(groans) What is this early morning hell? How much tea can I get into me before I start to teach? I didn’t even finish posting things for class yesterday. Why? Because I tried to spend a chunk of my weekend NOT being a teacher. Mis. Take. Well, not. But sheesh, this job. Last week. Deep breaths. I think I can get through the next two weeks. I’m gonna hafta.
Friday night, the Man had a show at the Music Box. Before that, I had made it home and was slumped on the couch, trying to decide what dinner might look like. Glad to say the boychild is a good cook, because he fed me…
Also luckily, the singer in the band, his wife had a table and let me sit at it, which is good, because I was exhausted. And they were the openers, so they only played for an hour. Much nicer than the four-hour show that’s coming up this Saturday.
Saturday morning, I crazily got up kind of early and took an online class from Nicholas Ball, who was in Wales…
At some point, he said, OK hold up your fish, and I had been diligently taking notes, NOT sewing. So I only did two and one has its fins in totally the wrong place (oops) and some people made like ten and I feel like a fish loser, but I will survive. Then I drove to Oceanside to drop off my piece for this show…
I’ll be at the opening on March 30. Hoping it’ll be a cool show.
Came back and persuaded the Man to go for a short birthday hike…
Three miles. But it was beautiful out. Spring has sprung.
And I love being able to make it outside like this.
Then boychild had the suggestion of San Diego Restaurant Week for dinner, so we picked a restaurant and navigated shitty parking…
That was in the bathroom. The food was good, different, which was nice. I drew a little, but the food came out too fast to finish.
Then we came back and I trimmed fabric pieces.
Sunday was full of all the normal get-ready-for-school-week things, but we ended the day going out to dinner with my parents…
And then I finished trimming everything.
On to the next step. I also shipped a quilt off to this show, opening March 24.
The Man is delivering another today for a local show. I have that announcement somewhere too. Sigh. I’m discombobulated. And buried. Two weeks until Spring Break…
I will have to speak to people unfortunately. Need to get the house fixed. And this will be the next two weeks…
Maybe not die…just internally die. I have books to read, though, and art to make. I should commit to making a fabric fish a night, and then I’d have 10. Except I can’t commit to that this week…3 out of the 5 worknights are going to be late and doubled up. Whoops. Oh well. No plans. Just wish teachers luck today. You know how tired YOU are? Imagine a bunch of 13-year-olds. Yup. It’s gonna be crap.
IDK what happened this morning, but it’s already late and I’m not ready. Really, today, I’m sitting in my classroom while someone else does a presentation that will apply to maybe 10 of my students, if that, but it’s not MY decision to make, so I’m just going to use the time to work so I don’t have to do it all after school this week. Win maybe win? We’ll see. I know I need to put in a healthy chunk of time this week on work because I didn’t do it this weekend. I finished grades Friday night, then mostly blew it off for the rest of the weekend. I was busy with other stuff.
I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this…
Then went to a baby shower and handed over this…
Then went to dinner with this guy…
And drew this…
Friday night, I finished tracing this…
And Saturday night, I turned it into this…
And last night, it became this…
I had picked a background fabric, but I don’t think it’s gonna work. So I’ll need to pick another one.
This was me trying to finish grades Friday morning.
Thanks to our grading program. It eventually figured its shit out. Typical though. I also gave a quiz (it was one question) and then got to deal with this.
I guess. Huh. Fun times. Both A students. Come-to-Jesus moment for them. I guess.
I just now noticed Kitten had thrown up on the top part and under the keyboard. Sigh. Ugh. Cleanup is fun. And somehow I’m still late this morning. I wonder why.
Good explanation there.
OK. Sigh. This week. It’ll be fine. As long as the thunderstorms stay away from the field trip day and all the things work and nothing more breaks and maybe even some good things will happen, in between my boob hurting (still, apparently can for up to 4 months, shoot me now) and my stress levels. At least I have art at night and books on my iPad.
My days are still off. Whatever. I think I know they’re off at the moment…certainly I chant the current day in my head over and over just as a reminder (THURSDAY THURSDAY). I’m kind of exhausted and braindead, but also getting stuff done, but really not all of it or enough of it. Y’all know how that goes. I know that my car key fob battery died yesterday, so I have to set the car alarm off to get in the car. That’s fun. I did it in the school parking lot, then went to one place to buy a battery (nope), set it off again, went to Pilates, set it off again, used the internet to find another place to buy a battery (double nope), set it off again, and then a third place (triple nope, the internet is a big bad fucking liar), set it off again. The Man says I can take his car today, which is good, because otherwise I would set it off at least four times that I can think of. Good times. I was so exhausted by the time I got home that I just sat on the couch for about an hour (reading and drinking tea and petting the dog) until I could deal with dinner. I had to deal with the trash and compost crap first when I got home. Not good times. At least I got to read. Always pro that.
