I have done my first week on night shift in dispatch. Monday, Tuesday went okay. I was able to be up and do stuff on Wednesday and Thursday like a normal human being. Friday was absolutely in sane. Not only was it full moon, there were several events all over the area, people were out and about, beating on each other, drinking and in the middle of it all the hospitals wanted patients moved to other facilities.
My body is not used to do nights so when I got home I went straight to bed but my dear body thought it would be enough with three hours of sleep. Have in mind I woke up at 6:30am on Friday and I have two more nights to go. Three hours is not enough. I tried to be in bed as much as I could but couldn’t sleep.
Saturday was not as bad as Friday but I was struggling being tired. I was honestly worried that I would fall a sleep behind the wheels on my way home but thankfully I didn’t. Thought I would sleep at least a couple of hours, but ha ha ha… 3 hours… 10 am is the magic time for my body to wake up. I was not happy but I stayed in bed until 2pm. Then I decided to get up and get ready, head to the barn and drive to Tyler. I needed dog food so I stopped at Walmart before parking at work. I was going to try to sleep a little in the car before going in was my plan. Maybe getting this last nap in would help. And it worked. I got right over an hour sleep and even if I wasn’t well rested I was able to push through the shift without dying.

But this weekend took a big toll on my body. I came home yesterday morning and went straight to bed. Again, woke up at 10 but I was so weak I could barely make it to the bathroom. You know the feeling when you are sick, have the flu. That’s the feeling in my body, simply from being exhausted. Every time I tried to get out of bed, all my body did was scream to get back and lay down. I could barely move. So I listened to my body and went back to bed. The only time I was up was to get something to eat or drink and go to the bathroom. Even though I didn’t sleep I was resting.

I had to wake up at 8:15 am this morning to drive to Denton. I had rehearsal for Friday with the pianist, Tony. A two hour drive to Denton but I had plenty of time so it was okay. The rehearsal went really well. I’m only singing two songs on Friday so it went pretty fast. Took another route home that was much smoother. Stopped by the horses on my way home to check on Maja’s snake bite she got last week. It is still swollen but enclosed so nothing I can do and she doesn’t show any symptoms.

I came home and that’s when I allowed myself to feel… the exhaustion came straight back. So much I wanted and needed to do but if I don’t listen to my body something bad is going to happen, I know it. So I headed back to bed. First just resting for two hours. Then I wanted to try to see so I went up to make me a cup of tea… nope nope nope. Back to bed and now I fell asleep for three darn hours! But I think that was good. Woke up at 7pm and felt somewhat normal again. I hope that I can stay awake a couple of hours now and go to bed in the morning so i can stay on this night shift hours. I think that would help a lot. I have a couple of quite stressful days ahead of me…
I’m working 5:45p-5:45a tomorrow. Home to get as much sleep I can but I have to be back at work at 1pm (leave my house at noon) for Continuing Education before work. Then when I get off on Friday at 5:45 am I have to head home and sleep as much as I can (again) because I am performing in Dallas sometime that evening. I don’t have a schedule yet…
I really hope that it won’t take me two days to recover after that as well… And I really hope and pray that I will be able to go to a early day shift soon because my body is not made for night shift, that is absolutely clear.

When I came out on my back porch today I noticed something awesome. Remember last year when I got me a Climbing Piñata Rose to honor mom… It should be about a year ago now exactly… well when I came out tonight it had sprung a bud that I had not seen was there!!!

It made me so happy to see that it is still trying and being happy. It is time to get me 2023’s honor rose! I am actually quite excited about that! I am have the pots already that I found when I cleaned out the garage.

Maybe you also remember my Gardenia that Twix chew on three years ago. I thought it would die but it is now the most awkward and cool Gardenia I have ever seen. It is growing from the bottom, underneath where he chew on it! This plant is a fighter!!!

As long as they want to fight, I will water them and do my best for them to survive. Despite not the best one with flowers!