I know. I know. I said that I’d commit to writing on Mondays and Thursdays; but, I completely missed last Thursday. Well, what had happened was…..

Generally, you know that a great, big, fat lie is coming when a sentence starts off with those words; however, let me finish and it may make sense to you.

I go to work every evening at 6:30 PM. I get off the following morning at 5:00 AM. I go home, do some stuff, then go to sleep. I awake again at 4 or so ON THE SAME DAY I FELL ASLEEP. I used to call going to sleep and waking on the same day a nap. Now, I call it a night’s sleep. It’s the weirdest thing ever and, as a result of it, I rarely know what day it is. It used to be a challenge for me to remember the date. Now, seriously, it’s a big deal if I know what day of the week it is. I no longer have cable; so, I don’t watch television. I don’t read the newspaper and I don’t often look at the date on the news articles that I do read. I don’t have a calendar touch point anymore; so, I just float from one day to the next in an endless stream of time without artificial barriers. Then, last week, I heard someone say something about how happy they were that it was Friday and I thought, “Oh, crap. I missed publishing yesterday.” Cross my heart. I did think that.

If you have ever worked third shift, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, you have no clue what I mean and, frankly, I’m jealous that I’m no longer one of you.

I tell people all the time that I have become a vampire and that isn’t far from the truth. Because I work overtime most weeks, I work ten-hour shifts, five days a week. The sleep I do get is during the day and is often interrupted and poor. I feel chronically sleep deprived. I do housework, etc. at night and rarely see the sun. I miss the sun.

I miss my friends who sleep at night. I miss hockey (I’ve missed nearly the whole season and can’t even give you the Preds’ roster anymore. Scandalous, I tell you!) I miss knowing what day it is. Hell! I miss knowing what month it is!

But, mostly, I think, I miss the sun.

You’d think that after months of this, I’d be used to it or at least have some kind of handle on it; but, I don’t. So, I beg your indulgence (again) as I figure out a way to live up to my commitment of posting at least twice a week. And, again, thanks so much for continuing to visit with me.