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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

where did those two years go?

Night shift has swallowed up two weeks of my life, but last night it took two giant years off my age! It was quite pleasant really.

At 4am we admitted a young woman whose birth year was the same as mine. 1975.

'She's my age,' I thought, 'Thirty. How nice!' (I always feel a greater affinity with patients who are almost the same age as me)

Sitting down to read through her history I found a record of her age as 32. Now hang on a minute... she's the same age as me remember? Thirty! Don't be going and adding an extra year or two just because you feel like it.

And then it registered with me - not thirty! I'm not thirty. I'm 32. Tricked out of two years of my life by the dopey dullness of a night shift mind. Or was it those delusions of eternal youth catching me out? Thirty always was my ideal age. Whatever, I was mightily shocked to remember how quickly time ticks on. (I mean, half way through September already... what is this?!)

I suppose the good thing about time ticking past so fast is that my night shifts are already all done. I can rip the make shift curtains (three hastily hung blankets) off the window and start reengaging with the world.

There was another bonus to working night shift (apart from the hefty penalty rates warranted by loss of beauty sleep)... Frank missed me a lot.

I surprised myself by adjusting well, sleeping soundly during the day and remaining alert most of the night. Poor old Frank worried about me, pointed out my pale cheeks and blood shot eyes in a most concerned manner and just couldn't wait for me to return to the land of the living. After my last shift last week he was so relieved to have me back that he presented me with a bunch of the most beautiful roses ever - they even smelt like real roses, which is a real novelty! Hmmm. Maybe I should work nights more often!


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5 Comments:

At 9:13 pm, September 19, 2007, Blogger Mike S said...

I always loved working at night. I'm a natural night owl anyway. Lovely reward for finding such a nice man. As for the age, I decided many long years ago that 49 was far enough:)

 
At 2:12 am, September 20, 2007, Blogger deanna said...

Pretty, pretty flowers. I'll have to trust you on the fragrance. Glad you two can treasure each other through the shifts of time.

 
At 10:04 am, September 20, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Comment for Frank - you're a good man! Comment for Cecily - congrats on getting through the night shift. On the age thing, I did that once too. I was 39 realizing I was really 40:(

Not sure I could do the night thing. I hate the dark, it used to get my imagination going when I was little girl. Since then, when the sun sets, so do I.

 
At 1:16 am, September 21, 2007, Blogger Cherie said...

This is a fantastic post, Cecily. Real life, humanness. Great. Yay Frank! Congrats to you, Cec.

About the age thing, weirdo that I am, I tend to add a year to my age for some reason and am always so happy to realize that I'm YOUNGER than I think. Like I said, weirdo.

; )

 
At 2:30 pm, September 24, 2007, Blogger Robyn said...

Good for Frank! I loathe and despise night shift....you deserve flowers!! :)

 

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