April 16th, 2010 Day 10

Good evening everyone. Today is Friday, and we are now on day 10. Last night while I was at work, I grabbed a blank card, and folded it up in my pocket. What I do with the card is I use it to write down thoughts and ideas I have throughout the night that I want to write about here. Last night I really did not have anything all night that jumped out and said "Write about me!" I thought about one thing, and we will cover that now.

Topic of discussion, staying up all night. Have you stayed up all night? Why? Was it because you were simply up watching tv, or watching movies or whatever? Or, were you at work? I have stayed up all night before just because, but now I do it because I work 3rd shift. At first, it was pretty hard to get used to. I would bring Mt Dew, some tea, and a thermas of coffee with me each shift. I would almost always go through the entire thermas of coffee just to keep myself awake and alert through out the night.

Usually I can get to 2 or 3 in the morning, and then my last couple hours were the hardest. At the time I was saying "Thank God for Coffee!" Now though? Not so much. About a month ago, I came home from work, went to sleep, and woke up feeling extremely sick to my stomach. On top of that, I felt really weak. The only way I kept from throwing up was to remain laying down. I could not bring myself to eat anything. I tried munching on crackers but could not even do that. When I finally got over it, I tried to drink a cup of coffee at work the next day. That did not go over well. One sip quite literally felt like a ton of bricks landing in my stomach with tremendous force. I tried to make coffee much sweeter and tastier and it still hit me the same. I was having the hardest time staying awake without being able to handle coffee. So I got online and researched "Staying awake."

The results I got basically said that if you are well hydrated it is easier to keep yourself awake. So, since then I drink lots of water throughout my shift. I do try to take one mountain dew with me if we have any left at home. So the thing that I decided I would write about this morning is this. Even with staying well hydrated throughout the night, when I do get tired, it is usually between 5 and 6. I get off at 6, and my last 30-40 minutes after I have faxed the paperwork over to my employer, I pull out whatever book I'm working on and read. The last few days I have experienced moments in the last hour and a half that literally I found myself swaying to the side while standing stationary. I was talking to a house keeper at south campus for about five minutes or so and I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I think the phrase for that is "Dead on my feet."

So this morning, around 5:30, I had faxed the documentation over, and turned them in to the client, and I found myself holding firmly on the railing as I went back down stairs. It's an interesting feeling. To write about it in detail for you, I would almost say it's very much as though you are looking through a layer of fog. You can see everything around you, but it is slightly hazy, and because of this I sometimes feel like my balance is off. Then a thought crossed my mind. "Is this pretty much like being drunk in a way?" In a way Yes, and also No. Yes because when you are tired to the point of fog, at least for me, maybe not for you, my reaction time feels slower. I've even noticed memory issues when I'm tired. I will have to double check something I just did minutes earlier because I can't recall if I locked that door or not. I'm the kind of employee that I want to know for sure that I have done everything right, and so if there is even a small shred of doubt then I go back and double check. Better to be certain than to wonder.

The reason why I say "No," is because even when you are tired there are fairly simple things you can do to wake yourself up and be more alert. It is not so easy to do when you are drunk. There is always the option to drink coffee to fight the effects, and eventually it will help, but that also is partly because of the amount of time that has passed since the last drink. As it makes it's way through your body, the drunkeness slowly passes. So, the answer to that is maybe ci maybe no.

I mentioned earlier about reading for the last portion of my shift before I leave. I want to go into that a little bit as far as the book goes. Recently I had been reading a book called Duma Key by Stephen King. I really loved it. It was a great story. Yesterday morning around 7:15 AM while waiting to take Ally down to the bus stop, I finished it. In the story, a couple of the main characters died in various ways, and that truly sucked! It is one of those books for me that I actually began to care about what happened to the characters. So many things happened, such as the deaths of his friends and loved ones, that I did not expect. It caught me completely off guard. It was definitely an emotional roller coaster! If you feel brave enough and think you could handle it, I recommend it!

Daily update. Today I set my alarm for 1PM since my class goes on at 2. I hit the snooze a few times, and then next thing you know it is 1:55PM. I jumped up, thinking "Shit!" I started to get dressed thinking "Great, I'm going to be about ten minutes late!" Then something occured to me. 1) no assignments were due today. We just had to read 2 chapters and I had done that. 2) As far as I knew, we were going to be given a chance to research on the newest paper we are starting. I already know the topic I'm going to be doing and so I can do research myself. No big deal. I glanced back to the bed, and another thought crossed my mind. "I have really not slept a whole lot this week. I have been a perfect class attendant the past two months. I have not missed a single class in a while. Granted, I have been a few minutes late, but thats not so bad. Better a few minutes late than the whole class missed I say. So I decided I would email my instructor that I was sorry I couldn't make it to class, and then I went back to bed. I realized that it was 5PM when Ally came in and asked me a question. So yes, I slept really late for a change but it was very much needed. Plus tomorrow morning I will not sleep a whole lot because I will be at Ally's first soccer game! That should be lots of fun.

So, the lesson for today readers is this. 1) Drink lots of water. Water may not taste as good as soda, but it is extremely good for you. Drinking water instead of soda, or at least less soda, can be helpful if you are trying to lose weight. 2) Give yourself a break from time to time. If you are go, go, go all the time without stopping, eventually you will crash and hit rock bottom. Trust me, I have been there and know the feeling well, as I'm sure a lot of you do too. Stop, breathe, sleep a little extra whenever you get the chance, and just enjoy life. Life is too short. Enjoy the little things while you can! Thats all for today. I hope today's entry was enjoyable and that you possibly got something useful out of it. I will write again for you tomorrow.

Thanks for being here.

CB