I am like my Mom...aargh

I had a sudden realization today, I like being on an odd schedule.

Let me explain... my mom is a nurse. She started in nursing before I was born, raised me as a nurse --and for a while a single-parent nurse and she's still a nurse. She hates to work the day shift. There was nothing that made her more nuts than a whole string of 9-5ish shifts in a row. She hated the same schedule, rutt-ness of it.

I thought she was a wacko -- and, for other reasons she kind of was -- but, it bothered me that she would choose to work evenings, weekends and nights when I was a younger teenager, because she'd be away from home when I was there. Of course, she' explain that she was most needed at those times and being part of the supervisory team of nurses entailed that one of the 5 of them had to be on at all times -- because, without them the hospital really would stop working. She also told me about the bizarre mix of patients. Wealthy Jewish patients and people from the neighborhood, mostly African Americans and Native Americans. The combination of her stories taught me a few very good lessons, a) you don't die from being tired, b) we have serious race and class divisions in this country, but everyone gets sick and needs my mom at some point, and c) helping people get better so they can have good lives is very important... and, for her, d) it is better not to work 9-5 in an office if you can help it...

I thought she was dead wrong on d) - thus my shock at realizing I like my schedule this semester -- it is something like 12:00-9 MW, 7:00-12:00 T/Th --- no 9-5 for me... and I'm spending very little time in my office, which works well for me -- not th at I don't miss Wise Woman, Dog Dad, the Sister and the New guy --- but, I'm getting much more done and am having more balance in my life this semester than any previous semester. I wonder what next semester will be like with the release time for debate??