Nightcrawler

Night shifts can be a pain, even for a night owl like me. Although I do enjoy the relative calm that midnight brings to the normally chaotic hospital environs ( short of some sado-masochistic drunken freak with a death wish causing a violent ten-car pile-up on the highway ), working nights for a week does cause havoc on the body's physiologic systems, throwing the normal circadian rhythms out of whack. Not easy getting used to the sudden change in sleeping patterns - and hell, let's face it I'm no longer a fresh-faced idealistic 25 yo intern!

Creaking bones and all that.

Makes it all too easy to morph at the stroke of midnight into pure evil. :)


See what lurks in the night!
Still there are good points about working nights. Coming home in the wee hours of the morning actually gives you a different perspective on the big city.

There are cities that claim to never sleep but I believe that isn't always true. Just those few special hours right before the crack of dawn, a particularly eerie, serene calm envelops the bespelled city. At that moment, the raucuous sounds of the hectic city life comes to a standstill leaving only silence as even the usual energetic, hyped-up radio deejays take a rest leaving only soporific music to fill the airwaves. Apart from the slow rumble of the mechanical sweepers, the suddenly emptied, dimly-lit streets are practically devoid of traffic, giving way to the peculiar creatures of the night - that odd muttering vagrant with rolled-up mat in tow finding a new nest, the disorderly drunk stumbling out of the closing bars, the berouged streetwalker slinking home after finishing her dues - and even the clandestine lover taking that infamous walk of shame.

Yes, even sleepy overworked interns rubbing their eyes as they crash into walls ( fall into drains ) on the way back to their quarters.

Always tempting to sit and watch as the city slumbers through the twilight hours since that never lasts for long. Just as you're getting used to the still of the night, the amber lights of the city start winking off one by one as the first streaks of dawn streak across the sky. And the city wakes up.