the sleep battle

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.

That is what I tell myself every single time that the alarm goes off. It's my own little pep talk. 

"You can do this Krysta. Sure, it's 3 am. Sure, every other person that you know is fast asleep... or in the case of my younger brother, just crawling into bed. Sure it's cold and dark.  But it could be worse. You could sleep a few extra hours and then head to a monotonous day job in an office. You have an awesome job, you spend your days in the sky.... this is worth it. Get out of bed."

This week has been particularly challenging. One morning, I had a 2:45 am check in.  Do you know what time you have to wake up to be at the airport for 2:45 am? I do. 1:00 in the morning.  I can think of few things more disgusting than that.  On the bright side, the Northern Lights were gorgeous as I drove on the empty roads, and even more beautiful from the flight deck at 30,000 feet. I survived the day with the help of my best friend in the whole wide world... caffeine.  My name is Krysta, and I am a coffee-holic.  Speaking of which, my amazing husband of 6 months (yesterday was our half-aversary) spoiled me with a top of the line coffee grinder.  Now I can buy whole coffee beans, grind them into espresso perfection, and make amazing lattes. 

That's what I've been doing this evening, in an effort to stay awake as late as possible.  I'm shifting my body clock in preparation for an overnight flight tomorrow evening. Ahh, the return of the red eye. It's okay if I've had adequate time to rest before hand, but I haven't. Just last night I returned from Montreal and I'm all out of whack. I want so badly to crawl into bed or cuddle up next to my husband who is fast asleep and snoring on the couch, but I can't. Not yet.  It's barely past midnight. Time for another coffee.  

My puppy is running around the house with energy that I can only dream of. When did I get so old? I used to call it a night at 5 am. 18 year old me would be ashamed of myself.  It's safe to say that tomorrow night is going to be a tough one, but when it's all said and done I'll be somewhere new and exciting and that makes it all worthwhile.  Despite my complaints, I really do love my job, I'm just rather fond of sleep as well.