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Whew….I Made It Through the Early Shifts!!

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I’ve posted!  My apologies to those who were waiting for word from the Ranch!!  I had last Saturday and Sunday off (whew!!), but I spent most of that time doing laundry, reading, SLEEPING and relaxing to catch up from my long and exhausting trip here – followed by working 10 days straight!  And then this week, I spent most of my energy coping with those EARLY mornings!! 

Waking up at 5:00 a.m. and working until 2:00 p.m. – followed by either a ghastly 3-hour nap (you know the kind where you wake up feeling exhausted, nauseous, confused and tired…and then you can’t go back to sleep when it IS time so you just lay there staring at the clock wishing you hadn’t taken that nap!!).  Or the alternative – trying to keep my eyes open until after dinner (at least) so I could make sure I fell asleep early enough to wake up again the next morning at 5:00 a.m.!!

For those of you early birds who have been doing this for years – my hat’s off to you because it plum wore me out!!  (And then there’s those early AND late birds like my sister, Carol, who stay up until midnight and are up the next morning at 6:00am….bright and cheery as ever!!)  Kudos to you who can do that!!  BUT, I’m not complaining because when I was interviewed, I was warned that this might be the case – being up for the early shift for 8 months…and I’m sure I could adjust if I had to, but fortunately the other two front desk associates seem to like that early shift – so I think I’m off the hook…but only time will tell!!

Fortunately, my supervisor (Elise) does a great job of making sure we have time off between the late shift and the early shift!  Nothin’s worse than working those back-to-back shifts!  In fact, I feel sorry for the waitresses who have to be up for the 4:00 AM breakfast shift....after having worked the dinner shift and not getting done until after 10 or 11 PM!!!  I guess that’s the challenge of seasonal hospitality work – those back-to-back REALLY early and late shifts!! 

And now onto better news….I’m very excited because I have today off (woohoo!!)…then I work 2-8pm tomorrow, 9-5 on Sunday – followed by two glorious weeks of 2-10pm shifts!! Now I must say that I DID enjoy the activity of the day shift!  There were lots more projects to work on – reservations to put in the computer, people to talk with, and more “busyness” in general…but the toll those early mornings took on my body makes me VERY happy to work the afternoon/evening shift for awhile!!  

I find I do my best thinking (and writing) in the mid-mornings (not TOO early, of course) – before I’ve engaged my mind by actively talking to people, etc.  Being in my jammies, sipping my coffee, looking out my window at the beautiful mountain ridge just behind our building….these are the things that inspire me.  And sadly, I’m not as inspired at 2:00 in the afternoon (mostly because I’m so TIRED and dying for a nap!!). Thus….no blog entries for the last week!!  So that’s probably more details than you wanted to know about my work schedule, but there ya are!!

Well I just got back from lunch (steak fajita burrito…yummy!!) and I guess I better do some laundry today!  After 12 hours of sleep I don’t think I need a nap….but then again, ya never know!!  I’ll write again another day….and I hope you enjoyed this “glimpse” into my life here on the Ranch!!

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