Today is one of those days that I feel I am living in a time loop.
Have you ever felt like you lived the same day twice? Well, I think it was because I went home after work and then realized I left my keys at my workplace and had to walk back to my workplace to retrieve them and then went home again. I was wondering how my house keys separated from me and I think I had absent-mindedly taken them out of my pockets and placed it on the bedside table in the on-call room. I was extremely glad it was there as I did not have to waste my time searching for it. Just as I thought I could rest well after a fairly challenging night (Thankfully it was peaceful after 3 am and got crazy again from 7 to 9 am), my superior asked me if I could help out with some private cases. Actually, it is very ironic because I just announced in my family group yesterday that I am done with doing private cases as the additional pay I get is not "under-table" money and I have to pay additional tax for it which I felt slightly unwilling. Except for the penalty I received last year for unknowingly claiming stuff that I am not supposed to claim, I often get some money back from the monthly deduction for my tax. However this time, I had to pay extra just because I had additional income. I would have preferred if my superior could just pay me by cash and skip the formal procedures of me getting paid formally (My friends from other places, their superior does that and they could escape being taxed). When my superior asked me if I could help out today instead of saying "no", I caught myself saying "yes" while telling myself "Don't reject the opportunities of having an additional income, so what if you have to be taxed more, at the end you still take home about 80% of it and it is less labor intensive than doing a full on-call".
After easily convincing myself, I proceed to head home for a shower thinking that it will be around noon that I will be needed. Just as I returned home for the second time due to my carelessness of leaving my key behind, my superior texted me "I'm going to call the case now" and I just replied "Okay" thinking that since things are a little slow, it would probably take 40 mins for the case to arrive. I quickly fix myself some breakfast (skip intermittent fasting because all I had yesterday was my peach gum dessert and I am famished!), freshen up and by 30mins I'm already out of my room. Just as I was walking back to work midway, my superior texted me again to tell me that the case had arrived! (So I underestimated their speed). I replied that I would be 8 minutes late and lucky my superior did not mind (actually I am the one doing a favor and it is not the other way round but I don't want my tardiness to compromise my fees). I was very lucky the cases were stable cases thus it was those "periods of boredom" kind of workday which works well for me because I get to do some reading in the very nice cold operating theater environment. I was beginning to feel sleepy and thankfully everyone seemed to work efficiently and fast so we managed to finish 2 cases within 5 hours which is quite good given that one of them was a relatively big case.
I decided to chill at the library after that because it was so hot outside and I found a new book. However this time, I was not as thrilled by the book and I guess my brain is now wired to just read academic stuff since exams are nearby. I read half a page and decided to stop and ended up taking a 10-minute nap and resumed reading academic-related stuff. I think everything was arranged in a way that I did not go home straight cause after about 2 hours my superior called me to ask if I was still within the perimeters of the workplace and would like me to check on one of the cases we did. So before going home, I stopped to check on the case which I could earn a very small fee. On my way home, as a way to thank myself for optimizing my time today, I bought dinner and told myself that if I were 3 years old, I would have given myself 5-star stamps on my report card (My teacher used to reward us with stars and I still find that gesture to be rewarding despite there is no true reward involved, she sometimes stamp the stars on our palms). I wonder what reward system they use in school these days. Anyway, as I got home and settled down, I suddenly felt whatever that happened in the morning felt like yesterday and whatever happened in the noon belonged to today. I feel like I was in different time zones for a moment - perhaps I lack the vocabulary to describe the peculiar feeling I had about today.
The bottom line is that I am satisfied and fulfilled with what I did today and I am now going to head to bed because right now I feel floaty like I had alcohol but I had none - it is just sleep deprivation which I need to address stat! Oh and I am glad Jena, Germany is just GMT +1 or I would have made the mistake of sending my friend a text at the wrong hour to check if she is back to her home country safely. I am so looking forward to exchanging work experiences with her.
Good night!
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