It didn’t give me enough energy to work on the baby quilt, unfortunately. I got an email that I needed to meet today with the boss, losing another prep period, and I’ve already lost the other three this week, so I spent about an hour last night trying to make sense of (and find) all the assignments for the next unit. Trying to get my head around the logical story of it. Because the other (mostly newbie) teacher was like, oh yeah, I’m all over the place, and I’m like, hey how are your kids dealing with that? Hmmm. So yeah. Please ask me again why I don’t have time to do all the extras at school. So hopefully today and tomorrow’s prep-sucking meetings won’t take ALL my prep, so I can actually copy stuff and create stuff and make sure next week isn’t a clusterfuck. I mean, it might be ANYWAY. Yesterday’s assignment certainly threw them. Shouldn’t have. I blame Trimester 2 lazy ass didn’t do any of the work last week (so many blank papers). So I gave them more time (not a ton), and today we move on. Lots of blank stares. Lots of my reminding them that they have stuff in their folders that will help them. One kid is like, “so where do I find the answer?” and I gently touched his head. And nodded. Figure it out.
The next academic assignment will be easier.
ANYWAY. School. Fuck me.
Art though. Also maybe fuck me. All over the map. The kids and my ex gave me a ceramics class series for Christmas and I had my first class on Tuesday night. We started with pinch pots. I made a lot of random things. I didn’t have a plan (obviously).
I think I decided four of them were plant pots. That one on the right is too heavy on one side. It might fall over.
I can’t really explain any of it. I was just messing around. It was very meditative.
That’s definitely some sort of figure on the right. Anyway. Next week is coiling, which is my favorite, but they have an extruder, which I’ve never used before and am totally looking forward to messing around with. Woo! And I have to think about what larger project I’m going to do in Week 4. I might become a member. I don’t know. Maybe for the summer? It’s open 24/7 to members. I could go in there for three hours and build random garden ornaments.
I worked on this a little on Tuesday night when I got home. It’s cool. They need feet. Also they need to be a lot older for what I really want to do next.
But it’s a place to start. I tend to draw indeterminate/young age. I will need to practice old age. More wrinkles? Not sure.
And then I finished this one. Not sure about it.
But I numbered it. It’s small, but there’s 313 pieces (because I never know when to stop).
So blurry. Amazing photography. Really. I can start tracing tonight. No, I haven’t finished the baby quilt or the other art quilt, but this one is for a deadline, so I should do it first. Wah. Whatever.
I’m really proud of this. We have a certain publisher/author we use for all our homework assignments. They’re called thinking probes. But there aren’t many for the genetics unit. I made some other stuff, cobbled together from quizzes that were part of assignments I was giving (I don’t do a lot of quizzes), but I needed something for GMOs, and I’m sitting there staring at one of our thinking probes…I can do that. So I used AI to answer a question that AI created about GMOs, and then I used the names of the other science teachers as the friends…
Although one of them wants to change their answer to something about bringing dinosaurs back. Which I might change for next year, but I’d already copied them for this year. I’m so proud of this one thing. I was trying to use AI for a lot of things yesterday, because I don’t have anyone really helping with this grade level. AI is like a sort of competent and sort of knowledgeable friend. Not a great one. Either friend or competent or knowledgeable. Although it gave me a good BAD answer. ANYWAY. I did this one good thing yesterday.
Simba is stuck with just us this week with the boychild gone. We couldn’t find his lion toy when Katie was visiting…we hide all the toys because she eats them. But he found it and brought it to me the other night…
Wanted to make sure I saw it again last night…
DON’T TOUCH IT THOUGH. Yeah. I did.
I just don’t send it at that point. Really. Fuck that.
OK. Today. Is a lot. We have the district coming by to see what we are doing with literacy, which means a lot of outside during advisory with our kids, trying to get them to mingle and talk about the book so we can give them cookies. Sounds hard? You’d be surprised. Then I need to remember to do literacy in science (it’s been a rough month y’all…I’ve been slacking) so they can see it when they tour through, although if they don’t come in the first ten minutes, they won’t see it. So there. Then teach about pedigrees…next part of genetics. I revised a lot for this so they would have to do big chunks on their own. It’s my new thing. Less direct teaching, more putting them on the spot to do their own work. We’ll see how it goes. It helps me get the grading done, for sure. I just sit at the table with the kids who won’t get on task and grade…they are remarkably compliant then. Although some birdwalk like crazy. Whatever. So yeah. I need to make more tea and go to the place that exhausts me. Run errands after school. Hope my battery shows up so I can drive my own car tomorrow (my jellybean stash is in there). Zoom with stitching friends. On the couch. Stitching. Nice. SLEEP for fucks sake. Really need that. Start tracing that quilt and try to get my head behind it. Goalz.
