(credit to the Telegraph–UK–for the cute panda pic…aww…zzzzz…)

Okay, I found myself in this position for 2 reasons:

1. I gotta be careful of what I wish for,like wanting more work hours and experience.
2.  When people are getting fired/moving in BOTH work places, and you’re the only one who can do the job in each…well, there’s bound to be overlap at some point.

I am aware working more than 30 hours in a row is not the best thing to do. Especially to someone trying to be fit and healthy. 30+ hours (I went to work at 7:30 a.m. and the soonest I’ll touch my bed will be 4:30 p.m. tomorrow–traffic contingent). So, is this an idiotic move?

Oh, hell yes, it is.

What happened will of course kill my exercise plan for the next few days (already has, if I’m honest). No kickboxing, no Jiu-Jitsu like I’d planned, no weight lifting, except for what I can do on my foam mat while everyone else is asleep and I do my security watch.

Yeah. The perfect storm of “right place, right time” hit me hard on BOTH ends and now I’m going to be away from my bed for 33 hours. If I’m lucky, I can get 2-3 catnaps in (5-30 minutes each) so I don’t end up falling asleep at my job in the morning.

I did some prep-work on if you have to stay up all night. Obviously, it’s not recommended (the internet agrees with you: I’m an idiot). But some sites have some good info about how to do it safely and semi-reasonably, meaning you don’t try to make this a habit.And other websites, like this fairly-tame one, have done their damnedest to try to creep me out and make me wish I’d never gotten in this situation.

Go ahead–have a Google war and search for info on both sides…it’s kinda fun.

This is definitely not the first time I’ve pulled an all-nighter. What’s different is going to a whole other job AFTER I’ve already worked all day and night. Ugh…yeah, this won’t be fun come 10 a.m. tomorrow, when I’m a couple hours into my shift–at least it’ll be a lot of work that I can do to keep me busy. Just sitting there would kill me.

But I do know this much from my few years of all-nighters–when you can get 5-20 minutes of shut-eye, take ’em. Even if you shouldn’t, do it when others are awake and ready to pick up the slack. If I try to sleep more than an hour, I actually wake up worse off than before, because my body doesn’t want to get up, as if I tricked it into thinking it’d get plenty of rest.

It kinda stinks. But the best thing I can do for myself when I HAVE to stay up all night for work (because at my 2nd job, I can’t sleep no matter how much I try–but I can rest my eyes and back on my mat).

And even better, I can watch comedies or my fave Hong Kong action flicks to burn calories (comedies make me laugh, which DOES burn calories, and the action flicks make me get my mat and dumbbells out to exercise. That and hydrating–very important to get fresh air and drink water when you can instead of sugar.

Good for me, because I’m trying to cut sugar best I can–Nice!

And when all else fails…this place is a mess, and I can get the broom and dustpan and sweep the hell out of the passageways while doing rounds. It’s the slow way, but it’s exercise, too.

I’m just glad I have great coffee in my locker…I just have to be careful to ration it and not suck it down. That’s the tricky part: the caffeine. But if you wait until you really need it… mmm… then you’re doing yourself (and your stomach acid) some favors.

That’s something I learned about all nighters. When I’m driving home, it’s the worst. I make excuses to stop and get out of my car, even for a “short” 30 minute drive back home. I pretend to make sure my tires are good, I open and shut the doors, get clear air in, and blast my rock and roll.

One time I nearly nodded off at the wheel–that taught me the importance of avoiding sleepy driving. The best thing–if I’m hungry and know I need something in my stomach before I go to sleep (because otherwise it’ll keep me up), I avoid the convenient drive-thru and walk in to order. That helps me walk it off and then I’m good–at least long enough for me to get home.

When I get home, I might have enough in me to pet my dog and throw the frisbee once or twice, then start kicking off my shoes and dropping clothes all the way to bed. I just don’t care at that point.

Of course, the cutest part of it all is when I’m finally awake enough after a few hours of sleep. You can bet that the little monster is sitting right there outside my door… sometimes she whines that she knows I’m awake. And even if she doesn’t, if I open my bedroom door, she’ll be right there with a chewed-up frisbee in her mouth, ready to go.

I guess there’re worse ways to wake up.

All I know is, about 21 hours from now, I should be enjoying my bed and fan…but for now, I’m gonna take 20 minutes to shut my eyes before I have to set up for the next phase of the night.

Still, I wish dad wasn’t still watching my “The X-Files” season 2 DVDs–I was looking forward to those tonight, dang it. Those would definitely help!