Fake Days Off
Though you may wonder if I'm writing from the grave this morning after a month and a half hiatus from writing, I am in fact sitting in my sunshiney apartment that is freshly cleaned, organized, and styled, coffee cup in hand. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of working night shifts, fielding questions regarding our upcoming wedding (NEXT MONTH?! It's already here?? This is wild), traveling, and trying to make my house look like less of a disaster in the midst of it all.
So today I'm relaxing a bit, finally having a "me" day, even though it is a fake day off. You may wonder about fake days off, thinking there could be no such thing. But thanks to my dear friends Susan and Claire, fake days off are ironically, quite real. I remember when Susan first used the term "fake day off," and I kind of looked at her funny until she explained it a little bit. OH yes, I know about fake days off. I know them WELL. You see, night shift workers have a lot of fake days off. For example, this week I will work Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday nights. Today, Monday, I am just kind of hanging around the house. Maybe I'll watch some movies, drink a little bit of decaf or half-caf coffee, nap at some point, spend some time reading my Bible, read a book for book club, etc. But nothing too exerting. Because technically, this is supposed to be nighttime for me. I should be asleep right now, since I'll be awake all night. Since I slept last night, however, this is tricky. So today is a fake day off. My next fake day off this week will be Wednesday. I'll get off of work early Wednesday morning, race home, and crawl into bed. Technically, I don't work Wednesday. But I'll be sleeping all day, and when I wake up, I'll just have a few hours left until it's bedtime again.. so Wednesday is a fake day off, too. Making sense now? I'm telling you, Susan and Claire are brilliant. I love having nurse friends who coin terms like these and make me feel like my wacky schedule is actually kind of normal.
I had to do a lot of preparation for this fake day off. Like I said, life is has been a little bit busy and a little bit crazy the past few weeks. After a quick trip home (to surprise my sweet mom for her birthday) and working several nights in a row, followed by another quick trip to Louisville to work on our wedding bands, I walked into my apartment feeling defeated. I was supposed to be having friends visit for the weekend (this didn't end up happening due to the never-ending winter up here and its super horrible mean snowstorms), and I looked around wondering how everything would get done before they arrived. The cancelled plans gave me more time to declutter and organize my apartment without thinking about entertaining guests (though, truth be told, I love entertaining guests. There's a special place in my heart for being a hostess and I just get giddy over having people over and taking care of them and feeding them. Since my move here, I do this rarely as I know so few people here). Coats have been stressful in my apartment lately. When Scott comes over, his coat ends up somewhere on the floor, which he says is because I have too many coats in the coat closet. Quick solutions: I'm giving away some of my coats AND I used one of our gift cards from Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase a very cool coat rack (I have ALWAYS wants a coat rack in my home. Can't believe I actually have one now).
So instead of a weekend exploring the city and drinking margaritas with friends and laughing until our faces hurt, I sat on my apartment floor trying to understand an impossible instruction manual (no words, just pictures. Yet they provided it in three languages. Because pictures are different in different languages?). At one point I threw it all back in the box and pouted in my room. Scott came to the rescue and helped me put it together around midnight on Saturday after he finished with his studying for the night. I'm so thankful for him, he does things like this just when I've reached my tipping point with frustration.
I also recently made a decision to spend about a gas tank of money per month on a storage unit downstairs in my apartment. Now this has truly been my saving grace; I have had SO many boxes accumulating from various things (wedding gifts, wedding items, random impulse buys), and I know I will need them when we one day move out of this apartment. There's also the issue of my bike taking up too much space and me just feeling closed in by clutter. So the storage space has been for my sanity, and it is definitely for the better. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the boxes, I just pack them up and take the elevator down to the basement to stash some boxes or random items that I don't know what to do with yet in the apartment.
Well, I'm feeling that I've exerted myself enough for the morning and it's perhaps time for another nap. Don't hate me for the fake day off, I promise I would work an 8-5 schedule if I could. But that's not in the cards for this nurse anytime soon. Lots of love to you all and I hope you have a beautiful Monday! Also, check out this post if you get a chance. My dear friend Lindsay recommended it to me the other day and I just love it. Scott and I spent way too much time discussing wedding bands on Friday and this post puts that in perspective a little bit for me. (Note: we may have also spent longer at the jeweler's because the jeweler, Dallas, really wanted a blizzard from DQ and Scott decided to go make the purchase so we could eat them with him. It was my first blizzard experience and it was quite tasty!)
http://espressoandcream.com/2014/02/the-ring-i-wear.html
Love,
C.