I’m off again. What day is today? First day of work day. Whatever day that is when it’s not Monday? So yeah. I’m off. Brainwise. Blogwise. Not actually off work today. That I do have to do.
Let’s start with art because it’s nicer. I am drawing something for a FIG show that is based on a collage someone else did on a word (rights) that I assigned to them. They are doing something (probably digital collage type) based on a drawing I did on a word (unity) that they assigned to me. So I started with what they had…and drew a little…
I needed to let it sit. So I did. And last night, I did a little more…
I seemed to own a little more of the redo there. Still needs some stuff, so I’m not done.
I also did some straight up, just drawing…a little at dinner…
And more last night…
I have something I’m working on in my head. This isn’t really it, but it’s a place to draw until what IS it comes out. Drawing is good. I miss it.
In not-art, but still fabric news…I finished this beast…
Imma say no to things more this year. Seriously. It’ll get delivered this week.
And this one, which I did take on because it’s a friend’s baby…from fabric…
To blocks…
To a plan…
I sewed them all together and cut the borders. I have until March 2 to finish. Should be fine.
We walked the parental dog…lots of water at our local hiking space.
This is not a trail we normally go on, but we needed to go around the lake that went across the path.
My sewing machine doesn’t like to fill bobbins from the needle. So it was fussy, didn’t stop filling (so I stopped eventually), and that was too much for it.
Grrr. OK. Well Imma give up on filling it from the needle then.
I framed this piece I bought from @cedarhilljackie.
aka Jackie Bradshaw. I love her stuff and she was having a sale, so I bought one. Made me happy.
Legit concerns.
I just prefer not to hang out with a lot of them. Ironically.
Cool. So the doc called yesterday with superfast biopsy results. It’s not cancer (yay). It’s a complex sclerosing lesion (fun to say 5 times fast). So it probably still needs to be removed for a variety of reasons (feel free to Google it). So surgery. But not cancer surgery. So there are many feels and thoughts about that. I’m still processing. But in general, good news. As long as I don’t think about surgery. Yeah.
ANYWAY. Today is an interesting clusterfuck. Obviously I’m going back to work with a slightly sore, slightly bruised, and slightly itchy boob. Always fun. Plus a giant spider bite I picked up Friday night. In bed. On my neck. Hopefully it then crawled into my mouth and I swallowed it and dissolved it with my stomach acid. So there’s the teaching thing. What are the odds kids did the work on Friday? Whatever. Not my problem. Theirs, because we’re starting an academic assignment based on it today. Fun times. I did spend about 2 hours Saturday and 5 hours Sunday grading. Then Monday, I spent about 5 hours trying to get my head around the next part of the unit. I’d been seriously stuck on HOW to teach it and I had a breakthrough so I think it’s good. I’m actually planned out through Thursday, maybe Friday of NEXT week for once. Yeah. Exciting. Gotta copy some stuff today. Don’t know when, because I have to meet with the grade level I don’t teach. Plus do some learning management system meeting after school, and then I’m going to my first ceramics handbuilding class! The kids/ex gave it to me for Xmas and yes, I know how to do all the things already, but you have to take the intro class to use the studio, so I’m doing it. Con: I’m not sure when and how I’m eating dinner and I won’t be home until probably 9 PM and probably I’m still gonna have to empty the dishwasher because it’s ‘my turn’ but sheesh. I’m hoping someone takes pity on my long day and does it for me. Betting not, but whatever.
Oy. Well, it’s a Monday I’m not at work. I do appreciate these longer weekends, an extra day to try to get stuff done. That said, I’ve got two doctors’ appointments today and they’re not in the same place or at logical times, so it’s just drive a long way, do the thing, drive back. Wait 45 minutes, then drive again. Do the other thing. Drive back. Fun times. I think the afternoon is shot. And I’m moving pretty slowly this morning. Brain is tired. Brain is done. Brain can’t be done…I tried to explain, it doesn’t care, it wants me to sit on the couch with the fluffy kitty and read the book. Sigh. I’ll try. Maybe later.
Lots of what I have to do is art related, which is cool. A bunch of shows are coming up, so there are shipments and contracts and deliveries and headshots and all that crap. I’ve done a chunk of it, but just found a decent headshot requested by one, and still need to fill out, scan, and send two forms.
