The Night Shift

So it's May now. And I just flipped the month over on my "Quotes of the Month" calendar and this month's quote is an ancient sanskrit proverb:

look to this day for it is life
in its brief course lie all
the realities and truths of existence,
the joy of growth, the glory of action,
the splendor of beauty...
today well lived makes every
yesterday a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
look well, therefore, to this day...

My "day" today began less than an hour ago, when I finally woke around 2pm... such a strange time for me to wake. Naturally, I am much more of an "early to bed, early to rise" kinda gal. But I work the night shift now, alot. (Well, someone's gotta work all night at the restaurant to serve the strippers when they get off work!) Last night I worked 11pm until 7am this morning, and tonight I do the same, only I start at midnite.

It's a truly bizarre and fascinating insight into another aspect of humanity to be heading to work at 11pm on a Monday night. And to work the overnight shift at a 24 hour restaurant. I wish I could further articulate what my observations, and conclusions, about humanity based on this "study" are... But at this point, it is all still so new, and just generally foreign to me, that that is the extent of my observations at this point.

I will confess that interacting with all the strippers and servers from the club across the street has got me thinking much more specifically again about what it would be like to exist in that world. And okay, the confession goes deeper: I've actually always (or okay, for the last 6 or 7 years) had a bit of an interest in becoming a part of "that" world. My first summer in Toronto, when I was just 19 years old, saw the crumbling of my relationship and me moving rather abruptly out of the house I was living in with my boyfriend, and generally broke. Broke, and a little broken too. I needed money and I looooove to dance, so I seriously considered trying to become a stripper for a little while.

And if I'm being really honest, the attraction to the job wasn't just the money either. I imagine strippers to be these sexy, powerful, fit women who get to control their income through their sensuality and the weaknesses of men's libidos. I'm sure I'm unfairly glamorizing and idealising the situation, and I don't necessarily still hold those exact beliefs anymore. But I am still curious. Hmmmmmmmmm, maybe after a few months at the restaurant I will apply to be a server at the strip club (I'm not really sure I have the physical confidence to dance naked on stage like that anymore), and then I can see more for myself. Maybe....

In any case, the "study" continues. And I shall do my best not to let the distractions of my new life as a night-shift server, and a Facebook addict, as well as many other things, take me away from my responsibilities as a blogger. And until your eyes meet my words again, I shall leave you with this twist on an ancient sanskrit proverb:

look to this night for its life.
in its breif course lie all
the realities and truths of existence...