PS: Special birthday shout out to one of my favorite people today, my younger brother! Hope you have the most amazing day, Christian. You are so deserving of it.
So today I'm relaxing a bit, finally having a "me" day, even though it is a fake day off. You may wonder about fake days off, thinking there could be no such thing. But thanks to my dear friends Susan and Claire, fake days off are ironically, quite real. I remember when Susan first used the term "fake day off," and I kind of looked at her funny until she explained it a little bit. OH yes, I know about fake days off. I know them WELL. You see, night shift workers have a lot of fake days off. For example, this week I will work Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday nights. Today, Monday, I am just kind of hanging around the house. Maybe I'll watch some movies, drink a little bit of decaf or half-caf coffee, nap at some point, spend some time reading my Bible, read a book for book club, etc. But nothing too exerting. Because technically, this is supposed to be nighttime for me. I should be asleep right now, since I'll be awake all night. Since I slept last night, however, this is tricky. So today is a fake day off. My next fake day off this week will be Wednesday. I'll get off of work early Wednesday morning, race home, and crawl into bed. Technically, I don't work Wednesday. But I'll be sleeping all day, and when I wake up, I'll just have a few hours left until it's bedtime again.. so Wednesday is a fake day off, too. Making sense now? I'm telling you, Susan and Claire are brilliant. I love having nurse friends who coin terms like these and make me feel like my wacky schedule is actually kind of normal.
I had to do a lot of preparation for this fake day off. Like I said, life is has been a little bit busy and a little bit crazy the past few weeks. After a quick trip home (to surprise my sweet mom for her birthday) and working several nights in a row, followed by another quick trip to Louisville to work on our wedding bands, I walked into my apartment feeling defeated. I was supposed to be having friends visit for the weekend (this didn't end up happening due to the never-ending winter up here and its super horrible mean snowstorms), and I looked around wondering how everything would get done before they arrived. The cancelled plans gave me more time to declutter and organize my apartment without thinking about entertaining guests (though, truth be told, I love entertaining guests. There's a special place in my heart for being a hostess and I just get giddy over having people over and taking care of them and feeding them. Since my move here, I do this rarely as I know so few people here). Coats have been stressful in my apartment lately. When Scott comes over, his coat ends up somewhere on the floor, which he says is because I have too many coats in the coat closet. Quick solutions: I'm giving away some of my coats AND I used one of our gift cards from Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase a very cool coat rack (I have ALWAYS wants a coat rack in my home. Can't believe I actually have one now).
So instead of a weekend exploring the city and drinking margaritas with friends and laughing until our faces hurt, I sat on my apartment floor trying to understand an impossible instruction manual (no words, just pictures. Yet they provided it in three languages. Because pictures are different in different languages?). At one point I threw it all back in the box and pouted in my room. Scott came to the rescue and helped me put it together around midnight on Saturday after he finished with his studying for the night. I'm so thankful for him, he does things like this just when I've reached my tipping point with frustration.
I also recently made a decision to spend about a gas tank of money per month on a storage unit downstairs in my apartment. Now this has truly been my saving grace; I have had SO many boxes accumulating from various things (wedding gifts, wedding items, random impulse buys), and I know I will need them when we one day move out of this apartment. There's also the issue of my bike taking up too much space and me just feeling closed in by clutter. So the storage space has been for my sanity, and it is definitely for the better. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the boxes, I just pack them up and take the elevator down to the basement to stash some boxes or random items that I don't know what to do with yet in the apartment.
Well, I'm feeling that I've exerted myself enough for the morning and it's perhaps time for another nap. Don't hate me for the fake day off, I promise I would work an 8-5 schedule if I could. But that's not in the cards for this nurse anytime soon. Lots of love to you all and I hope you have a beautiful Monday! Also, check out this post if you get a chance. My dear friend Lindsay recommended it to me the other day and I just love it. Scott and I spent way too much time discussing wedding bands on Friday and this post puts that in perspective a little bit for me. (Note: we may have also spent longer at the jeweler's because the jeweler, Dallas, really wanted a blizzard from DQ and Scott decided to go make the purchase so we could eat them with him. It was my first blizzard experience and it was quite tasty!)
http://espressoandcream.com/2014/02/the-ring-i-wear.html
Love,
C.
PS: Special birthday shout out to one of my favorite people today, my younger brother! Hope you have the most amazing day, Christian. You are so deserving of it.
Comments
Post a Comment