And I still need to be digging up the outside planter area so we can progress on fixing what happened with the water. I have a rough idea of the order of things, but coordinating that with my schedule and contractors gives me hives. Or breathing anxiety. Yeah.
Anyway, let’s start with art progress. I finished cutting things out on Friday night…spent about 2 1/2 hours doing that (it was a rough day).
Nova was very helpful. It wasn’t too late, so I sorted them too…
It’s super fast when there aren’t very many pieces. I think it took about 18 minutes. Boom!
Then Saturday night, I started ironing them together…
I got most of the sky stuff done. Then last night, I got most of the male figure done…
It’s kind of a pain to try to iron bits on the sky like this; I can’t see the parts that are covered by the sky fabrics, so sometimes I iron them elsewhere and then put them on top. I will have to do that with his left hand and his face, so that’s why I paused there. Also it was late and I was tired. It happens. I might finish tonight? We’ll see. Maybe Tuesday night.
I do have an idea for the next big quilt though. I’ve been listening to The Power of the Crone by Clarissa Pinkola Estes; I loved her Women Who Run With the Wolves book in college, and had seen ads for this, which is all audio, so I started listening. She makes me laugh and her language fills my head with images, which is cool. It’s all stories of the crone and the wise woman. I do have a quilt I made with the crone, maiden, and mother–Awakening the Crone; it sold. So I made that in 2014…I think it’s time for a crone/wise woman update. Something with the world how it is now. I don’t seem to be able to separate my art from politics and people suffering. Anyway, it’s percolating. Always good.
Other fiber stuff that’s happening…I finally got my act in gear and started quilting this again…it’s for a friend who doesn’t quilt. I finished all the white squares, which just needed some additional stitches to hold them together, and now I’m doing the sashing and borders.
This stuff takes longer than people think, though. It probably took me a little over 2 hours to do the 9 white blocks, and I’ve put in at least an hour on the borders/sashing. It’ll be more than an hour to finish; I didn’t get quite halfway. Then put the binding on and stitch it down. So if you ask me to do something and I say no thank you, you will know why. I have little time. Just how long it’s taken me to get to this one shows that. I should be done this week, though. That’s my goal. Get it off my plate! I still need to draw the piece for the upcoming FIG show. Didn’t get to that this weekend yet either.
I went fabric shopping for a friend’s baby quilt. She wants cactus and she loves purple, although she said the green, so we’re doing both.
This is definitely a labor of love. I use the same pattern from 2000 for all my baby quilts (haven’t made one in 8 years, y’all…). This one is manifesting good baby health. So this is next on the list. It’s not hard or complicated.
Then a pair of jeans had an issue last week, and I’m not willing to toss jeans that fit and are comfortable otherwise.
No one will ever see this part…
Manifesting some cactus too.
Hiked on Saturday…FINALLY. Although the Man didn’t want to hike in mud, so we did the mostly boring lake walk on pavement.
Geese though. Beautiful and terrifying.
We’ve had no more water come in the house, which is good, so I mopped the concrete (it was really dirty, even after multiple sweepings) and put down these cheap temporary rugs to keep feet warmer until June/July when I can get to carpet.
These were on mega sale. I thought I would dislike them more, but they actually kinda work with the concrete and walls that need painting. Desperately. Yeah. And people want to come visit my ‘studio’. Sigh. It’s my house, y’all…and it’s in disrepair.
I draw at dinner; we hadn’t been out for a few weeks due to things, stuff, band things, whatever. I started this one on January 20, but food came so fast, and then Saturday night, I kept going, but food came really fast.
It’s not that I want the food to be super slow or anything…I think I used to be able to draw faster? I don’t know. Anyway, it’ll take a third dinner to finish this. And since the Man is having dental surgery this week, it might be a while before I have that opportunity again.
The boob thing though. She has a star on her left breast. I sat through a 3D mammogram, which hurt like a bitch, but the tech was fast (she said she was fast) and then the ultrasound didn’t find something that matched the mammogram, so that makes them nervous. Family history and all. So I get to have a biopsy. No appointment yet. Have to wait for them to call me (what are the odds they’ll call today when I can actually take a call? LOW low low low low), then they’re scheduling about 2 weeks out because it’s not an emergency (except in my head, which the radiologist acknowledged during her very perky speech), then 3-5 days for results. Doc already called to find out my preference for notification (call me ASAP, as long as it’s after school; she already knew that bit). So I guess my birthday present will be news of some sort; odds are it will be fine. Knowing me, it’ll be a watch and wait thing, and I’ll get to scan multiple times. They’ll place a marker during the biopsy so it’ll be easy to find. It’s an architectural distortion. Which is a great name for a new quilt, if you ask me. Anyway. I did have a repeat mammogram once before, not for this, and made a quilt for it…also 2014. Bitchy year, if you ask me. 2024 is starting rough…hopefully it will chill out at some point.
