Did You Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas?

Did you have a merry Christmas?

I did, sort of. I volunteered to work, so that's where I am now. (It's Thursday, the morning after Christmas day. I slept all Christmas day in preparation for coming to work tonight--last night, really, I guess--and got here at 7:00 p.m.) It's going to be an easy night and there's the fillip of extra hours and extra pay, what with this being an extra day added to my week and tonight's pay includes my hourly differential plus time and a half for working a holiday, plus the extra hours we get for the holiday whether we work them or not. I'm not complaining about the money at all.

There's the gauntlet of Christmas treats to avoid here though. The kids got pizza for dinner, plus cookies that they decorated as a nighttime activity. Plus they had pie during their visits. Plus the staff brought in treats for everyone working, so the breakroom table is filled with tamales, cookies, candy, sodas, donuts, and I don't know what all. I avoided everything except a single slice of pizza that I ate about 2/3 of. And now I'm having my 1:00 a.m. snack, cheese and crackers that I brought from home. (I also brought a big helping of vegetarian posole, which Dave and I made and had for our Christmas eve dinner. I'll have that later in the night, more towards morning.

What has been going on outside of work? Hm. Not much, really.

I'm still on my Northern Exposure jag. I'm into the 5th season, now. There are so many good episodes in this season, including the one where Joel realizes that he's, like, the only Jewish person in Cicely.

I just found some episodes online, not officially so, but good enough to listen to now, while I stock and straighten up the office. The night is going by quickly, thank goodness. It's already 3:40, so I have just under four hours left in my shift. I've stopped with the caffeine (around 3:00 a.m., actually) so that when I get home in the morning, I can actually get to sleep since I work again tomorrow night.

I've been missing sunlight recently, sad to say. My vitamin D levels are rising because I take 4000 IUs of vitamin D every night, but I still feel like I'm missing out on daylight. Doesn't help that the days are short now anyway. I get off work shortly after the sun rises and sleep through the day, waking just after sunrise. I am truly keeping vampire hours. And I have the complexion to match. I am wearing a true guera foundation, a really pale shade. I have even started to wear a bit of blush which I have never done before, just to add some color to my face. Otherwise I look a bit too ghostly.

Oh, I could go out on my days off (and sometimes I do), but when I do, I feel strange. Like...the sun's getting on me or something. Too much fresh air or something. (Actually, I do get more fresh air now that I'm working because I move from building to building here at the hospital, which means going outside, whatever that is, even though it's dark.)

I'm just killing a bit of time, now. These are the witching hours of the shift. The time when the caffeine high starts to wane and the uphill climb to seven a.m. starts. In a bit I'll want to put my head down and take a nap, something that I know will be absolutely useless to try doing. (I've only tried to nap once here, and it was a bust. People do manage to nap here and there. The old timers have their places--in the reclining chair where people sit for blood draws, for example, or on the restraint beds where violent patients are strapped in--but the only place I've tried to nap was on the too narrow bench in the employee break room.  I also tried one of the rolling chairs and that didn't work. I am just completely unable to sleep anywhere but in my own bed. (And often times not even in my own bed.)


So, yes, here comes the 4 a.m. fight to stay awake as the caffeine wears off. Maybe some sugar will help...