My supervisor, Gerry (Pronounced like Gary) says “It’s almost Friday!” almost every Monday morning as a joke. We really have 32 hours of work before we can even rest up for the final 8 hours of our Friday to usher in the weekend. Friday, of course, is the beginning of the weekend in most people’s minds and is either the hardest day of the work week or the easiest. This last Friday qualified as the former.
First, it was overcast when it was time to clock in, weather conditions that always meant we had an incredibly long day of waiting for drywall mud or piant of any sort to dry. July 18 was no different. Our project for the day was to repaint an apartment at the university’s Park Apartment Complex (Park) on 43rd and Holdrege streets.
We’d been working at Love Memorial Hall all week, slaving in the creepy rooms hot with disuse and on a tiny black ribbon on the hallways of Burr. This was one last gasp before a much needed relaxing weekend.
When we got to Park, the apartment was dusty and cluttered with the remnants of the remodeling the project crew had done. We took about thirty minutes to clean up, while one of my coworkers took “before” pictures on his camera phone. The apartment was particularly bad, with dust in the AC ventilation and base needing primer and holes in the drywall at random places. We went to work methodically painting what needed to be painted.
Usually, I’m in a fairly good mood, even on a Friday, but that day, I had a giant knot in my throat and a pit in my stomach. There were things I’d resolved to do the night before that weighed heavily on me. I sent a text over first break, which came not a moment too soon, but the rest of the day was almost unbearable.
I really don’t remember a whole lot about what we did, only that I couldn’t wait for the 28,800 seconds to tick by so I could bike twelve minutes to get home and start my weekend of relaxation.
Almost immediately when I got home, a number of my family headed off to a restaurant to have a party before my sister, Rebekah, leaves for Mexico and my other sister goes back to Columbus for a PA rotation. We go and have a great time, but I’m still thinking about the thing I’d resolved to do the night before.
Opportunity comes and I fulfill that resolution better than how I’d milled over it all day. I felt like a dumptruck load of bricks was lifted from my shoulders and I could breathe again. At ten-thirty, sleep finds me quickly.
Saturday morning, I wake up earlier than I normally do to go to a men’s breakfast at church and I wanted to finish some painting there too, but I had slept like a doll so I should’ve been fine, Right? Maybe!
The Men’s meeting was excellent and I started sanding drywall mud and applying primer. My cousin, Joe, called me at eleven but I couldn’t answer because my phone was almost dead. That noon at home, I’m told that Joe is coming over shortly. I am excited of course because I hadn’t seen him since early June.
Before I knew it, a party had been planned for the evening to celebrate the groundbreaking of our new addition. (As if we really needed a reason to get together with friends).
Sunday, a speaker from the Grace children’s home came give us a report of how things were going at the home. He was a sophomore in college and we invited him out to Golden Coral. Partying again! by three o’clock, I was quite wiped out. I enjoy talking to people and conversing about things, but sometimes it becomes overwhelming. Answering questions in the spur of the moment when I’d much rather think about it a little while and give an answer that’s concise and to the point.
The bunch of us watch a movie and talk afterward. By this point, I’d recooperated from giving answers all the time and was back to my old self, absorbing the conversation and throwing thoughts out as I deemed them pertinent. Many topics and three nerf wars later, it was time to ready myself for another work week.
Today, We were in an appartment on Vine street. The previous tenant had not taken very good care of it during his ten year stay and a lot needed to be done. The Park apartment from Friday was clean and niche free compared to the disaster we had on our hands. Already exhausted from partying all weekend, I was tempted to be discouraged about what the week had in store for us, instead I buckled down and set to work.
We got more things done than I had hoped and it looks like apartments normally do when we first go in to touch them up. (I wish we’d taken before & after pictures of this one instead of at Park!)
So my weekend consisted of a lot of partying and the bookends were disaster areas at work. Who could tell what the next wek will bring!
JA Menter
“Attitude reflects maturity and humility is its foundation.”