Pour myself a cup of ambition

In the next week, my life is really going to change. For the first time since college, I'm about to become a 9-to-5er.

To be honest, I'm not sure I can do it.

Here's the thing. For the last nine years, I've worked nights-- usually a 2:30 to 11:30 shift. Before that, I worked mostly nights as a college teacher for seven years, and though I'd have to teach the occasional 7:30 a.m. class, those were usually only two days a week. I did everything in my power to only teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays-- and to only teach late morning, afternoon, or evening classes.

Sure, I had to get up early to drive the kids to speech tournaments on the weekends, but I was in my 20s, and being up for 24 hours straight really wasn't that difficult at the time. Plus, I had my summers off to sleep until noon every day if I wanted to.

So really, for the better part of the last decade and a half, I've usually waken up around 11 am, gone in to work around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, got off work around midnight.

When I tell people that, they act as if I'm either crazy-- or lazy. Usually the latter. It doesn't matter when I tell them that I work longer hours than they do. Or that I did more physical labor than they did. They hear "get up at 11:00 am" and tune the rest out. And yet, I don't see any of them getting up three hours before they have to be at work.

Then, typically, they'd have the nerve to tell me that I needed to go to bed earlier. Tell me this, honestly. Could you go to bed right after getting off of work? Of course not. You need to spend time with your family, watch tv, read, or do whatever it is you do to unwind after a long day.

Well... now I'm going to have to become a "normal" person. I'm going to be at work at 8:00 a.m. HOnestly, I'm not quite sure how this is going to work. Since Cory works nights, I'll be leaving for work hours before he gets up. He doesn't get home from work until close to 11:00 at night-- so I'll probably be going to bed just as he gets home. Either that, or I'll have to take a two hour nap after work if I want to spend any time with him during the week.

Oh... and that whole waking-up-before-the-sun thing won't be easy, either. Honestly, I don't know how you people do it.

The trade-off, of course, is getting to take weekends off. The only good part about being unemployed for the last month and a half is that, for the first time in about 15 years, I've actually enjoyed weekends. No traveling. No working. It's been pretty nice. And now that I'm going to have a "normal" job, I'll get to have "normal" weekends again.

I guess I can live with that.