Mama Kat Thursday: Not A Morning Person

The Mama Kat prompt chosen today is to write a post inspired by the word,"Early."


I've never in my life been a morning person.
Even as a kid, on Saturdays, I'd sleep in until 9:30 or 10.
Then I grew up, joined the Air Force and also joined the work-a-day morning world.
I'm convinced the decision to make work days 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. was made by a bunch of morning people.
Luckily, my Air Force job was shift work, so I didn't have to work day shift all the time---in fact, I was able to request a night shift.
 There were two: "swing shift" from 4 p.m. to midnight and "night shift," from midnight to 8 a.m.
Different people experience their peak energy at different times of day: some early in the morning, some later in the afternoon and some late at night. My energy peak happens to run from about
 4 p.m. to midnight, so swing shift worked best for me---but on the down side, being a swing shift worker put me cross-grain to the rest of the 8 to 5 world, so, if I had anything business related to do, I had to rise early and I had no social life.
Later I switched, to night shift. Then I worked 6 days and got 4 off. It was a little harder on my body-clock, but I liked the number of days off I had in a row and I could see my friends for dinner everyday. 
(This was the Air Force of the 70's that still had lots of money and plenty of personnel.)

Later, I finished my enlistment and went to college, where I tried not to put myself in classes that started earlier then 10 o'clock.
Then Hubby and I got married.
 He's a morning person. I mean bright-eyed-and-bush-tailed first thing at 6 a.m. talkative kind of morning person.
Me, I'm blurry for a least an hour and two cups of coffee.
However, he burns off his energy peak by early afternoon and needs a nap. He sleeps 60 to 90 minutes, then wakes refreshed for the evening until about 10 p.m. 

After marrying came more college to finish my BA and a smattering of jobs until I became a floral designer. It was part-time work and I only worked once a week, so I only had to get up early that one day. Holidays were another story. Holidays generally involved hours and hours of standing in one place anywhere from a week to 10 days, depending on the holiday.
 Then one year, the manager had an epiphany and suggested we split into shifts: one at night; one during the day.
Naturally, I volunteered for the night shift. It was great. Me and other ladies, we'd bring in food, play music and happily work without the interruptions of answering phones or customers.
That ended when that manager left. 

Some years later, I retired from being floral designer to work at home on my computer doing graphic art design instead.
 Now my schedule is my own.
******
What inspiration the word "early" give you?

Comments

Abby said…
It's interesting that people have such unique peaks and valleys. I think I'm more of a morning person, more in line with your husband's clock.
Nice to have your own schedule, isn't it?
Megan said…
Amen to all that!

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