Goodbye February

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 & Fifty-one: 2/24/2025

Oh, what a joy! Another thrilling day in the world of work, where unpredictability reigns supreme. Today’s delightful twist? A coworker called out sick, which meant the rest of us got the privilege of picking up the slack. Because nothing screams “Monday energy” quite like extra work you didn’t sign up for.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I can handle it. I’ve got my usual run’s timing down to a science. A well-oiled machine, a master of efficiency. I could probably do my route blindfolded at this point. However. That extra time? That precious, stolen time? It infringes on my writing endeavors. And that, dear reader, is where my patience starts to wear thin.

You see, every moment I spend scrubbing, sweeping, and making sure the world doesn’t descend into grime and chaos is a moment I could be spending crafting stories, fleshing out characters, or at the very least, staring dramatically at my screen while waiting for inspiration to strike. Instead, I’m here mildly resentful, dusting my dreams away with every extra task thrown my way.

Ah well. Such is life, I suppose. The words will still be there when I get home, waiting patiently for me to return. Let’s just hope exhaustion doesn’t beat them to it.

Day Five Hundred & Fifty-two: 2/25/2025

Oh gosh! If only I could find one redeeming factor about working at the elementary school. Just one! But alas, the universe refuses to grant me even that small mercy. I’m utterly exhausted from covering for my coworker. Since September, we’ve been picking up his slack in this wretched place, and at this point, I’d rather scrub the floors of a medieval dungeon, at least that would come with historical intrigue.

And as if my suffering wasn’t enough, today’s latest atrocity? Some aspiring little graffiti artist took a permanent marker to the stall walls in the girls’ bathroom. Of course, the chemicals we have access to are utterly useless against it. So now, instead of just hating cleaning these bathrooms, I get to loathe them with an entirely new level of venom. They were already the bane of my existence, and now they’re climbing the ranks to arch-nemesis status.

Oh, but the fun didn’t stop there! No, not today, there was a potluck. A potluck. Which meant scores of sugar-fueled children galloping through the hallways like caffeinated gazelles while I tried, in vain, to vacuum. If you’ve never attempted to clean around a herd of shrieking, sprinting kids, count yourself lucky. It’s like trying to mop during a hurricane. Pointless! Exhausting, and slightly soul-crushing.

The only saving grace? I won’t have to set foot in this cursed building for at least another month! Or so I hope. Because let’s be honest, I never truly know what fresh hell awaits me. Fingers crossed, prayers up, and may the scheduling gods be in my favor.

Day Five Hundred & Fifty-three: 2/26/2025

I’m literally on the verge of slapping a child in the face. It’s not that I desire to hit a child, but these kids have been disrupting and defacing the bathrooms here at DSA as well at the elementary school. If I actually catch someone doing what they aren’t supposed to be doing in the bathroom, then I’m inches away from having a full meltdown.

How awful would that be? The custodian decked out the way I am losing it completely in the hallway, physically assaulting a child. I wonder if it would cause me to be fired or to be locked up in an asylum for a period of time. Either would give me a reprieve from the job for a short while I suppose. Though, I think I’ll try to abstain.

I did feel bad about this one action this afternoon. I had to tell a group of girls to stop leaving notes in the bathroom. They were placing these positive thoughts written on post-its all over the girl’s bathroom up and down the hallway. I told them that they needed to stop because I have to keep the bathrooms clear. The sentiment was in the right place, but we will most likely get our QA any day this week. The elementary school had their evaluation this morning, luckily, I did my best to leave the building in a good condition.

So since the building could receive the evaluation of our cleanliness as early as tomorrow morning I spent the day working on specific details to help our score. I do have a revolt against the grading process, but if all I need to do is scrub a little bit hard, or wipe a little bit longer, then so be it. I still had my downtime working on my writings and this blog posting.

Day Five Hundred & Fifty-four: 2/27/2025

This week and finally this month is crawling to an end. I couldn’t be more relieved. February has been nothing more than a holding pattern, a dull, monotonous void standing between me and the actual life I plan to live in March. But before I can escape, I have to endure the never-ending cycle of madness, most of which seems to revolve around bathrooms.

I don’t know what it is about these school restrooms, but they have become a disgraceful testament to human regression. You’d think, at a certain age, children could be trusted to handle their own personal business with a shred of dignity. Oh, how wrong that assumption would be. It’s as if every trip to the stall is an opportunity for vandalism, destruction, or some sort of primal performance art. Permanent markers on the walls, entire rolls of toilet paper sacrificed to the abyss, toilets clogged and left running like a damn public fountain. Let’s not even discuss the horrors that end up on the floors.

It has reached a point where simply allowing them into a restroom unsupervised feels like an act of negligence. They behave worse than animals in a zoo, and at least zookeepers get hoses. We? We just get the privilege of walking into these tiled nightmares, armed with cleaning supplies that are barely equipped to undo the damage. And yet, somehow, I’m the one who’s supposed to feel ashamed for wanting to be anywhere but here?

The only saving grace is that I won’t have to set foot in this building for a portion of March. But let’s be real, February has already proven that nothing is guaranteed. Until then, I’ll be counting down the hours until March, when life and hopefully, sanitation standards might finally improve.

Day Five Hundred & Fifty-five: 2/282/2025

So thankful for Fridays! It’s the reward for working all week. I’ve shown up dedicated to fulfilling my responsibilities with only minimal complaints. I’m a little annoyed that our QA didn’t come last night. I ensured that I did little details all around my area. I just want to get it over with. Let them come in and under score us, then we won’t have to hear from them again for a period of time.

For the night, I’m in charge again. My crew lead worked an earlier shift, to cover for the facility manager. So, I’ll be responsible to check all of the doors, ensure that the building is clear, and locked up for safety. As a reminder, I don’t get paid extra for this. I don’t get any sort of recognition. It just falls upon my shoulders because I have the most seniority in the building. Which, I must notate hasn’t even been three years yet. Technically, I’ve been working for the school for 2 years and 11 months.

Wow! The event that was scheduled to go until 9pm ended at 7:30pm! I was shocked when I saw people leaving the building and the students wrapping up. I didn’t expect a huge fanfare because the event was going to be held in the Black Box, which only holds probably 50 people at max. However, when the building was emptied by 8pm, except for one student waiting for a ride, I was absolutely thrilled.

I had already begun to do my duties early so that I would have downtime. I thought if I completed all of my Friday night tasks sooner than I could have some writing time while I waited for the event to conclude. Instead, I get to have that time at the end of the night, which is what I prefer anyhow. My brain cells are ready to be expunged when all has been done anyway.

The only frustrating part is that my headphones died. They won’t seem to charge. I’m upset by this because they go with my outfit and I really need something playing in my ears while I work. One of the prerequisites that I had for this job is that I have the opportunity to listen to my audiobooks and podcasts while I work. I need to be absorbing and studying as much as possible while I maintain this monotony. Without it, I’m trapped in my own thoughts and I have to listen to all of the machines. I really had avoided all of the obnoxious noises that the vacuum and bathroom power washer make. I suppose I’ll need to keep a spare set of headphones in my work bag for the future. Luckily, I have backups at home. For tonight, I suppose I’ll have silence. Weird.