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Writer's pictureCraig R. Patrick

Rough Week

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 Five Hundred & Four: 12/9/2024

I have a feeling this week is going to drag on forever. We’re off to a stellar start. One of my coworkers called out sick, leaving me to pick up the slack. I’m not totally alone, but my trust in my very young coworker is minimal. To top it off, he wasn’t feeling great today and, let’s be real, he’s not the poster child for consistency on his best days.

I ended up taking shorter breaks and powered through until everything was done. Not exactly thrilling, especially since I noticed Mr. Twenty-Something took his sweet time on his break. I’m not bitter. Okay, maybe I’m a little bitter. Mostly because I didn’t get a chance to work on my creative projects tonight. So here I am, venting instead.

I'm utterly disappointed in these young ladies. I'm so tired of walking into the bathrooms and seeing what I see. I honestly don't have a problem restocking the mensural products, but if you're going to disrespect them and me, then I'm not going to do it! You don't deserve the products if you're going to treat the space like this. Over it!

On the bright side, at least I looked cute. I’m back to my teal phase, which feels like home. I had fun with my purple look last week, but teal is my power color. It just fits. Like, if I’m going to call myself the Teal Fairy, I’ve got to deliver on the vibe.






Day Five Hundred & Five: 12/10/2024

I’m leaving work absolutely livid. It’s one thing to complain and rat on a coworker, it’s a whole other thing to then do a poor job yourself. Like what the actual fuck! I sent a lengthy text message to my crew lead, because I was furious when I found multiple trashcans hadn’t been emptied. Areas hadn’t been vacuumed or swept, and bathrooms were left completely in a disarray. Unless you can prove that you’re shit don’t stink, you don’t have a pot to piss in. I’m not sure if this analogy works, I’m still angry. So there’s that!

It’s only fucking Tuesday and I wish I could get completely blasted. This is going to be an exceptionally long week. Can I just do my work and that’s it? I’m over having to cover for someone else or pick up the slack because someone else is being lazier than me. That’s saying a lot too! I’m not some rockstar, I put in the bare minimum…okay!






Day Five Hundred & Six: 12/11/2024

This week is exhausting! I’m entirely over it! I’ve had to do extra work everyday so far. Tonight, Maria was out so we had to do work upstairs. At least that area of the school is easy. However, it still meant that I lost time away from my writing. Which, as you know, I'm not a fan of that. We also had events tonight too, so we had to keep children from destroying the space while we tried to maintain it.

Let me backtrack just a tad. The day started with a team meeting because of the text that I sent last night. My boss validated my feelings and we discussed how we need to work as a team and make sure that all of the tasks are completed. We have a minimum that needs to be met, and that should be our main priority. We’ve made a few changes and I hope it’s going to help moving forward.






Day Five Hundred & Seven: 12/12/2024

We have three events tonight. Yes, three! There will be a slew of people attending performances in the dance hall, the theater, and the concert hall. Please someone save me! It’s already been such a long week, I’m not sure I can take another obstacle. Ugh!

There were actually four events tonight! There was an art show at the beginning of the night. So many people were in the building and the kids were unruly. I had to yell at so many to get downstairs as we weren’t allowing anyone to roam upstairs. We can’t keep things clean if people are inhabiting the halls like their own personal homes.

At least the building was empty by 9:30 p.m., sometimes them people like to linger. The events ended in stages so while there were a lot of people between 6-7 p.m., they drifted away like the tide. Thank goodness!






Day Five Hundred & Eight: 12/13/2024

Happy Friday the 13th! It’s not so spooky in the month of December. The day sort of flew by. We had another round of events that kept the building busy up until the end. At least every employee was in attendance and my crew-lead is back to working nights. I’m not entirely sure what the exact causes were to get this change to occur, but I’m grateful. I’m tired of being the one “incharge” even though I’m not being paid to be incharge.

I can just be The Teal Fairy acting as a custodian. No more do I have to worry about checking the doors, the lights, or if my coworkers are doing their jobs. This will fall back onto my crew-lead’s shoulders. My teal shoulders are already carrying enough responsibility.

I did my extra work and I’m proud of how my area looks, except this one classroom. They trashed it and while I tried to vacuum there was far too much trash scattered around the floor. I probably shouldn’t have walked away, but I did. I’ll deal with the repercussions another day.

For tonight, I’m glad I survived the week. I felt tested and I was on the verge of losing it completely. I’ve never been good at standardized tests and I really don’t appreciate it when I’m tested by the wills of other people. I can handle when the universe throws me curve balls, but I can’t handle it when people test my will to exist. So, I’m sitting and typing thankful I have a reprieve for a couple of days.


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