I work only every other weekend, didja know?

I can't tell you how loud the groans are from my boys when I tell them that Mommy has to go to work soon. They reply something like "But you just were at work, and, anyway we'll miss you!" I do miss them too (I will not mention that the first hour or two here at work is a bit relaxing by having to only single-focus, and not multitasking all the time, but it is still work, eh?). Honestly, I wonder what my kids will do with such an upbringing. Dan and I try to tell them that most families don't see each other for at least eight hours of the day, five days a week...

So I am now at work. Again. Ugh. Too many extra days lately, in my opinion. I don't mind helping out coworkers who need a day or two off, or attempting to make up for the 16 hours of missed time while vacationing. Surprisingly, I have a few minutes to let you know what an insanely busy place this hospital is on the weekend, and that does not include the weekends in the month of August, within this tourist filled town of Saratoga Springs. Due to patient confidentiality issues, I am unable to delve further. But, now that the track is open, it has really hit the fan, as the saying goes.

I will recap once how my shift works -- and I have absolutely NO complaints at all about this either! I work every other weekend in the CT department by myself. I punch in at 11pm on Friday night, work twenty-four hours until 11pm on Saturday. I return on Sunday morning at 7am for another sixteen hour shift.

Sounds crazy, you say? It is, but I'm me, remember? LOL What you may not realize it that I am then off for an entire twelve days(!) before having to work again, if I do not pick up any extra shifts (and I really try hard not to). That allows me all kinds of time for the myriad of hobbies and activities.

One would think --in today's money-oriented society-- that I might just want to work more hours, at another job, or whatever, with all that free time and low cash flow. But we manage and 'make do.' No cable TV (yay, no commercials!), no charging stuff (unless it's a $1400 car repair emergency!), but we have no car payments, rarely ever eat out (have you ever made veggie sushi at home? mmm, delicious!) , and we have no real savings either... That is scary!

And I can't see it changing too much once Dan's graduated and working, initially. Well, then, of course then I can work less, you see, and then Dan will have a job that doesn't slowly break his body. Warehouse work was physically hard -- not difficult, but it was brain-numbingly boring, to make it crystal clear. He had surgery scheduled to debride calcifications from tendons in his AC joint, but within three weeks of quitting the warehouse and lifting a collective 40,000lbs daily, Dan was amazingly but completley pain free. So Dan will be a teacher (YAY!), and will hopefully still have Summers off, to boot!

Not living paycheck to pacheck would be a nice thing to shoot for sooner than later. It could also happen even sooner once we win the lottery (but we never play it) or one of our lovely relatives or friends wins the lottery and is willing to share with us out of the kindness of their hearts. Honestly, I am not hinting at anything, and am definitley not seriously counting on it happening! :)

Oh so easily I digress. OK, if I play that "If I had more money..." card, then (A) I would have to work more, and that's not including the jewelry business I have dabbled in since Spring and am gearing up to "really" concentrate on this Autumn. Or (B) Dan would have to work while in school and most likely not do as well academically. Somehow we manage to make ends meet AND still have a ton of time to spend together. Not that there are no issues with not having cash on hand, mind you. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

You know, I might consider getting another job to fund a trip to visit my sister in Florida or even see friends in Europe or something like that. But to buy a larger house (that would mean more rooms to clean!), it is not so much high on the priority list.

At some point soon, we'll all be grown up (me, Dan, the boys all included), but in the meantime, I'm not rushing away from our fairly relaxed, play and friend-filled days. So what, my family walks to a tune of a different drummer. And it is most enjoyable!!

Phew, done now. Hope it wasn't too unhappy for you to read how fun-family-filled and work-free our time is... As a consolation, I promise pics of our next jaunt to the Great Escape... with our really-what-a-super-deal season passes... during a sunny weekday afternoon... on the water rides and roller coaster. It is super fun for everyone! (That was supposed to rhyme.)
Bye bye for now. xo Jen