The first day of the work week will always be among the most challenging for those of us who work at night. It's more than just shaking off the joys of the weekend and preparing for the reality of the working world but more the greater difficulty in getting your sleeping schedule precisely right in order to feel normal by the time you get to work. And no matter how much we try to maintain discipline and stay awake at night on weekends, things rarely align perfectly well. It's a curse, but it's the life that I have chosen given the monetary benefits.
I'm awake now at 5 in the afternoon, which is about 3 hours earlier than my optimal wake-up time. but that's also because I fell asleep a few hours before my ideal sleeping time as well since I was feeling out of sorts from Monday night. Because my transition from weekend to work week wasn't quite ideal, the snowball effect has resulted in disruptions to the rest of my schedule. And now I'm pondering how to get back in alignment so that I don't just make things worse come tonight's shift or whatever.
But more than money, the graveyard life does have quirky benefits beyond pay potential. Traversing Metro Manila at night is a lot more efficient in the wee hours. Sure, I don't have access to the MRT, but I also don't have maddening traffic clogging up the streets either. There's a particular set of cabs that make camp right outside our condo, so I have a pretty reliable set of familiar faces that I can trust to drive me to work every night. And going home in the morning against the general flow of people is a treasure in itself since I still don't have to deal with the worst of Metro Manila's traffic shenanigans. It's a good thing indeed and I have a really difficult time imagining myself surviving the daytime commute for a regular 9-to-5 type of job.
So as much as I want to work on the new shelves right now, the smarter decision is to try to get back to bed and steal a few more hours of sleep. I don't know if I can actually manage it, but it's worth a shot. At least that should get me back closer to my actual work week schedule - at least in theory, any way.
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