Sunday, November 1, 2015

Moving My Week Right Along



Back in the Construction Zone days I used to kind of informally keep my week moving along by changing how I dressed for each day of the week.

Even before I went to work at Strata's Corporate Headquarters and their Concrete division office, Wednesdays had been my Bib Overall Day, a middle of the week reminder that we were almost halfway through already (six days a week dark to dark).

Mondays were 'dress up day'. Considering I was working in field offices I only sometimes actually wore dresses. Usually it was dress slacks and a nice blouse, makeup, and maybe jewelry. The people who happened to visit on Mondays were impressed. I generally told them to come back on Wednesday if they could, because I wasn't always dressed like this. Sometimes they did and always laughed.

Tuesdays were still slacks but with a sweater (light or heavy depending on the time of year, but good quality very nice sweaters).

Wednesdays were bib overalls. On site it didn't matter in the least what I wore and Wednesdays were for the fun of it. Sometimes I wore over-sized bibs, sometimes railroad striped ones, sometimes just any old bibs. After a while I didn't DARE wear bibs on any other day of the week for fear of confusing people into thinking whatever day it happened to be was Wednesday. O_O 

Thursdays were good sweater days too, but with jeans.

Fridays were for decent tee-shirts or work shirts and jeans.

Saturdays were for sweats.

I always had my steel toed work boots on hand but didn't wear them on Mondays or Tuesdays unless I was actually going out onto the work site.

It got to be a habit, the first dressing up and working my way down to wearing sweats by the end of the work week.

When I came in from field work to office work I followed a variation of the same thing. Since I didn't work on Saturdays, Strata executives were spared the sight of me in sweats. I wore dresses more often, especially on Mondays, and in general my whole wardrobe took a turn up on the 'fancy' scale. Even so, Fridays were always for more casual slacks (maybe khaki instead of dress black) and sweaters ...

And Wednesdays were ALWAYS for the bibs. Not the over-sized ones any more, and not just any old bibs although the railroad striped ones stayed in the rotation. Got lots of smiles. I checked with Mr. Bradshaw ahead of time to explain to him about my Wednesday bibs (in case he wanted me to not work on Wednesdays, you know, because of the overalls) and he was fine with it; made him grin. 

So there I was, all dudded up on Mondays looking like the executives who surrounded me on Mondays, still sort of like them on Tuesdays, and then Wednesday came around and I stuck out like a sore thumb but everyone just smiled. After a while I again would not have dared to wear bibs on any other day of the week. Someone from whatever department/contractor would walk into Strata Block (mornings) or Payroll (afternoons), see me, and say, 'Ah, it's Wednesday!'

I loved that job, and the people, quite very much. I wish Strata would share their management and personnel secrets, believe me I do. Aces all. Well, one notable exception but he just served to highlight everyone else, yep.

And I'll shut up about Strata now or you'll be reading forever and I'll be both laughing and in tears at once.

Being as I now have a quite very different type of job, and am back to it full time, I'm finding myself wondering how I can make it just a little more fun for myself.

No I have no intention in this world of wearing bibs on Wednesdays. Those fun days are gone, unfortunately.

However, I can come up with another kind of variation.

Scrubs come in all colors.

Until we get the word that we all have to wear identical scrubs in the same color, I have a little leeway in my choice of scrub colors.

SO ... 


*laughing*

It doesn't take much explanation. I'll be following the rainbow through my weeks.

I'll also be able to pare down my collection of scrubs; except for needing to get (buy or sew) a set in yellow (of which I have none for some inexplicable reason) I'm pretty much good to go. Even Saturdays because I have a couple of Alianora outfits (her colors are silver and black, but she uses bright accent colors too) that I used my scrub tops and pants as patterns for.

Since I'm color coordinating I can keep my eyes open for shoes in those colors too. Wearing each pair only one day a week ought to give them all longer lifespans. Until we get the word that we all have to wear identical shoes I have a little leeway in the colors of those too.

One perk of this job is the utter absence of having to accessorize. Not that I don't love accessorizing, mind you, but all things considered the less I have to think about my shifts ahead of time the happier I'm going to be. A weekly rainbow will help with that. It won't be an indicator of 'where I'm at' in my week because some of my 'weekends' fall on Monday/Tuesday and others on the traditional Saturday/Sunday ... it's the nature of the beast, working every other weekend ... but at least I won't have to bother with figuring out which scrub set I'm going to wear, or which shoes.

Now that it's on my mind I realize that I have every other Wednesday off. I CAN wear my bibs on those Wednesdays!

Heh.

That makes me smile.

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