Getting Cranky!

I am starting to get a little cranky. If this was a normal rotation I would have arrived home yesterday and I'd be in bed right now beside my wife. Not on a bus heading to work! Despite today being a double bubble day I am running on low energy and don't have my usual quota of 'happy'. It will take some effort to keep the frustration level down!

I noticed my crankiness this morning. Oh, I slept well enought last night. In bed by 8 and out like a light moments later. And I only got up once in the night to use the loo which is unusual for me. But after breakfast in the dining room I headed to the bag-up or lunch room and that is where it hit me!

Have you ever been in a somewhat crowded place and every time you reach for something some douche bag steps in front of you and just doesn't get out of the way? Today was probably no different from any other day except to me everyone seemed to be invading my zone! I kept hearing echoes of my Jman from our trailer with his sage old advice: "When in doubt, knock them out!" it was all I could do to keep civil.

I heard somewhere that there is what happens and then there is what you make of it. So why is it when I am low on gas and deep down tired do I make more of these situations than they clearly call for? You would think in those situations that I would make less of these issues as I have less energy to deal with them. But no! Instead I want to make a big deal of the nothing that is going on.

I do know the right way to deal with this sort of situation. The secret is to not trust yourself and to not listen to the voice inside that tells you to react. I also need to focus on the good things like the nice weather and the fact that I will be getting double time today which even at my low rate works out to 75 cents a minute. I have lots of things to spend that money on too!

I can't wait till I am a Journeyman (Jman). They will make $800/day for the next week and the Foremen will make a cool $1,000! I am a pre-apprentice still so I only make $20/hr but at the end of this turn I will have 3 months in and will be moved to the category of 1st year apprentice and will get a raise to about $24/hr. If I can get my 1,500 hours in before the end of the summer and get into the pre-apprentice course for the fall I will be raised to $28/hr. the extra $8/hr represents a out $16,000 of extra income (before taxes) so that is not a bad raise for 2/3 of a year on the tools. Besides, Waiward is and has been paying for my flights since I started and that is worth around another $800-$1,000 every 3 weeks.

Wow! That's not too bad really! Actually it's really good! Oddly enough I think I just got my 'happy' back!