Just knock twice.

So, I'm a nanny. I've been doing it for almost a year and a half, and it's pretty nice. Sometimes, it gets old, but I enjoy it for the most part, and it's nice to get paid to watch kids sometimes. Pro Bono is just not my angle =)

Well, this past month or so has been pretty draining, to say the least. First, there was Grandma being so sick. It seemed like any day I could get off work and find a ride up there, I was going back and forth to the Hospital (even though I know I was not there as much as I would have liked, I tried, right? ...Well, I hope it's alright, at least.)

Then, the very day I came back from Grandma's funeral, I found out that my boss' sister (who has been very sick with cancer the entire time I've worked for them) was getting only worse, and they'd be leaving to see her that afternoon, leaving me with the kids for a few days. The next two weeks have pretty much been just a revolving door at our house. The bosses would come home, get the kids, go back. Come home, stay half a day, and leave the kids. Come home for a day, leave. Just over and over, it seems. I'm OK with it; it does not bother me, but three or four of the times they have left have been at like 3 a.m.

At that time in the morning, I am usually in a very deep sleep. Anyone who has ever slept with me knows that I am a very hard person to wake up =) Here's how it usually goes; just before my bosses are about to leave, the wife (Runner Woman) will come to my room and knock really quietly, and pause for a few minutes. If I do not answer by then, Runner Woman will knock again, just a bit more loudly. The third time will be even more insistent, but still far too nice to convince me to leave the comfort of slumber. Usually, by the time I am conscious enough to know that she's really knocking, and it's for me, I have absolutely no idea how long she's been knocking, and I just end up feeling all sorts of guilty that they had to wait for me to get up. Needless to say, I think it would be a lot easier for both of us if she just knocked twice.

When I am roused out of deep sleep, I'm in a semi-conscious, foggy state. Usually, I try half-heartedly to decide whether the knock I heard was in my dream or real life; which determines whether I wake myself up enough to mumble "Yeah?", or slide back into sleep. This is the part where the two knocks come into play. The first knock is to wake me out of the deep sleep, and the second knock is to let me know that it's real, and not a dream. If you do them close enough, my body has less time to recognize the noise as a nuisance and tune it out. Life these past weeks could have been so much easier if she would just knock twice. It's a win-win situation for everyone. They do not have to wait for the slumbering beast to wake up, and I don't have to feel guilty for making them wait.

If ever in doubt, save us all some time and JUST KNOCK TWICE. < /RANT>