The wild and wacky world of work scheduling

So another employee quit at the security central, which means my schedule is fubar for the foreseeable future. I have no idea what hours I'll be working, save that there's a lot of weekend time involved in the near future.

Fear not, I have made it clear that the weekend of the 19th is off-limits as far as work is concerned. The gig weekend is entirely clear.

I'm getting today and tonight off, and instead I'll be working the graveyard shift Saturday and Sunday. I fully expect to be d-e-d by the time Monday morning comes. My only hope of salvation is to try a catch a nap tomorrow before work (after my RCMP test). Sunday there will be no nap, since I have prior commitments starting at 11am, neither of which I particularly want to cancel.

I think I'm going to be pulling a couple of twelve-hour shifts next week sometime, although I'm not sure when, and then the last weekend in May is going to be spent doing graveyard again. After that they should with any luck have hired some new folks.

The up side is that I'm going to have many free days during the week to do Other Stuff I Normally Wouldn't Do™.

The other up side is that, since I'm one of the few stepping up to the plate to help out, I'm gaining what my father would call "Un capital de sympathie," which works out nicely for me. They might even be inclined to give me the first week of July off (especially since they wouldn't be paying me that week :P) so I can go to Oklahoma. Maybe.


Today I shall take advantage of my day off by visiting the Maternal Unit before she and the Paternal Unit leave for France for a month, and then I shall go and buy some proper running shoes.

Ain't no Superman

Even Mother Theresa limited herself to Calcutta, for the most part.

The human mind can't encompass more than about 100 close friends and family. Beyond that, it's physically incapable of caring just that much. This is a good thing, a survival mechanism. Can you imagine feeling the same devastating sorrow as losing a parent or a sibling or a child or your best childhood friend every time someone out there dies?

I would go insane. More insane than I am now. It would make life unbearable. We'd constantly be in emotional agony. Who wants to live like that?

I believe in the interconnectedness of beings. I don't believe one person inherently has more value than another. I also believe that some people have more value to me than others. I love my parents, but the teller at the bank will only get a civilized nod and a "Good morning" at best. The guy I pass on the street will never be acknowledged 99% of the time. My friends are more important to me than my coworkers.

Would I like to save the world? Sure. But I can't. I also can't care about the world in its entirety. I can care about my small corner of the world. I can strive to try and make my friends and family happy and safe, and to make my corner of the world a pleasant place for them to live.

My friends and family have friends and family of their own. My circle and their circle are not the same, and so I trust them to take care of those they love whom I don't know. In turn, those people must take care of their own. Eventually, there must be a trickle-down effect.

This isn't a perfect system. There's no such thing as a perfect system. It's just the best and only thing I know how to do. I am not a revolutionary, nor am I an activist. I lose myself in crowds, and I don't have the voice or the oratory skills for speeches. I am not brilliant. I will never write anything that will irrevocably change the way people think.

The best I can hope for is that someone someday will look at me and say: "You know, I think she's onto something. Maybe I'll try that too."