We’re reading The Maze Runner in my advisory class…
I’m with her on this, but there has been action. Maybe not before she wrote this comment. It’s hard to read just one chapter a day.
This is me always. I’m not a morning person.
I do have to get my act together though. Gonna shower and make more tea and eat something and do some work and fill out these two forms and scan and email them and then drive off to the dermatologist and then the knee doctor, and at the end of all of it, go to my rescheduled stitching meeting with friends. My stomach just chimed in about the eating something. I think I’m ready to teach tomorrow; I moved stuff around because kids are stupidly not finishing work, and my being gone Friday afternoon didn’t help with that. Oh well. What am I gonna do? Not go to the doctor? Well no. So there will be at least one more (and hopefully no more) appointment that makes me miss school. They should figure out how to be self motivated. Surely it’s time for that. Ha.
Hmmm. It’s Friday. Kinda forgot to write. I got up and posted stuff for school and worked for a while. Then rested and read. And worked some more. School. Sheesh. I am better, though. I’ll be back at school on Monday, hopefully testing negative so I don’t have to rock the mask, but whatever. I’m going to have to reteach all the stuff they didn’t do for the last three days. Sigh. Could do without that. Ah well. Can’t do anything about it.
I’ve been reading a lot. It happens on a couch in a mostly prone position, which I hear is good for recovery. Yeah, I also graded and planned a lot, but that’s still easier than standing and talking all day.
Wednesday night, I finished tracing all the pieces…
And last night, I sat quite happily on the couch with a cat and cut them all out…
392 pieces is like nothing. I need to sort them and then see if I have the energy to stand long enough to start ironing to fabric. I haven’t done a ton of standing. So yeah. But that’s the next step.
I also need to draw the one I’m doing with a partner, plus quilt that thing for a friend without getting COVID on it. According to the internets, the virus shouldn’t live on fabric for more than a day. I think I’m good. I do have to go to school this weekend to copy stuff for Tuesday and cut it out. Hardly any of my students completed work online; hopefully they did the paper stuff, but since the online stuff was to help them with that, it’s unlikely. Ah well. Three lost days.
So this is the bedroom wall, minus the drywall that was wet. Those lovely golden bits in the black are sunlight…SUNLIGHT…where it’s shining through the exterior wall.
Problematic.
This is my increasingly older Kitten in her grumpy nighttime phase.
This is a incredibly blurry and pixelated picture of a bird taking a bath in a birdbath.
And last but not least, a hawk perched on the heavily trimmed eucalyptus, probably wondering where its perch went. Better view now? Hmmm.
So my weekend plans are somewhat squashed. Still not sure if I can exercise Sunday. I do know I have lots of work left to do on all fronts, and the Surface Design Association conference continues tomorrow, which is cool. I forgot about it all week until yesterday at 4 PM, when I remembered to log in for a social hour. That was cool. I appreciate hanging out with other artists.
Still raining on and off here. We dug out enough of the front area that the water didn’t make it inside, but the stoop outside the door slants backwards to the house, which isn’t helping. And we need gutters and drainage and to get rid of that damn stoop. Plus actual walls would be good. Otherwise, things are fine, not stressful at all. Uh huh. Gonna go read for a while longer before doing something else that seems useful. I can’t always be productive.
You know, I teach in a petri dish of diseases. I’m lucky when I don’t get sick (knock on wood…oh wait…too late). Seriously, I was just thinking how I hadn’t been sick this year, that my immune system was rocking! And then we got info last night that one of the Man’s bandmates tested positive for COVID…he tests, he’s positive, I’m like get away from me, I can’t be sick right now, went to bed, laid there trying to meditate, contemplating my nose that started running around 10 PM and my throat that started scratching right after, fuckity fuck fuck. So I didn’t even get sick from my students. FFS. Well. I got up and tested positive, requested a sub for the next three days, then wrote sub plans (at midnight), emailed about a thousand people who were affected either by my being sick or by my being out, wrote a post-it note of what needed to happen in the morning, and tried to sleep. Fun times.
