Monday, 9-15-14
Because I work nights and don’t sleep until later in the day I basically have my days free to sit on the couch, eat bon bons and watch soap operas to myself now that Carlos is in school full day. Most people are of the opinion that I should sleep during the day, but I’ve only ever done that on rare occasions and I end up sleeping less than I do in the evening. I don’t like it. When Carlos went back to school we decided to just keep things as they were because I felt it worked best for me. However, if Carlos has something important in the evening then I will sleep during the day so I don’t have to miss it.
I have no problem keeping busy and typically have a bunch of things I try to get done each day. One perk of being home during the daytime is that I often get to visit with friends who are also home or I meet other friends on their lunch break from time to time. I encourage meeting up for coffee/tea and then going for a walk or doing some kind of activity to kill two birds with one stone. So on Monday morning my friend Mary picked me up, we grabbed coffees and then walked around Mount Holyoke College gabbing for about an hour and 15 minutes. It was a nice slow stroll as she has knee and back issues.
Back at home I managed to fit in a short body weight strength routine before running (literally) to the library to give blood. The town just built a gorgeous new library almost exactly one mile from my house so I ran there, donated blood and then walked home. The guy manning the snack table was so worried that I would pass out if I ran home he made me promise to walk. I agreed and called my mother on the walk home. It was a positively gorgeous day.
I picked Carlos up from school and went over my friend Kate’s house. The boys wanted to light saber battle before swimming lessons. So we went for a walk to the college while they battled. They settled into their stroke lessons and Kate and I decided to go for another walk around the pond just outside the college’s athletic center. We fit in a little over 2 miles before returning to watch their diving lessons.Carlos is just learning to dive so he’s a little apprehensive. Kate’s son is amazing, dives in like a porpoise with hardly a splash. I love that these kids get out there and give it their all for two hours of lessons!
After swimming the night sped along with dinner, bath and before I knew it I was in bed for a short nap before work.
Tuesday, 9-16-14
Do you ever just feel completely off kilter? Well this was that kind of day. Yoga class was horrible. I was off balance literally and I just felt inadequate and ungraceful. The weather was bitter, grey and dreary in the morning. I came home and sat in front of the space heater which killed me because it’s not even officially fall. I actually managed to get a few financial things done.
Finally I got off my tush and did some body weight strength training. I’m just trying to fit it in when I can, some lunges, squats, ab stuff whenever wherever! The sun came out. I warmed up a bit. So I decided to go for a short run. I ran 3.20 miles in my neighborhood.
I picked up Carlos from school and met my mom at the mall. Carlos went home with her to spend the afternoon. I went home, cleaned up, finished folding laundry and made Carlos’ lunch before going to bed.
It doesn’t sound like a bad day, but I also felt like a black hole when it came to food. I went to bed trying to analyze my chaotic at times eating habits. It’s an uphill battle for me, but I’m determined to win.
I woke up startled thinking I had overslept, but was relieved to see it was only 8:30. I slept for another hour and 15 minutes, got up, showered and got ready for another night of work.
And so are the days of my life…
Aim 
So how many hours of sleep do you get per day/night?
I’m with the snack table guy. Running after donating seems like a bad idea. The last time I donated was a mess. It took forever and it turned out it had clotted, so they had to throw the entire donation away. I didn’t want to eat the garbage at the snack table, which might have helped, but the bottom line was, I felt like crap for about 18 hours afterward. Lethargic, slow, cranky and hungry. No idea if it was related to giving blood, but my run the next morning was awful. By the afternoon, I was fine, totally back to normal (except still pissed about wasting so much time donating and then having a crap run as a result, all for nothing, for blood that went in the trash). I actually haven’t donated since, but I should, probably a freak occurrence.
When I work back to back shifts I usually get between 4 1/2 to 6 hours of sleep. Six hours is rare. I don’t recommend this. On my nights off I sleep anywhere from 7 to nine hours.
That is a horrible experience that you had. I’m not sure I would go back either. I really wasn’t planning to run back, but I thought it was quite cute that the man was so concerned. They always have raisins and pretzels on the snack table otherwise the snacks are total crap. This lady was complaining that the juice containers were much smaller and the man explained that it was because so many of them were wasted. She just rolled her eyes and asked for another juice!
I used to donate platelets to the Red Cross but the last time I went the nurse was getting angry because the blood wasn’t flowing properly. So she took the needles out and told me that I didn’t have enough platelets to donate and that my services were no longer needed! It took me a little while to go back to just regular red blood cell donation after that.
Yow, I would not be able to function on less than 6 except maybe a couple times a month. I don’t know how you do it!
I don’t recommend it. I won’t do it forever. I wouldn’t have done it this long if it didn’t work so well for me and my family, but there are days (like today!) when I need a nap. I’m
setting the alarm now!
Aimee…I hate those days that just don’t seem quite right…when you look back at them, nothing seems too terribly wrong, but like you said, everything is off kilter. Thank goodness there is a brand new day every morning!
I don’t know if I could handle your schedule Aimee – I normally get 9 hours of sleep on week days, and sometimes 11-12 hours on the weekends! But, I’ve always been a big sleeper. 😀
Happy Monday!