It's not the Amityville Horror but it's close.
It's always amazes me when people like horror movies. I can tolerate them, but only if I watch them during the day and I have something to cuddle/hide behind...and also, as long as my brain represses the memory of them almost directly afterward the movie is over. So yeah, not very good at watching horror movies. That said, I LOVE Supernatural. Probably because they almost always kill the monster at the end and that helps me sleep easy. Where am I going with this, you may ask. Let me explain. Last night I did my first night shift. Oh, I should also mention I quit my job. No longer will I be working in retail, now I will be looking after old people. Old people are great. They tell me funny stories and call me cute names. Back to the story, yesterday I did my first night shift. Also my first shift where I wasn't paired up with someone who knows what I'm meant to be doing. So I was a little anxious. Alright, a lot anxious. I hardly slept for 2 days because I was freaking out. I shouldn't try new things, I don't think it's good for my health. For some reason my brain was being particularly nasty towards me and was all like,
Brain: hey Vanessa
Me: what, brain?
Brain: I bet you'll be at the facility by yourself all night
Me: they wouldn't leave me alone I don't know what to do...
Brain: then everything will go wrong and you'll be to blame!
Me:
Being in the panicked state that I was in I found it difficult to sleep during my allocated nap time before my shift. Anyone who has done night shift would know that sleeping during the day actually makes staying awake the whole night a lot easier. Actually, anyone who knows about the effects of sleep deprivation would know this. However, despite knowing this I was unable to sleep, so I had a small little nap and loaded up on caffeine.
When I arrived at the facility it was quiet. Very, very quiet. And eerie. So eerie. I'm not sure who decided that they needed to have such dimly lit hallways but it reminded me of every single horror movie that has ever taken place in an asylum. Which is a fair few I think...like I said, I repressed these memories. I was relieved to find that there would be 3 other people doing the same shift as me, they gave me a run through of tasks I should aim to finish during the day and sent me on my merry way.
Task 1. Collect water jugs, wash, refill and return to their rooms.
At first I thought this would be easy. I can collect things. I used to collect rocks and shells from the beach. Replace rocks and shells with water jugs and I'm more than qualified to do this task. But there was one problem, the rooms were dark. Like really dark. The hallway was barely lit and the rooms were pitch black. I could hardly see. And to make matters worse, the residents were heavy breathing in their sleep. So here I am, in the middle of a dark corridor listening to heavy breathing. It was like a scene from a horror movie. Naturally, my heart started racing and my brain began to remind me of all the scary movies I had seen.
To keep myself calm I tried this thing I used to do when I was scared of the dark as a kid. My sister used to like to hide in the dark hallway and pop out and scare me when I walked past. So to avoid being scared to death I would anticipate her jumping out at me. I would walk along and be like 'she's about to pop out...any minute now...now....now....now.' And I would do that until I reached my destination.
Every room I crept into I would anticipate a loud noise. Don't get me wrong, I didn't linger around, I basically ran in and out in Flash-like style. After collecting all the bottles and putting almost all the fresh ones into residents rooms, I let my guard down. And that was where things went horribly wrong. I walked into a room, put the jug on the table, spun around and to my horror one of the residents sat up. It was like a pop up book from hell! It took all my self restraint not to let out a harrowing scream, although to be honest I think I was that scared that nothing would have come out. I did what any one would do, I ran. I ran out of that room and stood under one of the few lights I could find like a startled fawn until I could compose myself then I quickly completed my task and went on my break.
I don't remember a whole lot more from my shift. I recall going into the dementia wing and talking to a singing lady. She was excellent. Our conversation went like this.
Lady: *singing* dee dee doo deee deeee dooooo deeeee dee dooo dee doo dee deee dooo deeee
Me: what's wrong?
Lady: I can't sleep because of the singing *starts singing again*
Me: *smiley face* nawwwwwwww
Brain: hey Vanessa
Me: what, brain?
Brain: I bet you'll be at the facility by yourself all night
Me: they wouldn't leave me alone I don't know what to do...
Brain: then everything will go wrong and you'll be to blame!
Me:
Being in the panicked state that I was in I found it difficult to sleep during my allocated nap time before my shift. Anyone who has done night shift would know that sleeping during the day actually makes staying awake the whole night a lot easier. Actually, anyone who knows about the effects of sleep deprivation would know this. However, despite knowing this I was unable to sleep, so I had a small little nap and loaded up on caffeine.
When I arrived at the facility it was quiet. Very, very quiet. And eerie. So eerie. I'm not sure who decided that they needed to have such dimly lit hallways but it reminded me of every single horror movie that has ever taken place in an asylum. Which is a fair few I think...like I said, I repressed these memories. I was relieved to find that there would be 3 other people doing the same shift as me, they gave me a run through of tasks I should aim to finish during the day and sent me on my merry way.
Task 1. Collect water jugs, wash, refill and return to their rooms.
At first I thought this would be easy. I can collect things. I used to collect rocks and shells from the beach. Replace rocks and shells with water jugs and I'm more than qualified to do this task. But there was one problem, the rooms were dark. Like really dark. The hallway was barely lit and the rooms were pitch black. I could hardly see. And to make matters worse, the residents were heavy breathing in their sleep. So here I am, in the middle of a dark corridor listening to heavy breathing. It was like a scene from a horror movie. Naturally, my heart started racing and my brain began to remind me of all the scary movies I had seen.
To keep myself calm I tried this thing I used to do when I was scared of the dark as a kid. My sister used to like to hide in the dark hallway and pop out and scare me when I walked past. So to avoid being scared to death I would anticipate her jumping out at me. I would walk along and be like 'she's about to pop out...any minute now...now....now....now.' And I would do that until I reached my destination.
Every room I crept into I would anticipate a loud noise. Don't get me wrong, I didn't linger around, I basically ran in and out in Flash-like style. After collecting all the bottles and putting almost all the fresh ones into residents rooms, I let my guard down. And that was where things went horribly wrong. I walked into a room, put the jug on the table, spun around and to my horror one of the residents sat up. It was like a pop up book from hell! It took all my self restraint not to let out a harrowing scream, although to be honest I think I was that scared that nothing would have come out. I did what any one would do, I ran. I ran out of that room and stood under one of the few lights I could find like a startled fawn until I could compose myself then I quickly completed my task and went on my break.
I don't remember a whole lot more from my shift. I recall going into the dementia wing and talking to a singing lady. She was excellent. Our conversation went like this.
Lady: *singing* dee dee doo deee deeee dooooo deeeee dee dooo dee doo dee deee dooo deeee
Me: what's wrong?
Lady: I can't sleep because of the singing *starts singing again*
Me: *smiley face* nawwwwwwww
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