Got up at 6:30, printed some stuff, drove to school, masked, set up my classroom, grabbed the two assignments I needed to grade (I still need to copy shit for next week; Sunday plans?), made a video of materials for a teacher who needs them today, copied seating charts, left it all and was home by 7:15. Sat down, posted all the assignments, and then tried to record a video for tomorrow (trying to teach Punnett squares by video is hard), fucked it up, did it again. I’m waiting for it to process now so I can make an Edpuzzle out of it so kids will have to write stuff down to get credit (many will still blow it off). Oh hey, Edpuzzle emailed me that my video was ready. Nice. Talked to the nurse about paxlovid. Still need to write lesson plans for tomorrow and Friday and do a video for Friday. I don’t feel too bad at the moment, but I’m listening to the Man and I’m not sure I’m going to feel better tomorrow. Which sucks. Canceled pilates, need to notify sex-ed committee (shit, I sneezed. I remember that), texted kid who lives here part time (he got clothes and food and left again, until he tests positive and then he’ll be back), texted parents (saw dad Saturday, think I was OK, but the Man might not have been…they didn’t interact though, so we’re probably good).
Still need to dig out part of the entryway before the next big rain hits tomorrow…hoping for feeling OK to do that for 20 minutes today? But not counting on it. Spacey head for the win. No water in house? Sigh.
Plus I think I got about 4 hours of sleep. But until I have tomorrow’s lessons planned so my co-teachers can print them, I’m not ready to rest. The reality of being a teacher out sick. Last year when I had strep/scarlet fever, I was REALLY ill. So ill that the videos I made, the kids told me afterwards that I sounded awful. I’m like, I recorded one of those at like 4:30 AM because that was when I could sit up. Briefly. So knock on wood, this won’t be as bad as the last time I had COVID and I’ll be back at school Friday or Monday. No sub Friday. Yikes. We’ll see.
I love having to revise all my lesson plans at the last minute. Not.
Art progress: Monday night, I was fine. I started tracing Wonder Under for the new quilt. I did the sky, mostly. I didn’t have a full hour.
I didn’t get super far. Who the fuck thought fancy divided stars was a good plan? It was me. I did. Hmmm.
Then last night, I felt fine until I went to bed…OK, my nose started running as I was tracing, but I was in denial. I got to piece 207, which is more than halfway. Not sure how I’m going to feel today, but hoping to trace some more. We’ll see. Currently just want to lie on the couch and nap. Should do that for a while.
I could finish in a couple of hours I think.
The other two quilts I need to do…well I need fabric for one, which means shopping, which I was going to do Saturday. Let’s hope I feel better by then. I suspect I haven’t hit bottom yet because I barely had symptoms last night. It’s OK if it has to wait for a week. I have time. The other one, we’re figuring out sizes, but it’s going to be small, maybe 11×14″, so that should be relatively easy. I do want to do some handwork on it, I think. I never have the time to do that…
Anyway, sure, working on three, maybe four things at once makes sense (I actually don’t usually do that). Plus I need to finish that quilt for the friend of mine, but I was thinking, damn, how long does COVID live on fabric? Because I don’t want the quilt to give her COVID. Sigh. OK.
Also made an appointment for the followup mammogram…because they hadn’t called me and I don’t like not knowing, and not knowing for 2+ weeks is more than I can deal with right now. I’m still trying to figure out concrete drying and siding replacement and drywall replacement and maybe everything just waits until it stops raining. Luckily, it’s Southern California, so after the rain dumps this week and next, we might be in the clear. I’m a little overly stressed at the moment. House then boob then sick. That’s enough. Back the fuck off, 2024. We’re done.
Nap. I need a nap. Then finish lesson planning. Then more napping.
Insanely busy weekend. Do not recommend. Also have a splinter that is not removing itself. Even with significant pokey help from me. We should genetically engineer skin that pushes out splinters. Not all foreign bodies, because piercings and pacemakers, but if it’s wood, then push it out. Maybe even if it’s carbon-based. Would that work? Not sure. Not a scientist here; just play one on TV. But please I don’t want to go to Urgent Care again over a splinter. Oh wait, the last one was a sharpness from sourdough starter, and the one before that was a bougainvillea spike. You know, there are words I can’t spell right on a regular basis, have to look up, like ‘occasionally’ (one ‘s’? two ‘s’s? how many damn ‘c’s?), but I can spell bougainvillea without a hitch. How does that make sense in the brain?
Anyway. This is a shovel handle splinter because I’m digging (very slowly) trenches around the house to divert the water so we don’t have a repeat of last week’s inundation. At this rate, I’ll be done digging in September, so yeah. Working on it. In between everything else.
Let’s start with the quilt. I sewed the binding on Friday night…after remembering at school that the fabric store closed at 5 PM, so I couldn’t clean everything up from Friday’s lab (note to Monday’s self, you will need to do that when you get to school, not my favorite way to start the week). I kamikazed over to the store I don’t normally go to…it’s fine, but the other one has way more choice in fabric…but isn’t open after 3 PM. Ever. Got the binding on and started handsewing Friday night…
I finished just after the Surface Design Association conference (well, I left early to go to Pilates, so after that)…
And it went to the photographer on Sunday. Good times.
