Ah, paranoia

Working third shift and not getting enough sleep can start messing with your mind.

Last night I made the long trek to the bathroom at the 1:15 AM break. I noticed the door on the handicap stall was closed and latched. There were a few second shift straglers in that area of the warehouse who were working overtime, so I figured it was one of them.

At the 3:00 AM break I made the long bathroom trek once again. The door on the handicap stall was shut again. Or perhaps still shut. Could someone have been in there for that long, or is the door simply shut? I listened carefully and heard a brief creaking sound. Usually if someone else's is in the bathroom there's no doubt in my mind, but I wasn't sure if there was anyone in there or not.

I ended up leaving the bathroom and making the very long walk back up to the front of the warehouse where there's another set of bathrooms. While I was walking up to the front I wondered if there was someone actually in the stall, and if there was, who it was and why they were in there. On third shift past 2:00 AM there's only two men other than me in the building, and one of them is a security guard. If someone was in there I doubted it was either of the other two guys that are on third shift. Maybe someone from second shift was sleeping in there for some reason. Or maybe they were hiding. Should I tell the guard? If I told and whoever was in there got in trouble then I could be at risk of retaliation if the person got in trouble for hiding in the stall instead of working. But what if there was someone in there with a gun or a chainsaw or something?

After I left the other bathroom up front, I decided to go ahead and tell the security guard and risk looking like either a rat or a chicken. So I told what I knew to the guard. He said the other guy on this shift was outside smoking, but he got up and checked to make sure. We both then went back to the bathroom. I let the security guard check the stall because, after all, he's the security guard, not me. Naturally there was no one in the stall and I felt like an idiot, but the guard told me that I was right to tell him because someone may have passed out in there. He didn't seem annoyed at having to get up from his chair at all. But he was probably thinking, "What a little sissy girl!" I know I'm a little sissy girl, but I don't like other people to know it. Better a little sissy girl with a wide paranoid streak than the first victim in the great warehouse chainsaw massacre.

I need sleep

I haven't felt like writing anything, so I haven't. What I've really wanted to do these days is sleep, but for some reason I haven't been able to sleep that well when it's convenient. I usually go to bed around 8:15 in the morning and I try to sleep until 4:00, but lately I've only made it to 1:30 or so. I also I'm big on afternoon and evening naps, but lately I can't nap at all. So, when am I sleepy? At work, of course. Last night was torture because I was in a constant struggle to keep my eyelids open. All I had to do was close them and immediately I'd be dreaming. And, naturally, the sleepiness started right after I got to work. Prior to that I was about as wide awake as you can get.

A few nights ago the Seinfeld episode aired where George was taking naps under his desk at work. The space underneath my desk is big enough to sleep under (mainly because it's more of table than a proper desk), but the office has windows all around it and so I'm sure someone would notice me curled up under my desk. But since there's only about nine people that work third shift, I could probably put my head down on my desk and go to sleep and no one would notice. Hell, I could be in there with a knife in my back and no one would notice.

On the other side of the warehouse, the shipping office is vacant on third shift. Maybe I can go in there and sleep on the floor unnoticed. What about the loading dock? Plenty of half-filled trailers around that nobody is loading or unloading at that hour. I can climb up on some boxes and sleep like the dead for a few hours. But I'm sure I'd get caught. I'm just not one of those people that's able to get away with things.

I'm reminded of something I heard on another job years ago. A temp was working double shifts in the warehouse. This was a textile warehouse with very tall racks filled with big rolls of fabric. Apparently this temp would work a shift, then shortly after the second shift started, would climb high into the racks, and go to sleep on pile of fabric rolls. He got away with it for a while, but then one morning the boss was walking through the racks and heard snoring. Needless to say he was looking for a new job after that.

Meme-ish

Sherri went and passed a meme may way. Confound it!

Number of books on shelf?
Shelf? Try shelves. Or rather shelves and piles on the floor. But as far as numbers go, I don't know because I've never counted them. Several hundred no doubt. Maybe a thousand or more.

Last book purchased?
I recently ordered two books by Julian Meade, a forgotten author from the 30's who's from my hometown.

Book I'm reading now?
I'm trying to read two different ones:

Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon
Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Last five books read?
Julia and the Bazooka by Anna Kavan
Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician by Alfred Jarry
This is the Zodiac Speaking by Kelleher and Van Nuys
My Life in CIA by Harry Mathews

I'll toss this meme to Xolo, Sara, and Cindy, but they're all very busy, busy people who don't have time for such nonsense and would sooner strap a jet engine to a lawn jockey than answer these questions. Or something like that. (I'm sleepy.)

Training?

So this week I have to work first shift to train on the new computer system. Needless to say I'm half out of my mind from lack of sleep. Or something. And there's been little actual training. What we've mostly been doing is keying in all the inventory stuff, which is going to take forever. What if it's not right? The inventory is already screwed up in the old system. Who's going to check the accuracy of the numbers? Don't they realize that we don't know what we're doing?

I found out that once the new system goes live that we'll probably be on first shift, but the problem is that they keep pushing back the start date for the new system going live. First it was early August, then early September, and now it's either early October or even early November. At this rate I'll be stuck on third shift well into the cold months.