We’ve had some exciting news down in Cayman recently: Our good friend James and his wife Sandra moved to the island! James went to ProDive with Andrea and I, and he was our favorite of everyone we met during our instructor traning (no offense, Bulldog — you were there for less time than him). He had some things to take care of before beginning his diving career (like getting married), but he and his lovely wife Sandra are here now, and we’re very excited about that. Unfortunately, in the three weeks he’s been here, I’ve barely seen them. Part of the reason for that is they’ve needed some time to get settled. The much bigger reason, though, is that I’ve been working too hard.
It sounds silly for a scuba instructor to complain about working too hard, but it’s true. I get one and one-half days off per week, and although that’s more than some other divers on the island get, it makes it hard to feel rested. On my half-day I usually get out of work around 1pm, and then by the time I eat lunch and run a few errands, the half-day is gone and I get home at the same time as on a work day. If I managed to get all of my errands for the week done on that half-day, I then have the next day free. Usually, though, I have more errands to run on my off day. Combine that with trying to spend some time together with Andrea when we have time off, and I rarely get any time to myself to just rest and relax.
Last week was a public holiday here in Cayman — it was the Queen of England’s birthday. For most people, this means a three-day weekend. But not for us. Offices are closed on public holidays, but dive shops are not, so we both had to work. I was thinking about it, and I really miss three-day weekends. It’s nice to have those long weekends when a public holiday hits, to have a chance to relax and recharge and get a little extra rest. Right now, I’d be thrilled to have a full two-day weekend. A three-day weekend is more than I can even dream of at this point.
The worst part is that for as much as we are working, we are making shitty money. I could understand working this much if I had a high paying job. In fact, I used to have a high paying job, and when I was a lawyer it sucked to work really long hours and work weekends, but at least I knew I was getting paid well for it. Now in a year I make less money than I used to make in a month, and that makes it sting just a bit more to be working so much. I can’t even point to the money as a justification for burning myself out.
I’d like to think that I am not a complainer, and so I feel a bit uncomfortable complaining about this in my blog. But it is sort of silly. As much as I enjoy my job and enjoy scuba diving, no one wants to work six days a week. And certainly when you do work that much, it’s still nice to get a break from work now and then, to get a long weekend when a holiday rolls around, and I haven’t been able to do that.
On the plus side, my job involves a lot of scuba diving, and that’s usually a lot of fun. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not an easy job. I’m often dealing with complete idiots (yesterday I had a woman in the shop who was afraid to go snorkeling because it was outside — she thought it would be indoors) or else I’m working hard to keep people safe and injury free. But the stress level is much less than it was when I was a lawyer. But still, it would be nice to have consecutive days off every now and again.
With that said, tomorrow is my day off, and I am excited for it. I have a ton of errands to run, and I won’t get much rest, but at least I won’t be working!!!