Oh, for crying out loud!

By now, pretty much everyone I know around here, and more than a few I don't, knows I'm working nights now. News travels fast in small towns, no matter how boring it is. *L*

Now, I don't expect other people to make exceptions just because I work nights. If the sun is shining, they're going to mow their lawns, drive their dirt bikes and atv's, talk loudly outside, and so on. HOWEVER... phoning me in the middle of the day is something else completely!

A few days ago, I got a call at about 2 in the afternoon. Having talked to my husband who mentioned that another employer had called me up about a position on the very day I was to start my new job (interrupting my attempt to sleep, of course, but they had no way of knowing that), she decided she would apply for that position. She and I used to do the same job - in fact, she was hired to replace me and I trained her - so what does she do? She phones me up shortly after 2 in the afternoon - KNOWING full well that I was in bed - to ask me questions about how to describe the position on the resume she's updating. I blearily answer the phone (yeah, I know - I could let the voice mail take it, but by the time that picks up, I'd be wide awake anyways. Besides, if someone's calling me that time of day, I sort of assume it's important). I answer her questions as best I can, squinting over at the clock and realizing I've only been asleep for an hour, then have to tell her that I'm falling asleep on her so I'd better go.

Great. That's it, then, right?

Of course not.

Today, shortly before 2:30 in the afternoon, the phone rings. My initial thought is that it's 9 pm, my husband in phoning, and why the heck didn't my alarm clock go off at 8:30 like it was supposed to? I become immediately disoriented by the female voice at the other end. Ah. It's her - squint at the clock. Yup - I've only been in bed for about an hour. The first thing she does is apologise for waking me up. Uh huh. So what's so important that she'd phone me?

Well, she's filling out the application form for that position I turned down and had some questions about our previous employer. Like how much we made an hour to start. After a couple of minutes, she thanks me and tells me she'll let me go back to sleep now.

Now, an interrupted sleep for me is worse than no sleep at all. Being a rare sunny day, *everyone* was mowing their lawns. Next door had the riding mower and push mower going at the same time. Having finally fallen asleep, I could have stayed asleep, but once that phone rang, all bets were off. After a frustrating hour of trying to get back to sleep but only becoming more wide awake and starting to get pretty steamed in the process (she *knew* she'd be waking me up but phoned anyways!), I finally get up. I call up my husband, expecting him to be out, so I wasn't surprised to get his voice mail. I leave a message asking him, the next time he spoke to her, to diplomatically point out to her that calling me at 2-3 in the afternoon is like me calling her at 1-2 am. Well, as soon as I get off the phone, it rings. My husband hadn't got to the phone fast enough, saw my number on call display, so he called back without having listened to my message. And why couldn't he answer the phone in time?

Because he'd gone for a nap. Great. Now I feel s***y for waking hime up.

So I tell him what happened, pointing out that by now, I'm the *last* person to tell her not to call me in the afternoon again. I may not care what she thinks, but I do consider her husband a good friend, and she's a friend of my husband, so I don't want them to suffer the inevitable fall out of any lack of diplomacy on my part. Then my husband, knowing full well by now how frustrated I am about not being able to get back to sleep (which, of course, keeps me awake even more) says...

"so I guess I shouldn't tell you that I'm going back to sleep right after this call."

Great. First, I feel crappy that I woke him up from his nap (considering his ongoing health issues), but I'm then reminded of the fact that he can fall asleep pretty much on demand. I couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny, or what! I think he clued in on that when my response was total silence. I simply couldn't think of a single thing to say. To be honest, I quite nearly hung up on him.

Fine, I cut the conversation short so that I can make another attempt at going back to sleep. Eventually, several hours later, I do fall asleep.

Only to be awakened at 8:30 pm - by the phone ringing. Who is it?

My husband.

It seems he was talking to another friend out here who's going to need to move out of her apartment RFN because the landlord has decided to take advantage of the tourist season and rent the place out on a weekly basis, so she's being evicted. She's looking for a place to stay and I've got lots of room, so he figured I could rent part of it out to her. He figured that a possible extra $300 a month (I guess he's already figured that part out for me?) was worth phoning me early. He seemed confused that I wasn't as excited about this as he was. He also seemed to think I'd jump on the idea right off the bat and say yes right away.

First of all, I'm groggy. I'm not going to make that sort of decision half asleep.

Second of all - she's got 2 dogs and a cat. I don't own this house. My parents do. My mother is already upset because I've got 2 cats. They won't be impressed if I taken in another personwith more animals. He *thinks* they're outside dogs, though. Oh, and she's willing to help me pack, too.

I told him I'd call him in the morning, after I get home from work but before I go and pick up the kids. He would like me to make a decision by then.

This is going to be a long night.