The second shift continues

At lunch yesterday a classmate asked what time I went to sleep the night before. When I gave her the answer, she commented that she was amazed at how fresh and alert I looked. I then told her my little secret, that I take naps after I get home before proceeding to have dinner and beginning what I call my second shift.

 

And this has been a week of long and late second shifts. Every year the week of Valentine’s Day is always the week when major assignments are due and this year is no different. Later today I will be handing in a group assignment for pricing, another one for data decisions and tools, and an individual write up for entrepreneurial marketing.

 

When I got out of my group meeting yesterday for one of the assignments that’s due today, I looked at my watch and realized we had been sitting in that little room for three hours. I barely had time for a one hour nap at home before having to drag myself out of bed, get dinner, and get myself to the library to get the remainder of my work done. I had wanted to go to the basketball game (Virginia Tech won by one point in overtime) but gave my ticket to two exchange students. I figured they should see at least one game while they are at UNC. Right before I left the library, I was writing up my entrepreneurial marketing assignment and kept hitting Alt-E-L (select all) followed by Ctrl+2 (double space) until I was able to achieve the satisfactory number of pages.

 

It’s now past 4am and the time reminds me of Frank Sinatra singing about “the wee small hours of the morning when the whole wide world is fast asleep.”  I know I really should be getting ready for bed instead of watching the West Wing on DVD and writing my blog posting. After all Wednesday is one of my more packed days. But I realize the time will soon come when I will no longer have the luxury of being able to stay up until 4am without risking getting fired and I need to enjoy this perk while I still can.

 

There will be plenty of opportunities to sleep when I rejoin the “the whole wide world” that Sinatra sings about.