ChaChaCha Changes

As you can see, there have been a few changes here.  The biggest being the blog name.  I figured my blog name no longer applied once we moved from our home in the country back to the suburbs.  Though hopefully within the next few years we will be back in the country, I wanted a name that would work no matter where we live or what stage of our lives we are in.

I searched for hours (literally) on pinterest trying to draw inspiration from quotes when one jumped out at me:

It was perfect.  And there happens to be a story behind why it's so perfect that I found this, this week.

My friend Heather moved to Tennessee last November and I have been wanting to visit her.  In marchish we decided on Labor Day weekend because I always have off Monday and Tuesday so I'd just need to ask off for Saturday and Sunday and Heather wouldn't need to take off because she had off on Labor Day anyways.

Since I started my job back in January I have had off exactly one weekend, and that was my wedding weekend.  And I had only put in two requests for days off and that was for the wedding and for a concert I had tickets to.  I didn't even take off the day of my own bridal shower because I worked overnights.  I've worked countless overtime hours and always say yes when a shift needs to be covered.  I figured that if I did this, people would be more willing to help me out if I needed a day off sometime.  Yeah, not so much.   My request off was denied because it would cause overtime.

I was pissed.  There is a guy there that asks off for weekends once a month and is always accepted.  The main reason my request was denied was because I have a crap schedule (0600-1400 Wed and Thurs and 2200-0600 Fri-Sun).  So, it's not like I was asking for extra days off, just different days, but I can't work both Monday and Tuesday without having to do a double which we aren't allowed to do.  We are not permitted to work more than 12 hours straight due to the nature of the job. So, it would have caused overtime for someone else.  I was going to cancel the trip but the more I thought about it the more angry I became.  I eventually told my boss in advance that I would be calling out.  I got my Saturday covered but no one would do my Sunday.  Imagine my anger after covering people for months just to be turned down the one time I need a favor.

This is when I realized that I really need to stop saying OK to every extra shift and all the overtime hours.  I realized that I was so busy with that place that I had no life.  I was coming home tired with a headache every day.  I obviously did call out and go on my trip and I don't regret that decision one bit.  I had a great time visiting my friends and exploring a new place.

As much as the whole situation angered me, it was also a reality check.  I need to start doing more for me and making more time to have a life.  I have friends that live five minutes from me that I haven't seen in months.  That's just not OK, I used to see them once a week at least.  I have a husband that I can easily go a week without seeing because of that schedule, also not OK.  I have decided that it's time to get back to what's really important: my family, my friends and having a life. 

Side Note: Some of you may remember a series I had started a while ago called Being a Humane Consumer.  Well, I am pretty much starting over with that.  I am going to republish the Introduction on Thursday and share products and facts each Thursday following that.  I have been able to try a lot of products since moving to the new house so I am so excited to start this series back up :)