So yeah, my mom has been bitching at me for sleeping all the time. As soon as I get home from work, I take a nap. I'm always in my room. Stuff like that. First, maybe a little background is needed.

I have moved back in with my parents while I'm in paramedic school. My thinking was if I live with them they can help me stay focused with studying, I can work less and do more clinicals, and all of that would decrease my stress level. Well, I was wrong. I'm still working as much if not more than before I started school.

You may be asking yourself, "What's the big deal? So you have to work and go to school. Waa. Everybody does it. Quit your bitching." Granted, I'm not the only person in this world that has worked his ass off to get through school. Visiting any titty bar will prove that. But I'm quite sure my situation isn't like everyone else's.

My week generally goes like this:

Every Monday and Wednesday night I have school. It goes from 6PM to 10PM. Not too bad, it gives my brain a hell of a workout but it's only 2 nights a week. It's usually split between 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab time. Lecture is obvious, the captain tells us stuff and we regurgitate it on or tests. Lab is sticking my classmates with needles, reading EKG strips, doing chest decompressions, dissections, what have you.

Monday through Friday I work in the family business repairing showers and bathtubs. It's pretty self explanatory, I go all over the area and fix busted tubs. It's a long day of manual labor in places ranging from dirty warehouses to million plus homes and everything in between. It pays well enough, and if that's all I had to do I wouldn't be here venting. But this is a family business. I.e. my dad owns it. I.e. when he retires, I will own it. So besides doing the repair work, I have to help my dad run the business as well. Anyone that owns their own business knows what a nightmare that is. The best part? This is my part time job.

For my full time job, I'm an EMT. I work for a rural EMS department north of the city. It doesn't pay as well as you might think, but it is an absolute blast. I've seen and done things most people never will. That can be good or bad depending on the situation. It gives me a sense of pride and purpose every morning I suit up and head to the station. The shifts are 16 hours long from 8AM to midnight. Being a rural service, we usually don't get too many calls. Between the 2 rigs, there are usually 5 or less. But when you factor in that because of the long transport distances most calls last about 2 hours from tone out to back in house, our days can be quite busy. If not on a call, we are free to do whatever we want. Eat, watch TV, cruise around, and most importantly: sleep. But we can't just sleep, you must keep your ears open the whole shift. Sleep to us is resting your eyes. Not very restful but better than nothing. You must be wondering: "When do you have time to this? You already have a 9 to 5." That, my friends, would be the 2 days a week I don't fix tubs. Saturday and Sunday. Some weeks I get lucky and it's Saturday OR Sunday with a weekday, replacing a day fixing tubs. But more often than you would think, it's Saturday AND Sunday. I just did that this past weekend. You know what that means don't you? 13 days straight of working.

So now maybe you understand why I sleep so damn much. I've been working 10 days straight with 3 three more to go. Between the stress of school and both of my jobs, sleep and ponies are pretty much the only things that keep me going. When I finish school and get promoted, I told my dad I will be taking a break from fixing tubs to relax. At first my goal was to earn my paramedic license. Maybe what I'm really working towards is some time off...