Alpha

At work, every year we have a three month crunch. For a variety of reasons, I've been fortunate enough to miss out on the brunt of the crunch so far. Not anymore.

Starting tomorrow I'll be working a lot. I expect it to last about a month. If I was single, I really don't think I'd mind. We get dinner provided, I don't mind working, and we don't have to work so much that you can't do anything else. But, as you know, I'm not single. The hard part is being away from my family.

This morning Leah and kids took me to work. On the way there I told Levi that I hoped he had a great day. He said, "You know what the best part will be? Playing games with you when you get home." He must've peed his pants or talked back to his mom because when I got some he said, "Dada, guess what? No games," but that's beside the point.

In previous years Leah and Levi would come see me almost every day for lunch or dinner, but I realized he did want to play games with me, not just eat and "visit" (at the moment we're playing through Super Mario 2). So my plan is to wake up a bit earlier and play Nintendo with him for a half hour each morning. I'm really (really) not a morning person, so this is going to be hard, but I think I can do it. I'll definitely have to go to bed earlier. I also have to be at work earlier than normal.

Leah and the kids are going to visit family in two weeks so I won't feel bad about working a lot then.

Why go through this? I really like my job. Every year I wonder if I'm going to put up with another alpha, but I'm still here. Hopefully I can put more of the pressure on myself (less time for fun things) than my family. As long as I can do that, I'm confident I can sustain the yearly crunch. Much better to have a job you enjoy that requires some extra hours than one you don't from 9-5.

When I don't get to see my family at night or on a Saturday it makes me realize how much I enjoy my time with them, and being with them every day, if only for a little bit, isn't so bad at all.