Self Care Apparently Means New Contacts

Last Monday I offered to stay at the hospital a little bit late when the OC chaplain needed to be down in the ECC (Emergency Care Clinic, aka ER) and the palliative care team needed a chaplain at the same time somewhere else in the hospital.  My clinical supervisor told me that if I was willing to stay an extra hour or so, I could take that hour back sometime later in the week and leave early.

Well ... I kept forgetting, getting distracted or having to be in educational stuff, so I never was able to take the time.  After my rough OC Sunday, I realized that I need to take advantage of any comp time given to me as part of my commitment to (well - my supervisor's insistence on) self care this summer.

I mentioned to one of the interns today that I was thinking of leaving early to take my comp time and he encouraged me to do it.  All but one of the chaplains were in today (the only one missing was the one OC last night) and the pager had been relatively quiet all day.  It seemed to me that if I didn't leave early today, I never would!

So I left in search of self care, which actually led me to the mall.  I wish I could say I scoured the sale racks and found lots of great deals, but I actually was just there to pick up my contacts that had been in for three weeks that I hadn't had time to pick up.  It's amazing how little I can accomplish when I have to be at the hospital during normal business hours!  Seriously - y'all with 9-5 jobs  - how do you find time to do tedious things like go to the bank and the post office?  I literally have no time to do those things now, especially because by the time I get to these places, they're closed!

Even with my stop at the mall (and a couple of other stores that I popped into) I still got home before I normally do.  With the little bit of extra time, I got a load of laundry done, baked chocolate chip muffins (recipe will be coming!) and washed both the interior and exterior of my car (well, Bruce did the exterior).  It's amazing how much I can get done with 30 more minutes than I'm used to. 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can be more productive at night now that I leave the house at 7:15 and get home at 5:15?  There is a Mount Rushmore - sized pile of unfolded laundry currently growing next to my bed!