We went to Des Moines for a wedding last weekend and stayed with a random wealthy couple for super cheap because that is a thing now.We slept in a lodge-themed room with a canopy bed and massage chair, ate gourmet breakfasts, used their hot tub, broke their hot tub cover, overheard them talking about broken hot tub cover as we shoveled down gourmet breakfast the next morning, and didn’t even have to pay to replace said hot tub cover because they were nice enough to insist it has been broken for months when we came forward about breaking said hot tub cover.

They definitely lost money on our stay. But great time for us!

And then we came home and I begrudgingly re-entered the latest chapter of my life, the chapter titled:

Spending the Summer Working in an Empty School That is Locked Half the Time and Not Having a Key Because I am not a District Employee: One of Those Trying Life Experiences that Builds Character or Some Shit


In the past week I have:

Walked through freshly-laid concrete to get to the front door, only to find it locked.
Gotten locked out of the school twice in one hour.
Had a client show up and leave because he got locked out.
Gotten locked outside with a client.
Crept through the bushes like a creeper to bang on principal’s window to let me in.
Added the custodian to my speed dial.
Sat idly on the bench outside the front of the school while sucking on my fingernails and thinking about how far this is from how I’d imagined the start of my career.

One day, I know, I will laugh. Which is why I’m taking pictures now.