Fridays on the vampire shift are always tough, even if they are the gateway to the weekend.

You get home from working all night and all you want to do is crawl in bed and sleep the day away, but you know you can't do that if you want to have a normal weekend, i.e. one where you actually see the light of day.

So you try to stay awake all day, maybe with the exception of a one-to-two hour nap thrown in the mix somewhere, running the risk of being a complete and total jerk by the time a normal person's bedtime rolls around. [that last part could just be me]

So what should be an early start to the weekend turns into a race against time as your body shuts down more and more as the day progresses.

Eating helps. So does caffeine. But not sugar, surprisingly. I think it's the crash factor - it intensifies with sleep deprivation or something. Who knows? [it's a good thing I don't eat a lot of sweets]

Sometimes a nap is beneficial, but you've got to get it in there pretty early in the day. Otherwise it's just a tease and your body will rebel against you. For example, last Friday both me and the boyfriend tried to stay awake all day after working all night. We both fell asleep while watching TV at his place that afternoon and woke up about three hours later only because the phone rang. After that, neither of us had any motivation to do anything else. I just laid on the couch in a semi-vegetative state until about 8:00 p.m. when I drug my butt to bed and passed out for good.

Luckily for me today, I have a meeting later this morning to discuss the upcoming morning show reformat. So I'm going to go home, take a shower and nap until I have to be back here. And then I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that my little power nap will get me through the rest of the day so I can have a semi-normal weekend.

Wish me luck!