Stoned out of my mind

Back when I was working regular 12+ hour shifts in my former job as a game tester, there would often be moments when I would blink my eyes, only to find that, when I opened them, several minutes had passed. I would then repeat the process involuntarily several times before the shift was up. Such was the weariness brought on by, yes, long hours without enough sleep, but even more so by the mind-numbing tedium of the job.

In my current occupation as a laboratory gemologist, I work a standard eight hours, all of it spent looking down a microscope inspecting diamonds, usually about forty per day. The job comes with a comparable level of tedium but without the frequent stretches of aimless wandering, since there is never a shortage of stones to grade. Given that I am continuously and actively focusing on my work, one might think it unlikely that I could fall asleep on this job, despite the boredom.

Today, on a day like any other day, as I worked my way through my usual count of stones, I found myself struggling to focus on a diamond, spending far more time than usual while observing far less. It was not in any way a remarkable diamond, that being the problem most likely. My mind sufficiently numbed by the monotonous task, I was fading fast. I was roused ultimately by the feeling of my face slamming into the oculars of the scope.

In fact, episodes such as I have just described are not rare, whatever I may have implied earlier. As per usual, upon startling myself back to reality, I looked around to see if anyone had noticed my embarrassing moment, and, as always, I saw only rows upon rows of bodies focused on their own scopes, oblivious to their surroundings. I supposed they were all too "stoned" out of their minds to notice me. Harharhar--it's a joke, see?

Move along.