Let's hear it for the NIGHT SHIFT!!

I can't help it. Call it circadian rhythms, call it comfy, call it inconvenient to everyone else in my life: I LOVE THE NIGHT SHIFT!!
Always have, always will. No matter that I sleep all day, will probably develop health problems and will live 7 years less according to all the studies. The night shift offers soooo many good things that I have to keep on going back for more. And the night shift in the Keys is nothing but a funshift! Good people working, less traffic, NO SUITS (if you get my drift) and a laid-back atmosphere. Not that it's any less acute at times (you fly people out, you code people, and BOY do you get your share of drunks and psychos!) but it just seems less like work and more like FUN in the wee hours.

When I was married, my husband hated me working nights. Hated to sleep without me, so apparently he slept with several others to teach me a lesson. Sorry, I was absent in class that day. I don't particularly like anyone telling me how and when I can toil at my profession. So when he went on his merry way, and when the TeenQueen was safely ensconced in a faraway land under lock and key, I decided to give it a try once again.

And I'm not sorry.

So I've been happily toiling away from 6pm to 6am, doing tons of overtime because we're so short of personnel (honestly, doesn't someone want to come play with us?) and enjoying every minute of it.

The tourist season is almost over. We've seen the traffic die down after Easter. Still some spring breakers hanging around, but the snowbirds are beginning to fly north again. The weather is beautiful, the water is warming up and the boat is ready to go. We took it out last week and had a wonderful time, so much so that we ran out of gas before getting into our canal. My tan is back, I'm back on the bridge and life has resumed its lazy, sunny direction. I'm happy to be back in Paradise.

The TeenQueen is doing well, in school, making TONS of friends, wearing a uniform and looking incredibly pretty and grown up. I miss her to death, but I make the sacrifice of not having her near knowing she is well and doing well. I love her dearly and the separation has not been easy for me, but maybe she'll thank me one day for having the foresight to change the direction of her life when she was unable or unwilling to do so. She'll be back for a few weeks in the summer and again, we plan to head to Daytona Beach for a week of sun and fun.

And the irrepressible, atomic HB? He landed a job heading up marketing at a local home health agency, so guess who lives in Paradise now? The big house in Miami sits empty again, apart from my weekly trips to work at Mercy Hospital, where I work in PACU. He's now wearing linen pants and short-sleeved tropical shirts to work and thinking about trading in the Porsche for a convertible. How's that for instant adjustment?

I'm home. And so happy to be here. As the TeenQueen would say, "Your fantasy, my reality."