching up on my SheReadsTruth Bible study, I want to bookmark this page. I also remember to download a few sermons while I'm reading and writing.
At 1030, I'm getting more fidgety even though I'm not nearly as caught up on journaling and reading as I would like to be. It's now above freezing outside instead of the sunny but frigid 19 degrees I saw when I woke up, so I decided this was a good a time as any to run errands and get grocery shopping out of the way in case I did get called in later. I'm not sure what we would've done if I had to work today. Probably go to the store hungry, tired, and cranky tonight. That's the only bad thing about leaving town for the holidays-- unpacking and settling in at home on Sunday evening, only to realize your fridge is bare.
I ended up checking e-mail, reading some blogs, doing some online shopping, and meal planning, and then left the house at 1115.
My heart was happy as I headed down the stairs and saw all the empty parking spots at our apartment complex. I would never pretend I know what it's like to have agoraphobia or anthrophobia, but I do know that I'm so so so much less anxious running errands with the leisurely weekday shoppers than I am running errands with the masses on Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon. I'm going to miss this.
It's been quite a while since I had time or money for dual-store grocery shopping, but since the weather was cool (stuff can stay in the car longer) and I had time for once, I went to Hy-Vee and Whole Foods. At Whole Foods, I put about a dozen novelty items in my cart, as one does in Whole Foods, only to take them back out because they weren't on the list. To reward myself for this discipline, I bought vegetables from the salad bar to add to my lunch. Logical, right?!
When I got home around 1330, I carried all the bags up three flights of stairs in one trip, put the groceries away, and ate my salad bar treats. Then I checked my e-mail and remembered how much homework I needed to get done today. I warmed up some mint chocolate coconut milk ("so delicious" is right!), and answered some classmate e-mails. I finally started working on our ridiculous discussion board "classroom activity" around 1400 and finished at 1450.
I ate a homemade Runza (thanks Mom) and got started on pre-making dinner while I listened to a sermon I downloaded this morning (one of my favorite things to do this summer, that has definitely taken a back-burner this fall!) I miss leisurely cooking and cleaning while listening to sermons.
I was done making a mess in the kitchen around 1600 but then ended up wasting time until 1700. Oops! I kept meaning to get to work on my paper, but I ended up putzing around, fixing my eyebrows, reading blogs, and sending some e-mails. I finally got my rear in gear again and tidied up before Ross came home.
When he walked in the door at 1745 we headed out for a short run (despite it being cold and dark already). We got back and ate dinner around 1830. I kind of lost track of time after this, but I know that from 2000-2100 I was glued to the TV. Tuesday is the only night I really turn the TV on, but I've come to love New Girl and The Mindy Project.
I never did finish my homework, but there's always tomorrow! My day seemed to go all too quickly. Au reviour, weekdays off. I'll miss you more than you know.
{Before grad school, my days definitely looked different. In Texas I was better about getting out, meeting up with friends, going to the library, reading all day long (ahhh I miss that), working out in the morning, going to the farmer's market, and/or making a nice dinner for Ross to come home to. When we moved to Kansas City, I wasted a lot of time on the internet when I was on the night shift schedule. When I moved to days, that habit stuck. Blog reading, facebook, and baking unnecessary batches of sweets filled my days. No bueno. Grad school and now a clinic job are an attempt to get rid of those bad habits. But they come with a lot of their own pros and cons as well.}
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