Looks Like I Made It!

So my last day off was August 21. Unfortunately today is September 5th. I've been cutting back on my crazy work schedule but when you only have one day off a week and pick up on your day off it runs the weeks together. What makes it harder is that my occupation is a waitress. (old school term)

I can take all the days off I want, if I don't need to get paid. I can work just four , five or even six shifts a week but that means I have to hit it big on every shift and when you are a server that rarely happens. I used to work about eleven shifts a week, sometimes twelve which totally increased my odds of banking big. I did that for over two years and although it was exhausting at times, it still wasn't as  bad as when I worked for my former restaurant, which I call  "Western Sizzler."

When my husband lost his job and we went from a six figure income to 30K I worked like a demon. Thirty days in  a row was nothing to me and I did it for well over a year. Then the corporate Rat Basts fired me and my life fell apart. After a week long bout of serious depression, I scraped myself off the floor and got a job with a family owned restaurant.  I had known the owners for fifteen years. I dug right back in and worked tirelessly for over two years. My husband got a job , then a better one and we were back to making what we made when we first got married.  Then Tim got another job and we bumped up the pay scale to what we were making when I was forty. But when you've been down and out for two years it's hard to come back...and it was.

We have had help from above and help from all sides. Family and friends got us through and we got to keep our house. We are four years away from it being paid off and I consider us lucky, because we are!

I decided tonight after clocking out for the fifteenth day in a row that it simply wasn't worth it. I'm over half a century old and feel like I am in my seventies. I checked my bank account when I got home and so far I'm good. Taking tomorrow off come hell or high water. I actually plugged in my vacuum cleaner last night, even turned it on and was amazed what a difference it made.

We've definitely turned a corner...not the big corner but at least it is a start.

I can work day after day after day but that is about all I can do. I get up in the mornings but once everyone leaves I fall into  a coma and wake up in time to do it all again. That's not living but surviving and simply put, I am tired of it.

Let the chips fall where they may. I'm taking tomorrow (today) off and getting my life in order. Bathing the hounds, cleaning the house, washing my car and going to bed at a decent hour. Still have plenty of leftovers in the fridge and taking a "Me" day. May sound selfish, but I think I deserve it, just this once!

Til next time...COTTON