I’m currently working as a custodian for The Denver School of the Arts. I’ve been chronicling my experiences through social media and this blog post. I put a lot of my own complaints and frustrations down, primarily to accurately portray my true experiences. No filter. There are good days of course. One day, this could be sort of a memoir.
I refer to myself as The Teal Fairy because this is a character that I’ve created. I hope to one day write about The Teal Fairy going back to school to protect those that have the potential to grow and flourish. Schools need more fairies over firearms to ensure the safety of the youth. I also use The Teal Fairy persona as my way of expressing myself creatively outside of the written word.
Thank you for joining me on this journey!
Day Four Hundred & Ninety-seven: 11/25/2024
Well, time escaped me this morning! I had to be at work at 7am and I allowed myself to have coffee and a small bite to eat, but I didn’t factor in the time to do any makeup. So, I had to go to work today fully exposed. How horrible. I know there weren’t going to be any students to see me, but I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror and I was horrified to see myself without any eyebrows, eyeshadow, or lashes. I didn’t even take any pictures this morning because I had no reason to photograph this moment.
I was on time to work, so there’s that. And I was thrilled that there was actual daylight on my bike ride to work. When I have to work early in the morning I dread the ride in the cold dark before dawn. I don’t mind biking home in the dark, but I’d prefer not to bike to work in the dark. I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but those are my preferences.
So, I’m only working today and tomorrow this week. Thank goodness for the holiday, because we were given Wednesday through Friday off. So, this week’s postings will be included with next week’s blog post. So we shall see how we feel pre holiday and post holiday. It will be an interesting experiment.
Day Four Hundred & Ninety-eight: 11/26/2024
I chose to sleep versus trying to make a look. I’m not a morning person and I had another night of shitty sleep. I thought I was going to get up when the alarms went off, but I snoozed multiple times and didn’t rise until 6am. Which only gave me 40 minutes to shower and get myself ready before I would have to jump on my bike. I require coffee and something for breakfast, so there just wasn’t any time to even apply mascara. I feel like something is missing while I’m at work, but again I chose sleep over makeup.
Work itself isn’t too bad. I completed a good amount yesterday, even having my lazy moments, so there wasn’t too much to do today. I only had three tasks to complete; vacuuming, mopping, and kyvacking. We were given a list of items to complete for Monday and Tuesday. It wasn’t too long, so I can’t complain. I didn’t have to work outside and I’m going out of town tomorrow through Saturday.
Day Four Hundred & Ninety-nine: 12/2/2024
Well, I’m back after a lovely five-day hiatus. It took a lot of internal encouragement to show up on time. Especially to find out that my coworker complained about my performance from last Friday when I had to work at the elementary school. Yes, I did a shitty job, but that was because the building was going to be deep cleaned the following week. I didn’t leave the building a total mess, but I honestly didn’t think it mattered. However, my bitch coworker decided to make a stink. I’m feeling quite indigent about it.
I’m glad I at least shook things up a bit. My looks and fashion are all I have when I’m having a rough time. I chose to go with a purple week. I’ve been rocking the teal for quite some time, so it was time to wear another color for five days. I may be prancing in purple, but I’m still The Teal Fairy fluttering around.
Day Five Hundred
Woohoo! I’ve been actively chronicling this experience for 500 work days. Gosh, I can’t believe it’s been that many days. I want to say, “what am I doing with my life,” but I’ve been posting and blogging for years. I’m not yet a famous author, but I’m still trying. At least I won’t have to be at the elementary school this month, and possibly next month!
Oh Surprise, we have a pre-audition meeting tonight for prospective students and their parents. It wasn’t on the calendar and we weren’t prepared. We are down a person and who wants to see the building full of people on a freaking Tuesday!?
I’m officially pooped! I committed to sweeping the hallways and doing all of the bathrooms on the first floor. I barely had any downtime, which means this fairy worked solidly for hours. Like who am I? I can’t allow anyone to say that I didn’t pull my own weight tonight.
Day Five Hundred & One: 12/4/2024
The start of today was a bit of a doozy. I still haven’t figured out the details, but the school was put down on a hold order. It wasn’t a lockdown, but a student’s locker had to be searched and they did a search of all of the classrooms in the 8th grade. I first noticed something was up when we had five extra security guards in the building. That also included five extra vehicles parked out front. Now, nothing I know came about the incident. School resumed as normal after all of the checks were performed, but something definitely happened.
The rest of the night was pretty easy. There was going to be a concert, but they decided to move to a venue downtown to perform. Totally fine with me, we still had people wandering around for the pre-audition meeting. All of the late night events do make me sympathetic for the staff that do stay late. It must make their days oh so long!
Day Five Hundred & Two: 12/5/2024
I swear! These kids are unruly sometimes. We have a band concert along with dance solo performances. There are a lot of people here and these kids act out when there isn’t constant supervision. I don’t have time to monitor them, but they apparently need it. I was doing something else when they tried to ride and drive our floor machine. It can either be driven manually or follow a computerized path to clean the floors. Well, it’s a $65,000 machine. It shouldn’t be fiddled with by teenagers!
That was the start of an annoying night. I know I complain about not having downtime, but sometimes I’m actually trying to do my job. I have everything planned out down to the last fifteen minutes. If I’m constantly being dragged away from my duties, then I won’t finish on time.
We have these silly little walkie-talkies so we have constant communication. Administration, security, and facilities have access to these tools. I’m really bad about leaving mine in my custodial closet while vacuuming or cleaning the bathrooms. I can barely hear anything over the machine and I hate having one more thing attached to me while I’m trying to work.
Because of this, I missed a few calls. Which irritated the staff, but I believe that they over use our services. If there’s a small spill on the floor, why can’t one of the volunteers get a paper towel and wipe it up. I was literally in the middle of cleaning bathrooms, which I started late by the way because of the events, when they made an announcement over the intercom. Calling for a custodian to the ticket box, because there were two small puddles. I mean, they were nonexistent and I had even left a wet floor sign from the last mess I had to clean up. Do they not realize that I have a lot to do at night? Ugh, this job!
Day Five Hundred & Three: 12/6/2024
At least today is Friday and payday! The only factors that keep me coming back. Having the weekends free is very important, and as long as I keep getting paid then I’ll keep showing up. It was a week. Annoyances from all fronts it seems!
The kids were all over the place tonight. I don’t know where they get the idea that they can just wander around like they own the building. Constantly, I was having to scold kids that they weren’t in the right area. Like, get out of my hallway!
I at least got a lot of compliments on my look today. I wanted to test out a hairstyle and this was the result. I always get attention when I do a major updo. Especially when the hairs are mounted up to the skies.
It was the crescendo to a week of purple looks. Go big or go home. Be gregarious, be outrageous, be extraordinary! I feel accomplished even though I had a few complaints on me this week. I’m not taking it to heart, I’m actively trying to get out of this job. So, I’m just trying to survive at this time.
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