The city that never sleeps.

Yes, it is 5:00AM EST on a beautiful Saturday morning as I start this blog entry. Yes, I am at work. Once or twice a month, I do an overnight shift at work. Overnight shifts at the Foyer are from 12 midnight to 8:00AM (so no, I don't actually know if it's beautiful outside right now). Truth be told, I don't mind overnight shifts. I know that in this city especially, tons of people work through the night. Plus, on weeks that I work overnights, I get Friday day off, work Sunday day, and then get Monday off. It almost feels rebellious. Almost.

I had plans to post a serious, thoughtful, life-revealing entry tonight. Now that more than half my shift is over, I'm not in the mood for insightful philosophizing. So instead, here's a fun list of the perfectly mundane things I like to do on my overnight shifts!

- Surf through YouTube videos from emails, Facebook, and random encounters.
- Watch Glee.
- Watch Modern Family. Except tonight when I tried to catch up, I found I could only watch the most recent episode in its entirety. The others only gave me 90 second previews! What has Hulu come to?? I still have 3 more episodes to watch :(
- Play with my hair. Today is the second time that I've had my hair cut during the day before my overnight shift.
- Talk to residents who come in slightly intoxicated. The really intoxicated ones don't stick around.
- Eat. I get really really hungry constantly during the nights. Probably my body's way of finding comfort since it doesn't get the comfort of a bed.
- Text people. This especially works out for the time difference with LA. One time I talked to Ana for 3 hours, which really helped the time pass.
- Catch up with Feministing.com and AngryAsianMan.com.
- Listen to music. I like to make YouTube playlists on my channel. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me from keeling over.

And one of my coworkers just informed me last week that Netflix actually works. I thought it didn't. Too bad I only have one or two more overnights here. Nonetheless, we'll see if I can add that to the list as well.

Then of course I do have work. This includes: updating the daily log, doing rounds on the floors, checking my Outlook email, finishing whatever paperwork I have for the week, opening medicine boxes in the morning for a couple of the girls (because of their government funding stream, we have to keep their medicine locked up - we all hate this rule because it's a big inconvenience for everyone).

So in general overnight shifts pass by smoothly and easily. My body usually starts to feel super heavy around 4:30-5:30AM (it's the weirdest feeling - sometimes my body starts to feel like it's sinking into an imaginary bed), but once I get over that pre-dawn hump, I'm good.

Once 8:00AM hits and my relief shows up, I'm out the door! And without fail, the NYC morning invigorates me. Maybe it's leaving work. But I think it's more the eerily but peacefully quiet calm of 7th Ave at that hour. When I walk to the subway, I can see all the way down the avenue, past floating yellow cabs and rows of skyscrapers, all melting into the gray morning. I walk a couple blocks to get on the train for the sleepy ride home. As I join other subway travelers, whether they are going to work or just getting out of work or starting the fun of the weekend, I always feel a deep sense of satisfaction. I live here. I work here. It's happening here, in this legendary mythical city!