I have two projects I need to be working on right now. One requires fabric (baby quilt) and one, I need a general size to start drawing, so I have an email in but no answer yet. I might need to wait a couple of weeks to get that info, unfortunately, because there is a deadline, but I think it’ll be OK. So what next? I’m remarkably braindead about picking a topic…there are honestly too many and nothing’s floating my boat at the moment, so I went back to that pile of drawings I copied in December and picked one that spoke to me.
And then I stayed up too late last night to number it.
My brain. Seriously. But NOT making at the moment just feels ultimately very bad, so I’m making.
I think it has 392 pieces. Maybe that’s how I start this year: just making a whole bunch of smaller pieces that keep me going until a big piece in the summer. Or maybe Spring Break, because that trip got canceled due to expenses incurred here at home (can you say water?).
One of three drywall removal areas…
The baseboard needs to come up too. Still trying to figure out next steps. Fans have been going for a week. Not sure if we need the industrial fans they want $2K for. Calling today for more info.
Here’s our ghetto moisture sensor…
Getting an official one for by the door where all the water probably came in. Seems that we will have to do the outdoor fix, because IDK even who would do it. There’s no info. Ugh. Then the drywall fix, carpet can’t happen until summer, just realistically with management and moving all three bedrooms. It doesn’t make sense to replace the hallway only and leave the 45-year old carpet in the bedrooms that matches. Anyway. It’s a thing. It’ll happen. I bought cheap runners for the hallway until then, once we know it’s dry. Whatever knowing means.
Friday’s DNA extraction lab (wheat germ)…
It went well. Some kids are assholes, but you knew that.
Saturday night, the Man’s band played for 3 hours straight.
Lots of exhaustion on both our parts. Also drama on the dance floor. Stupid adults. But they played well. The next show is four hours on a school night. Let me tell you how long I might last for that. Cough Cough.
My favorite girlchild at Cabazon, I suspect.
She was vacationing with a friend near Joshua Tree. Good dino.
OK, school. DNA read and color today. Staff meeting. Possible Urgent Care. Come home, dig, pull up (gently) carpet to check bedroom. We want it to go back for now. Then book club Zoom…not even sure which book it is. Whoops. Hopefully I’ve read it. This week is another sex-ed curriculum meeting shitshow, but ALMOST AT THE END (I thought that in December and was unpleasantly surprised). More art. Yeah.
Oomph. This week packs a punch. Even without all the meetings from last week. Let’s start with the artmaking, because it’s positive and so I like to focus on it…like HERE IS STUFF YOU DID SO STOP FREAKING OUT. By the way, grades are done. For now. I didn’t finish grading one assignment. Oh well. I will eventually.
But art! So I’m still quilting. This is a small piece and I can’t remember, but I thought I’d be done by today? Maybe? Ha ha. Yeah. I thought I’d be done last night, and if I weren’t a crazy bitch who decided she wanted to quilt a tiny squiggle everywhere, I probably would be done.
Yeah. Dumbass.
So I’m about halfway done with the background, which might mean I’m not finishing quilting until Thursday night. Problematic if I want it to go to the photographer this weekend, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m close. Maybe. Who knows if I even have enough of anything I can use for binding anyway. So yeah, another hour tonight…after pilates and cooking dinner. Did I agree to cook dinner tonight? AGREE. Ha. That’s funny. There’s no negotiation there. Much. It’s my turn. I often wish it wasn’t.
In other news, San Diego got slammed by a wet storm on Monday…my rain gauge showed over 3 inches of rain in a day. Well. Hmmm. And I came home and did grades and at about 5 PM, the boychild realized there was a lot of water on the carpet in the hallway, and yeah.
So there’s water coming in, presumably from the outside (even though part of that is an interior wall) most of the way down the hallway (there’s a dry bit in the middle), around the corners into the closet at this end and the bedroom at the other end. I’ve sort of resigned myself to the ghetto concrete floor look that I think we’re going to get to soon…although the men are convinced we can save the carpet…
I think we’re up to 6 fans at the moment. And yes, the hallway wall bears the imprints of Calli, deceased, who used to lie on her back and scrabble at the wall. Have I had time to fix that? Well probably. Have I had the time AND energy to fix that? Well fuck no. So we have a call into a restoration place just to figure out what the real problem is (probably water over the bottom plate/slab thing, don’t ask me construction terms) and figure out who can fix it and then how much that shit will cost, and then probably there will be Wayfair/Target area rugs thrown over the concrete for a while until I can afford carpet. The carpet is ancient; should have been replaced long before this, so IDK why they are trying to save it, except to save me money and reduce the ghetto look. This was not in the plan. I know. It never is. Also, I can’t sleep well with the sound of the fans…I know it’s white noise, but my brain thinks it’s a zombie attack. Anyway. Trying not to dwell on it all, but you know how that goes.
