Graveyard

Well, it's official. I am working the graveyard shift now at work, and I'm here to tell you, it's not helping with the big picture of what was formerly known as "my life".
The last 12 years I worked a weird shift, but it was quasi-normal, I was awake when most other people were awake, and sleeping at night, Noon to 8pm wasn't so bad. I didn't miss too many school concerts, and got to go to a fair share of volleyball games.

Exit: Jim, after 26 years of taking calls he finally had enough. Enough fingerprint matching, enough polygraph exams, enough weekends on call, enough sending cases to the lab, enough marijuana analysis for court, enough testifying, enough paperwork, enough putting up with detectives, enough telling one more person you can't get a fingerprint off a rock, no matter what they show on CSI Miami. I can't say I blame him for leaving, I hope he enjoys his retirement! What is happening now that he is gone is what I am not so happy about. Zac, after 12 years of working 8pm to 4 am now has seniority, and the 8 hours he has chosen to work are from 8 Am to 4 Pm, like a normal person. That leaves me 2 choices, 4 to midnight or midnight to 8. With a teenager in the house, I chose the graveyard shift. The fact that we work on a staff of 3 to have 24 hour coverage doesn't leave much leeway. I won't even get started on the fact that they haven't replaced Jim yet, that is a whole bees nest that I won't stir up. The extra special bonus about that is that Zac and I get to be on call every other weekend instead of every third weekend. Ya just can't beat that! AND we get the split the second shift being on call! Extra special double extra bonus!


If I put aside the fact that I eat breakfast before I go to bed, and supper when I wake up, I could say it's not so bad. I've gotten to spend evenings at home with my family, we even went on a couple of outings for walks and motorcycle rides, so there may end up being an "up" side to this. Don't ask them just yet, however, because the mood swings are present AND accounted for. Lack of sleep? Continued withdrawal? Who knows, I sure don't. I've only been at this for 3 days (or is it nights?) now, so I suppose it's too soon to judge how it will REALLY be, but man, is it ever weird!

Going to work in the middle of the night is bizarre. Where is everyone? There is some traffic, especially now that the weather is nicer, but rush hour? Not on this shift. It's quiet in the office, even quieter than usual, there's no one knocking on the door wanting a picture of this or a fingerprint off that. The phone has rung exactly once, and it was a wrong number. Walk down the hall and I don't run into anyone, go by their office to visit, they are home sleeping, step out back for a smoke, I might run into a bum digging in the ashtray, or an officer heading in for his break, maybe.

I left the building to just get out for awhile, take a break last night....there's no where to go! No one is awake that I can call, I feel funny coming home, everyone here is asleep too and I don't want to wake them. I can't just go for a walk around the block, anyone that IS out at those hours probably are past or future clientele of our department. Getting mugged is not how I want to spend ANY night. I don't mind the fact that "the brass" isn't around, that doesn't really bother me, but the lack of people seems to be getting to me. Even the restaurants are empty at 4 in the morning.

I like interacting with people, or at least I did, I like the sunshine, sleeping through it seems like such a waste! I am feeling a bit crabby about all this, the rage is boiling just under the surface I think, and it has boiled over at least once. So, if you see a grumpy old bear on her way home in the morning, just wave, I'm not sure if she'll bite your head off or hug you, and until I'm sure, I'm advising people to just give her some patience and maybe a little space. So far the transition hasn't been real smooth, but hopefully once the adjustments are fine-tuned it will be better. Bear with me!