Saturday Morning Conspiracy

Saturdays don't really exist at Lee Abbey. I mean, we call the day "Saturday," but that word carries with it the connotation of being part of the weekend, of being somewhat different from Tuesday and Friday. Unfortunately, the connotation is all in your head, because here Saturday is a working day like any other - unless it happens to be your day off. But your day off could have been Monday the previous week. So, in my little Lee Abbey universe, weekends have ceased to exist.

Sometimes I can pretend though. Like today for instance; I am supposed to work in the evening, from 3pm to 10:30p. You might think that means I get to sleep in, but you're only half correct. Everyone who works that day has to go to morning prayers at 7:30a regardless of when you're working. I'm used to the routine, though, and going back to sleep for two hours after prayers and breakfast ALMOST feels like really sleeping in and is just as effective (even more so, since you don't mess up your eating schedule!).

I'm sure you understand now how much I was looking forward to pretending it was the weekend for at least a morning. Unfortunately, this is where the conspiracy to prevent Brittney from sweet slumber comes in.

First of all, my cleaning day is sadly Saturday. Which means that House Team usually comes knocking around 10am to hoover (vacuum), dust, and sometimes change my bed linen. I anticipated this petty obstacle and decided to catch my forty winks down in Alice's room, which is one of the darkest and quietest places in Lee Abbey.

I can usually drop off pretty quickly, but for some reason it took me a bit longer to fall asleep - about 40 minutes. I'm sure I had only been sleeping a good 10 minutes when I woke up to the fire alarm. If you've read my previous fire alarm posts, then you know that they have to test the fire alarm every Tuesday (and if I'm working in the evening on a Tuesday, then the fire alarm usually wakes me from my fake sleep-in). So, my first thought when it went off was, "Is it 11am already?" followed quickly by - "Wait a minute, its Saturday!"

So, I had to jump out of bed, grab my shoes and keys pronto, and sprint up to reception where I was handed the responsibility of being Front Door Marshall (I got to shoo all the bleary-eyed residents out the door). I heard later that the alarm went off because something burned in the kitchen . . . Chris, I love you and I love your food, but you're not supposed to be sleeping on a Saturday morning, I am!!!

I tried to go back to sleep after that, but I don't suppose there is really any way to detox fire alarm adrenaline so quickly if you've already had a full night's sleep. So, that's why I'm posting a blog now :)