It is very unusual for me to get a day off when school is in session. Today I was told to wait by the phone in the morning, and they would call me with an assignment. When they do that, I have to get up around 3:30 am, get dressed and wait for a call. If the phone doesn’t ring by 7am, I can assume that there is no work for me that morning, and I go back to bed for a couple of hours. It used to be that I would go in to “base” for 5:30 and wait until 8am in uncomfortable chairs. When that happened I got paid “on call” time which is the same as if I had driven. Waiting at home, however, I don’t get paid unless they actually call me with a run. So it’s a trade-off; waiting at home where I can be checking my email, or watching television, and gamble getting a run and not get paid if there isn’t one versus going in on-call and waiting, and get paid anyway. The BAD part about going in on-call and waiting is that if I DO get a run, they only pay me for the time that the run pays; so if I wait for two hours at base and then get a two hour run, I only get paid for two hours, even though I spent a lot of time traveling there and waiting there. So like I said, it’s a trade off. So, this morning, I got up, waited by the phone, and ended up going back to bed. I prefer doing that – until payday arrives!