Endurance

Somewhere between 6:45pm and 7:00pm last night, I hit the wall. My eyes could barely stay open and I was pretty sure that any stemware that stood between me and a chair would be broken on my way down off the step ladder. Normally, I wouldn't be around large quantities of fragile items, but yesterday was my second day at my second job.

Getting a second job sounded like a good idea. I would just work a couple of extra hours around the holiday to pay for unexpected expenses (like a $450 a/c repair on a car that has already had its a/c system repaired three separate times). I also wanted to pay down debt that has been mounting up lately (see unexpected car repairs and root canals). With those lofty goals, I reapplied at a Pier 1 store close to where my parents live. I worked at a Pier 1 store in New Hampshire. Apparently it is a disastrous combination to mix hormonal women and household decor: no less than five of us got pregnant within four months. I found out that I was pregnant with Zac within weeks of another associate finding out that she was pregnant with twins. It was baby mania accented with the smell of lavender room mist spray.

Fast forward four years and I'm back working at Pier 1. Oddly enough, inflation has had the opposite effect on salaries for sales associates. I'm told that the phrase, "cost of living" doesn't really exist in Texas. It's more for Yankees and their delicate sensibilities than for people living extremely close to large forces of nature, like category 3 hurricanes. You just have to suck it up and put your plywood purchases on a credit card down here.

Anyways, I've worked a lot of long hours at my primary job this past year. One of the reasons that I got a second job was because I knew that it would force me to balance out my life. I couldn't work 12-15 hours at the job because I would have to leave and work 4 hours at another job.

Something happened along the way, though. Somehow I forgot about the wall that long-distance runners hit when their glucose levels dip too low and they feel like they want to lay down and cry. I hit the wall. I couldn't wait until 10pm to eat. I felt like an out-of-shape runner trying to do a 10k. I don't have the same endurance that I did when I worked two jobs in New Hampshire. I require more sleep now and certainly more daily calories than before. While eyeing the red tile under a breakfast table for a cozy spot to lay my head, I thought, "I need to start training for this. I need protein snacks and shot of glucose every 3-4 hours. I need more water and maybe Gatorade. Maybe then I'll be able to make it until 10pm without breaking three wine glasses and a ceramic vase."