THE BLOOMS!!!!!!

Saturday I slept in until nine, when Yvette called to inform me they were still at the hospital and had already been awake for hours. I felt guilty and dragged my ass out of bed to get ready and head to the hospital — but not before making myself some chorizo and eggs.

The baby was sound asleep when I arrived. Alaya still had to see her pediatrician before getting discharged. It’s a slow process getting out of the damn hospital. Everyone in that room was more than ready to get the hell out. By about one o’clock, that finally became a reality.

The baby’s mother took off as soon as she had showered, so it was Yvette, Alaya, and me for the day. We had some errands to run, and that’s just what we did. It was a warm Saturday — too warm for this time of year.

That evening we went to celebrate Yvette’s parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Can you believe it? Fifty years. What a ride that must have been. I’m well past the point in my life where it would even be possible for me to be married to someone for fifty years. Isn’t that kind of sad? Just typing it out pings my feelings a little. I mean, I suppose it could happen, but that would mean I’d have to live to ninety-five and Yvette would have to make it to ninety-eight. We’d be shrunken elderly together.

We went to El Paisano #4. Yes, we have four in town, and this one just opened. It’s a much larger location, more suitable for parties. The place was crowded on a Saturday night. They had some big groups there, and adding our table of ten must have been the tipping point to the chaos. I say that because we were there for almost two hours. The wait for the food was long enough, but then we rarely saw our server. I think we were helped by at least five different people. Our drinks were never refilled. I had to track someone down for silverware. It took an act of God to get our tickets so we could pay out. The food was top notch, but that new location doesn’t quite have it together.

They can’t all be winners.

Sunday rolled around and the weekend was coming to a close. The weekend close too fucking early, don’t you think? I made a little breakfast and then a little lunch. I cut my hair and trimmed my beard. I did laundry. I made a grocery run. Cooked. Walked Hazel. I did adult things, I suppose.

No idea where Mommy was, but Daddy came by and visited Alaya for a little while. She seemed happy by his visit. I guess Yvette and I have become partial parents these days. We might be with the baby more than Momma, ever since she met her new boyfriend. I suppose it’s been three months now? I honestly don’t know.

Sometimes it isn’t easy. It’s certainly something I wasn’t expecting — to be taking care of a little girl all the time. But she is such a great kid. I don’t mind her one bit. Do I wish I had more time with my wife? Yes. Of course. We had more time together before we were married. I love her, and I love this little girl, and later on we’ll be able to make up for the time. I hope.

For now, I cannot imagine my life without Alaya in it.

Lately she’s been into all things dog — or as she says, “woof woof.” We had to have some woof woof on the television all day long. That’s just what she wanted. No idea why. We watched Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, The Secret Life of Pets, and Benji (2018). She was content as long as a woof woof was on the screen. I was perfectly fine with that.

That pretty much sums up the weekend. Damn, did it go fast. Kind of like the year. Sunday was the first day of March. Lord.

Very little of great importance happened on campus during the week. I guess there was still some drama over the housekeeping switch-over. It wasn’t going as smoothly as desired. Monday there wasn’t a cleaning crew on campus, which meant chaos for some of the staff and faculty. In one such incident, a student vomited all over a restroom. The office coordinator called to see what could be done. The answer was: clean it yourself. That did not go over so well.

I did see people taking out their own trash. Vacuuming areas that needed vacuuming. Cleaning toilets if needed. Some people really did step up to the plate. I mean, you simply had to. What else could one do? Things needed to remain clean and sanitary. It was a bummer that we were in a transitional phase, yes. Our area didn’t have proper cleaning for a week.

It is what it is.

It was once again unseasonably warm for this time of year. Everything started to bud out, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. It certainly wasn’t a good thing for my allergies. I was in hell. That’s the only thing about spring that really gets me — the damn allergies. The cedar blooms and the oak. They punch me right in the face. Because we really only had one hard freeze, this season is going to be savage. Friday was when I really began to feel the effects. Damnit to hell.

By the end of the week most of the custodial crews were in operation. I say most because some areas were still lacking. Finally, an everyone email was sent explaining the situation. This might have been an entire week too late. Seriously. I think by the end of the week it was pretty apparent that we had a turnover.

That’s the week in a nutshell. Happy Friday!