October, or, "I was up above it..."

I've written plenty about how much I hate the Fall/Winter seasons, and why. Some of the cold snaps we've had recently remind me of just how irritable I can get, and especially how irritable I was in October of 2008. The only pleasure I get out of October is that Halloween gives me an excuse to watch lots of horror movies, especially when my favorite theater shows classic horror films as part of their midnight movie series. I found out earlier this week that Saturday is my overtime night for October. There is never a good time to work Saturdays, but between the October midnight movie series and the fact that Saturday is the only day of the week that I get to spend a good chunk of time with my girlfriend, October is the absolute worst month to have to work Saturdays on. We are crazy busy this week, and I don't see me getting out of overtime this weekend. I'm really hoping that either the next two weeks won't be quite so crazy, or we'll bring in enough people to keep it from being quite so crazy, thus giving me either one or both of the following Saturdays this month off. Oh, and the 31st falls on one of my regular work nights, too! If I have to work both of those Saturdays, then my October will officially be ruined. The only good thing I can say is that working Saturdays this month should free up my Saturdays next month.

I intended to mention in my previous entry that another part of my peak season dread is the feeling that not only have I done this before, but that I got to escape it for a couple of years, and shouldn't have to go through it again. Or as Trent Reznor said, "I was up above it, now I'm down in it." 2009/10 were somewhat bearable since we still had the old picking system, and the place hadn't been filled to capacity yet, but I miss 2004/05, when it was still a relatively small company in a smaller warehouse, and my main work days were Tuesday through Friday. Hell, I probably would've stayed on the day shift if I got to work those days, instead of having to choose between a couple of shifts where I had to work every Sunday or one where I had to work every Saturday.

Something I've realized about 10-hour shifts is that no matter how much sleep I get, it's never enough. (Ha, now I've referenced The Cure!) I'm much better rested on those days where I worked 8 hours or less the night before.