While I’ve been away I’ve been cooking much less and working with a much more sporadic schedule. Ever changing shifts both at work and in life. Luckily, I was given the opportunity to take over the bulk of the opening shifts at work, downside is I’m up at 4:30am four days a week, upside is that I’m done by noon and have all that pesky “morning routine” out of the way. You know exactly what I mean, when the “I don’t want to get up” is coupled with the “my bed is cozy” and just a titch of “it’s not even light out” all culminate in an overwhelming urge to not leave your bedroom. I don’t have that option anymore. I have a responsibility to open the YMCA when the clock strikes 6:00am, it provides just enough urgency to propel me out from under the sheets, through the door, and up the hill……once I’m showered and dressed.

I’ve been working these shifts for about 2 weeks now and I can feel my routine starting to change. Ever since I got sick in Vancouver my sleep schedule has been wonky. Can’t get to bed at a decent hour, cant fall asleep once I get in bed, never feel properly rested. I started to get back on track when I was running last summer but then when my back decided I couldn’t do that for a while, my schedule flew right out the window. Moping around and feeling sorry for myself would certainly have been a viable option at that point, but I chose a different path. I chose to take one early morning shift and see how I fared. I got into a routine and had no problem getting up that early on Monday mornings. Then Denise left and the rest of her morning shifts opened up and, after a lot of thought, I opted to take them.

It increases my productivity throughout the day because my brain is awake and aware by the time I get to work and get everything up and operational. I’ve been getting back into reading, both novels and marketing books. I made the decision to hold off on schooling and instead make use of the multitude of books that are out there on the subject of marketing and how it should be done (relationship marketing, IMO.) It has also provided me the time to, slowly, get back into the kitchen. Making meals ahead to take to work, taking the time when I get home to make both lunch and dinner, rather than having to rush to job #2. That’s right, I work two evenings a week from 6:00-10:00pm at the youth centre and, although it stretches my day out considerably, I wouldn’t trade it for a second.

Long story short, I took yesterday to try out two new dishes and once I decide if they were successful or not, I will be posting them here….hopefully tomorrow.