In other news, I’m sending work to Japan and Taiwan in the next few months…so that’s new and different. I’m also trying to work on a collaboration with someone in San Francisco who is part of my women’s art group. We’re flailing a bit, but here was my 2nd attempt at drawing ‘unity’…a hard word for me apparently.
Pretty happy drawing for me…And here’s Nova just before attacking that cat toy.
Yesterday was eyeball dissection day…
It was cool. All but one kid participated and he was just being a whiner in general. Ugh. It’s a regular thing for him. I could do without it.
I thought I would go to the gym after school, get some exercise in, but I was exhausted. Completely. I read a bit, talked to the SIL, then made seating charts for today while half lying on the couch. Made dinner, did that drawing, read some more, then went in and quilted. That was it. It was all I could do.
Also this one…
Trying to figure out what to do with this collaboration. Ugh. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT ANYTHING. So there we are. Seriously though. I need someone to just come in and say, blah blah blah, you need to do this, this person will do it, here’s the invoice, it’s bad but not heinous, something you can actually afford, OK, let’s do it. Probably need that for EVERYTHING right now. Oh yeah, and there’s another time/energy-intensive lab on Friday. OKAY. Good plan, Nida. Ha. I think I need to sleep from now until Spring Break. It won’t solve anything, but at least I’ll be well-rested.
I did not fall off the face of the Earth…I just had a ton of stuff to do. And if you’re my school district, trying to figure out where I went this weekend, the answer is NOWHERE. I didn’t travel anywhere. I really didn’t. I did take a necessary day off though, and they don’t like that, especially before a 3-day weekend. I had a sub though, which is a plus.
There was a lot of art this weekend, which was good and necessary to the processing of my brain. There was also a lot of schoolwork this weekend, which was unfortunately also necessary to my surviving the next month or so. This week, definitely, because I am entering the hell of 2-hour meetings for the next three days, all school-related. Sigh. Not looking forward to that bit. And some medical stuff, which is what it is, and can’t all happen after school hours, much as they’d like it to.
So the quilt in progress went from all ironed to fabric Wednesday night? I think…
98 fabrics…in just under 9 hours of ironing.
Then Thursday night, I started cutting them out…
Finished Friday night? Again, maybe that was Saturday night…yeah, I think I’m off by a night on all of this…
That took a little under 7 hours…I was on a roll. And then Sunday afternoon, I sorted them…
Sunday night, started ironing together…
And this is last night’s progress…
With all those 2-hour meetings, it’s gonna be a fight to get an hour in each night, but that’s my goal. More than an hour, actually. I have about 200 pieces left, so I’m figuring I’ll be done Wednesday, iron to the background Thursday, start stitchdown by Friday. Tight deadline, but I’m going for it. Have I mentioned grades are due next week on top of all those meetings? Yeah. And Saturday is shot to hell by a mammogram and an art meeting. There is no down time.
Ooh wait, here’s the cutting-out I did on Thursday night. Hmmm. Maybe I finished ironing fast and then cut stuff out?
I’ll ask Nova. She might know.
Setup for a class I took this weekend…
Loads of fun. Totally recommend taking classes that aren’t related to what you’re doing at the moment.
I also went to an opening and an artist talk, and I have photos from that, but no time to process right now. Because I need to get to work, need to beat the tree trimmers out of here.
Friday night’s dinner drawing…
Cute sister cats…
This current quilt is small enough to ALMOST fit under one teflon ironing sheet.
IDK when I’ll have the brain power to do something bigger this year. I’m supposed to be doing a drawing this week as well. Deep breaths. Might have to wait until Friday to have the mental space for it.
My succulents are making cute little flowers…
I hadn’t been paying attention to the plants with all the other crap going on.
I hate that.
Also finished mom’s snowflakes, so this went back to her for embellishment…
Then it’ll come back to me for sandwiching and stuff. Not sure what stuff entails at the moment. Haven’t touched the other quilt I’m doing for a friend…it’s been a rough week. It’s still a rough week.
OK, work today, something to do with light and UV damage (I feel like I should know what the something is), then a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting, then I get to cook tonight (woo!), then more ironing. Full-on survival mode this week. Bring it.
Kathy Nida 