Night shift

In the next few weeks I will be back to the land of the living, interacting with other people in the light of day, not wearing hoodies or listening to music on my earphones while doing 24 hour chart checks at the nurse's station. That's right. I'm going back to days.

There's a few things I will miss about nights, though. Not that dizzy disoriented 3am feeling that, no matter how much sleep I've gotten the day before, seems to have no way around, or the way patients you've cared for a good 8-10 hours are asking who you are at 7am in the morning. I won't miss waking up two hours into my 'night' completely disoriented, wondering not only what day it is, but why the house is so quiet, and what happened to my boys... and omg, my boys! Where are they? 

Yeah.... so, there's some things I won't miss. 

I will miss the people though. Night people, from my experience anyway, tend to be laid back individuals with an unreal sense of humor and fortitude. Not much offends them, not much hits them off kilter. Maybe it's the isolation from any other normal part of society, but night people tend to be tight, but not above taking one more under their wing. There is a great deal of empathy you feel working on nights. Like you're part of your own little community. 

That, and I usually have enough down time to check my email, jot down some poetry or finish a book without 'management' pulling me aside to tell me about our standards of 'professionalism'. 

Hey! I was watching the lights. No one's dead. Let's all relax, shall we? 

Night shift feels very romantic in the way that gothic ghost stories are romantic. It's nothing you want to do for, like, the rest of your life, but the experience, I feel, is valuable. To work on the other side of the clock, to be the Watcher. The Healer tiptoeing through the hallways, counting stranger's respirations per minute, emptying their catheters--- It has a mysterious untouchable quality to it, I guess. 

Or that could just be the lack of sleep talking. Sorta like adrenaline making colors seem more vibrant than they are. Or something like that. 

Anyway, I'm going to days. At some point. Management, power that it is, hasn't changed my schedule yet. Ironically (gah, I hope I'm using that right), the gal who got the position that I applied for in ER is the reason I am even moving to day shift, so as soon as she's gone.... Management, the power that is, did say something interesting to me the other day though. 

"You can help us out though, right? While we make the adjustment?" 

They were referring to the change in schedules, of course. Moving one person to days, finding another to take my place. And I said sure! without really thinking about it, because that's what I do, only to think later: oh crap. What did I just agree to?

I really hope that I didn't agree to doing two different shifts at the same time. Say it with me: Please don't make me do both! That would completely ruin the romantic mystery.