Laundry List Friday: Top five things I've learned working third shift!

Hello all!

So as most of you know, I made what some would see to be a rather stupid career move recently.  I quit a job that had normal hours, paid holidays, and a good hourly wage for a 3rd shift job at a convenience store.  The trade off, I can tell you, went far deeper than just getting health insurance for myself and the kids.  Someday, when I'm feeling very brave, I'll actually share a laundry list of why I quit the job.

But that's not why I'm here today.  Today I want to share with you, now that I've completed nearly three weeks on 3rd shift, the odd and interesting things I've learned about myself and the night job I now work.

5)  Turns out...I just like staying up late!

I thought I was a night owl.  I've worked third shift before, part time, and it wasn't generally a problem.  However, now that I'm doing it full time, I realize that I'm not a worker at night...I just like lying on the couch watching TV.


4)  Forget trying to work out a sleep schedule...when exactly can I take off my bra?

Okay, ladies in the audience...how many hours in a day do you typically wear your bra?  14, 16, 18?  Right.  Because, what...you take them off at night when you go to bed.

18 hours might have been good enough for Jane Russell, but I'm really in need of something more like a 23.5 hour bra.

See here's the thing I'm struggling with:  I get home, I can't take off the bra, because I'm either going to Gold's  (Yes, believe it or not, I'm still dragging my sleep deprived fanny over there in the mornings) or I'm doing my 30 (ish) minutes on the Wii.  Can't take off the bra then.  So when I go to bed, about 8-9 AM, (and I'm missing the Bob and Brian show  which kills me) I know that when I get up, not only will my children be here, but they will, undoubtedly, have friends along.  Since Skippy typically has his new lady friend over, I really shouldn't be wandering around with bed head and no bra.  And, by the time the house is clear of all the non biologically related children I feed endless streams of pizza to, it's time to go back to work!  So I get the ten minutes for the shower, and that's it?  That's can't be healthy.  Can it?
3)  When they ask if you can stand for 8 hours, they really mean it.

There are two chairs in the store where I work.  I am allowed to use neither.  The only sitting I can do is in the bathroom...during my 4 minutes of break time a night.  I'm supposed to get two 10 minute breaks, but come on, reality is reality.  There's just too much to do.  So there's no sitting.  I think that's been my biggest adjustment.  Simply not sitting.

2)  There are a lot of different kinds of cigarettes...and no one who buys them actually calls them by what they are named.

Before I go into detail here, let me just say that while I'm not a smoker, I do defend smokers' rights to smoke in designated outdoor areas, and in businesses where the business owner wants to allow smoking.

I've bought and sold  lot of things in my day...but as a non smoker, I've not ever really been in touch with a lot of cigarette purchases.  Now, standing behind a cash register, I have a multi layered shelf hanging over my head that is about nine feet long, four feet wide, and has spaces for no less than forty different (?) brands, flavors, lengths, and BOX TYPES of cigarettes.  Think a Camel is a Camel is a Camel?  Nope.    Ya got the Camel blue, the Camel regular, the Camel 100's, the Camel in the special two pack deal, Camels in soft packs, Camels in a box.  (Don't get me started on Marlboros. Last night I counted 17 different types of Marlboros alone.)

See that number 72?  Yeah, that would be the number of different types of that one brand!

Then there's the chewing tobacco, the roll your own, the cigars.  And here's the kicker:  The smokers DO NOT ASK FOR WHAT THEY WANT BY WHAT THEY WANT.   Let's say someone wants a pack of Marlboro Ultra light menthol100's in the soft pack.  I know where those are and if they would ASK FOR THAT, we would be fine.  But no, I've gotten everything from"gimme a pack of Marl ultra mint hundreds."  Well, there's a pack, which to us non smokers has always meant a PACK of cigarettes that James Dean wrapped up in the sleeve of his T-shirt.  But to smokers, a PACK and a BOX are two completely different things and OH MY SWEET LORD DON'T GET THEM WRONG.

The guy who is training me is a smoker.  He's of little help when it comes to this because 1)  He knows all the cigarettes and where they are and 2) He knows all the shorthand.  Oh and 3)  He can understand the customers when they talk, even the ones who come in like the walking dead at 3 in the morning because it's typically the same customers over and over and they come in every night for a pack, or a box, every night.  (again, if you're going to make the trip, why not just by the carton and save yourself the gas and a little money on the cigs?)

1)  THE BED NEVER GETS MADE!

Those of you who read this blog frequently, you know that one of the things I'm fairly insane about is the making of beds.  I cannot leave the house without making my bed and I fight the urge every single day to go into my children's rooms and make the bed.

But when Hubby gets up at 5 and I'm getting home at six and going to bed about 9 and by the time I get up I've got way too much to do to even look at the bed, well, it's not getting made.  And it makes me a little bit crazy to know it.

So there you go.  The top five things I've learned working third shift.  And, as I've said recently:  I am not where I want to be...but I am in a better place than I was!