What I Love About Sunday!

Those of you who know me beyond my blog know that I have a wonderfully exciting career as a midnight shift hospital based pharmacist. There are many “wonderful” aspects of my job, but one that generates the most interest when I tell people what I do for a living is my work schedule which is seven nights on and seven nights off. That results in me leaving home each night at around 9pm, working all night providing medications for the hospital patients and serving a great medical staff of physicians and dedicated nurses keeping people alive all night long while most of the Lowcountry dreams on their pillows. I do this for seven straight nights, then for seven straight days and nights, I AM OFF FROM WORK. Not a bad gig for a guy who lives in “Vacation Land” to be sort of on vacation every other week. Consequently, my life becomes a tale of two weeks, one as a day sleeping vampire like existence while I endure seven straight 10-hour shifts and one week as a man of leisure. But I digress, what I had intended to do here was to draw attention to what I love about Sundays. Every other week, when I make it to Sunday I know that little separates me from my week of fun than a single ten hour all-nighter. Predictably, when I wake up on Sunday afternoon there is an attitude that pervades my soul that isn’t there on any other work night, a calm reassurance that rest and fun is just around the corner. This attitude usually provides for a wonderfully enjoyable evening spent anticipating the week to come.



Today, was extra special though, while I slept a spring thunderstorm passed through the Lowcountry, and even though I was awakened prematurely by a loud boom of thunder, I fell right back to sleep as natures “sleep machine” provided the relaxing and rhythmic sound of rain on a roof-top. And of course, when I woke up, the storm and rain had passed and we were left with a fresh and sunny evening, with that feel in the air that only happens after a spring rain. While spending some quality time reading on the front porch I noticed just how vibrant the rain had left the lush green springtime landscape. There is color all around me, bright breath taking pinks and pure white flowering azaleas, orange and peach tulips and Indian Hawthorne bushes that look like big cotton balls from all of the tiny white blooms. Can you say “blessed”.



After moving to the back patio to fire up the grill and begin barbecuing some chicken I watched neighbors stroll past walking their dogs, kids on scooters and families out for a cruise around the neighborhood on their golf carts. Watching all of this activity, I thought, you know Sunday afternoons are like that, aren’t they? It’s just different, oh sure there are people walking and golf carts passing by every single day, but there is just something different about the approach to it all on Sunday afternoon. And, I like it. Another benefit of my “every other Sunday” is that my wife usually handles supper, and that not only gives me the night off (well, almost I did man the barbecue) but also gives me a chance to enjoy her cooking. This evening it was barbecued chicken breasts, green beans and pepper-jack grits.

I hope you enjoyed your Sunday evening as much as I did, for now, I will enjoy the next couple of moments of solitude then it’s time to prepare for my Sunday night at the hospital. After an afternoon and evening like this I am ready to handle all that comes my way. Night time in a hospital is exciting: expectant mothers in labor, emergency room drama, critical patients being nursed back to health by nurses whose hands do the work of God, surgeons awakened early by patients in need of surgery, and a midnight shift pharmacist who is ready to provide IV drugs, perform calculations to properly dose powerful antibiotics and prepare clot busting medications to preserve the life of a heart attack victim. All in a nights work. God Bless.