A Messy Mother’s Day Weekend, but a Great Weekend Nonetheless.

Saturday started out just about like any other. Slept in a little, picked up some breakfast because no one felt like cooking, and set out to do some chores. I was dead set on finally cleaning out all of my side yard. I had a. Inch of big branches to haul off and dump. I loaded my vehicle to its fullest capacity and made a visit to the dump. That knocked out a HUGE portion leaving the tedious duty of breaking down mesquite trees. The vicious bastards. It’s almost impossible not to poke yourself at least 10 times.

While jamming to my music and breaking away, Yvette interrupted me to say that the tooilet was gurgling. I really kind of blew her off thinking it was no big deal. A few minutes later Teegan came out to tell me that his mom says the toilet was overflowing. I assumed I needed a plunger and it was simply stopped up. I walked into the house hoping that Yvette had turned the water off. Blow was I in for a shock. The toilet did not simply over flow, that would have been a blessing. No, both toilets over flowed and both showers backed up. Not just water but raw sewage. The smell was something awful and I had shit in my shower. The very daunting task of cleaning such a mess left me feeling mildly defeated.

This happened once before, 6 years ago. It had nothing to do with my plumbing but rather something to do with the city info structure and my unlucky placement on the grid. You see, if you walk outside my house and look left, straight ahead and right what you see is three streets all going up hill. What does this all mean, you ask? Well, the old phrase “shit rolled down hill” comes to mind. Something about the rare surge in pressure can cause my house to take a hit being at the lowest point. Yvette wondered if all the heavy rain might have also a contributed and I honestly couldn’t recall if the last time that this happened we had had rain or not.

So we called the city utilities department and reported a sewage back up. At this point the water had retreated just leaving behind an awful stinky mess. While we waited for the city to arrive we left and purchased as much disposable cleaning supplies that we could find. Lots of bleach. We cleaned and cleaned. I almost vomited a few times, I volunteered to clean our bathroom which was the lowest point and was where the poop was. It was horrible. After an hour of breathing in bleach the city trucks arrived. At first just tow regular worker and finally a big pump truck. They did what they could and tried to assure us it was over.

Yvette went to her parents to shower while I finished working in the yard. I had a messed outside caused by the rainfall earlier in the week. I went to the post office and shipped off an eBay package and eventually showered.

The baby boy stopped by for the first time. He is an adorable little guy. We painted his foot and made his mother a Mother’s Day gift. It was fun visiting and I really liked holding the little guy. Once he left Yvette and I decided after the day we had we didn’t need to cook. We needed to go out on a date and relax. That’s exactly what we did. We had some fine dining Italian food and relaxed the rest of the night away.

Mother’s Day. Yvette and the girls went to church and I stuck around to finish my yard work. I spent about two hours before realizing that I had lost track of time and needed to clean up. I was cooking lunch for my mom that afternoon. Oops.

My mom is my best friend. We have always had a very close relationship. We are a lot a like in a lot of way and for better or worse that’s a good thing. Sometimes that makes us butt heads. It has caused us to argue about many of things over the years which I feel has only made us closer. Yeah, we get mad at each other and sometimes for good reasons. That doesn’t diminish our love for each other.

I like to see my mom multiple times a week and I try to make a point to do so. She was the most supportive person during the darkest days of my divorce. I honestly don’t know how I would have made it without her. Call me a mammas boy. I’m proud of that title. People that k ow my mom would understand that pride. She has a strength that most men do not carry. That’s why mother’s days is a special day for me to celebrate her.

I started cooking and my mother and I had good conversation. I made a broccoli rice and cheese, some sweet peas and salmon croquets. It was a meal I hadn’t made in a long time that both my mother and I loved. It turned out really great. After eating I planted some flowers in the garden for her. We had a good time visiting and just relaxing. It was a good Mother’s Day.

Oh Monday. How you never leave my life. I was actually rather awake considering all the busy I was over the weekend. I kept myself busy and floated across the campus. Typical work BS. I didn’t have to cook after work which was very nice. After dinner Teegan and I watched our show “The Last of Us”. We missed it Sunday night because the block was full. No one would confess to who was watching it Sunday but oh well, I was sleepy and it made for a much better Monday night cap off. Damn good episode. I’m so glad that we have “our” shows. Everyone else just clears away and we get an hour to ourselves to absorb some quality time and TV.

The campus is dead. Finals week is upon us. I really like this time of year when the semester slows down. It’s rather relaxing. Wednesday I was supposed to have an MRI scan but due to a misunderstanding between me and the hospital I had to postpone. Really, I think the hospital filed to share with me some critical information regarding my my scan and what I needed to do. Oh well, the new date worked better for me. They are it such a pain in the ass to get an appointment and that’s on them. Fuck them.

After work we went to the high school awards to see Teegan receive his academic honors. This will be the second year in which I have attended and I am really proud of me. What I was the most impressed with were the 4 students that had perfect attendance awards. Good lord, HOW?? I would like to know who these people are. How do you not miss a single day? What is the secret? Lord knows I missed class. Impressive feat

It’s always a little eerie when it first begins to quiet down for the summer because it is SO busy right before. Now I walk into buildings and wonder if I’m the only one in them. You can hear a pen drop. I like it, but at the same time it’s kind of sad.

I suppose some of the sadness is bittersweet. So many of the students that I’ve grown accustomed to seeing on campus for years are graduating. I won’t immediately know which ones are gone but I will notice their absence later on. I’ve been working here for 14 graduations. That’s a lot of kids that have grown up and become adults. The kids that graduated that first year I was working are now the age I was when I started working here. If not probably older. Crazy thought. it kind of brings about a little sadness. Melancholy.

One thing that I have seen is the style and fashions change. I’ve seen them come full circle. It’s so funny what trends come back. Some for the absolute worse. When I started working on campus it was a little more similar to what I graduated seeing. I mean, I only had a 3 year break f=before I started working. Of course things would be about the same. I might be feeling much more right now just knowing that I have been around for so long. I have seen not only many generations of students leave, but many coworkers across the campus. Just recently a guy passed away. I realized I was one of about a quarter of our team that even knew who the guy was. What that means is anyone that started working in my area before the last 12 years has no idea who the man was. That’s a brick hitting me hard.

I left work with a headache. I cooked and no one but Yvette and I ate. Disappointing. I am always left bummed out when no one wants to eat my food. I try for the kids but I don’t make the meals they grew up with and the meals that they do like I don’t make enough. Some new meals become hits while some are quickly swept under the rug. It’s really special when they do like a meal.

Funny enough, a meal was actually requested. A chicken dish that I honestly had trouble remembering. Those are good days. I wasn’t even planning on cooking because I wanted leftover Frrom the night before but because it was requested and once I figured out what I was making I became excited.

Hazel and I went for a walk together. Everyone else was preoccupied and I still had that headache. I figured a good walk might help resolve the issue. The campus was where we walked and it was like it was our own. NO ONE!!. We ventured out much further than we ever do with the little girl. It was a nice night walk but still the heat is starting to kick my butt. We did see some fox. They are so brave.

Friday rolled around and it was even more the ghost town. A few little graduation ceremonies scattered here and there for good measure, but that was something I wasn’t a part of and no concern of mine. I was just ready for 5 o’clock. I did finally get my golf cart back. That’s my transportation across campus and I was really thrown off when they took it from me for repairs on Wednesday. The garage did actually make the cart ride much better. Apparently the 25 year old golf cart still had the original shocks. No wonder it leaned. It was like driving a brand new cart. I was ecstatic. I guess everyone considers the cart “mine”. Haha. Well, I was happy to have my cart back.

Happy Friday!!!