I have the time... somewhere...

I've been working a lot, and by that I mean a lot of days, not necessarily a lot of hours or doing a lot of actual work. When patient volume is high we "flex" out and work less hours than our scheduled shift to keep productivity high. I'm already losing hours every Tuesday when I come in late so I can take Caleb to day care/preschool. I actually worked an entire extra day, 8 full hours at one of the clinics, on top of my regularly scheduled 40 at the hospital and still only ended up with 34 hours this week.

I shouldn't complain. My manager is extremely flexible when I need to leave early for a doctor's appointment or when I said "Oh hey, I'll be coming in over an hour late every Tuesday and I can't take call during the week anymore." I don't know where else I'd get that kind of cooperation. It helps that I've been there 7 years, I don't give him a lot of trouble, and I pick up the slack a lot and do extra stuff without extra pay. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

I just feel like going in for an extra day, even though it's not actually extra hours, still feels like over time. It leaves me one day a week to grocery shop, get errands done, and see my family without rushing t get dinner on the table in time. I have to plan out my to-do list so far in advance or I end up trying to cram everything into one day. Caleb has a birthday party to go to tomorrow and I actually had to pull out my planner and schedule a day to buy a gift. The only time slot I could allot was 3 weeks ago. That's insane. At least I won't be running around tomorrow morning 30 minutes before the party, scouring the aisles of Target to find a gift. Except that I don't think I have any birthday wrapping paper. For the sake of my own sanity he might get a present wrapped in snowmen and candy canes.