Busier shifts at the resthome.

It's really interesting how the amount of work can ebb and flow at the resthome, as new people move in and as other people leave through death or to go to more care intensive facilities, or as the same people who have been living there require more care than ever.

Lately, for instance, one new man moved in, and then another guy who's been living there has been needing more time per check-in and more check-ins overall per shift as his dementia has been progressing.

Like two days in a row I slept over ten hours after getting off shift and going home, and at first I thought it was a fluke due to me not getting enough sleep and maybe the weather, too, but then I realized it was because I was working that much more per shift with less downtime than ever, and I needed the sleep to recharge.

Right before this period, the amount of work had been light, and so you'd get maybe a half hour's downtime in the early afternoon, and then again at dinner, and then maybe towards the end of the shift, but now it's like ten minutes early on, and maybe twenty minutes at dinner, and then finally some sit-down time like right before you go home.

That extra work really adds up, to drain you.  You just get to work and it's go - go - go for like eight hours.

I really do like this job, though; it's busy and fun and always different, and my coworkers and the residents are so nice.