No Escape From Reality

I haven't written for a while; I usually don't when I'm on my 'short weekends,' because I'm so exhausted. Currently, my work schedule gives me a two-day weekend and a three-day weekend. It's on a two-week rotation, where the first week I work Monday, Tuesday and Friday, then the second week I work Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (these are all 12-hour shifts, 11am-11pm). It's not a terrible schedule, but working every Friday pretty much sucks. So I asked our schedulers if I could switch to a Thursday instead of a Friday, assuming they would take the hint that I wanted a four-day weekend. Uh, no (and we all know what assuming does). They did manage to give me every-other Friday off (yay!), but now I'm working every Monday. So now my schedule is Monday, Tuesday, Friday the first week, and Monday, Tuesday and Thursday the second week. *sigh* That's not a huge deal, but we have a Family Home Evening get-together with the siblings on Mondays. Bow-wow. We'll have to figure something out . . . hopefully it will be my schedule! Whose leg do you have to h*** to get a four-day weekend around here? ;o) On a side note, I found out that the only shift I have to work for Independence Day weekend is on Friday, July 3rd from 11am-3pm. It hardly seems worth it, since I work that Monday and Tuesday, then the princess shift on Friday the 3rd, and then I' m not back until the following Monday . . . or something like that. So, if I can get someone to cover those four hours, and if I'm eligible for holiday hours again, then I'll have six days off in a row and only have to take six hours of PTO! Woo! Here's hoping we can finally take that road trip to California, and that gas prices won't be through the roof by then! Allen started his new work schedule this week: 2 a.m.-10:30 a.m. We kicked it off by sleeping in; he let me sleep until 11am on Saturday, and I let him sleep until 11am on Sunday morning. That was pretty nice. I didn't realize that his alarm would start going off at 1 a.m. (he usually snoozes for a good half-hour before he gets up), and I was totally still awake when it did. I'm a night owl, and I have been trying to get to bed earlier, but it's rarely before 1 a.m. I guess I should work on that, especially since Benji has started waking up earlier. He'll start stirring around 6:30 a.m., and by 7:30 or so, he's ready to go. Last night was particularly bad--he whined most of the night, so I only got a few hours of sleep. I try to keep him penned in (read: out of the toilet, etc.) in the mornings, and I'll admit that I use PBS kids to keep him entertained during that time so I can snooze a bit. I was able to get Monday afternoon off so I could go to Kim's memorial. It was held at Brighton Ski resort at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. I have never been to Brighton, and although there was still some snow on the ground, it is closed for the season. Anyway, it was certainly not traditional, and Kim would have loved it--there was no stuffy service, no funeral potatoes or jello salad, and not even a lot of flowers; just a lot of people whose lives she touched. Some people came in suits (I wore a skirt), some came in shorts and brought their own beer with them. There were some scrapbook pages to sign and lots of pictures to look at and some of Kimmy's favorite food. I got to give Pat a hug (I totally started crying when I did) and catch up with some friends from Primary's, where we all worked together with Kim. It was nice to celebrate a life well-lived and a woman well-loved. It helped me in my own little grieving process. I still tear up a little when I think about her and her little family, but it will be okay. Eventually.

I miss you, Kimmy. You're the best.