This Job…

I’m not sure why this week seems so long and exhausting. I mean, I’m glad it’s Friday, but I thought/felt like the last two days were also Friday. And tomorrow morning, I will wake up panicked, thinking it’s Friday again and I forgot to set my alarm. All silly brain stuff.

Glad it’s Friday anyway. Finally. For real. I started stitchdown on Wednesday night…

Didn’t get super far…but last night, I did better…

I’m probably halfway done with it? Could finish it tonight or tomorrow, sandwich, pinbaste, start quilting. My plan is to finish the quilting by Monday (?) and buy the binding then. I’ll have to make sure the quilt store is open Monday. Their hours are annoying for those of us who work a day job. The other local sewing store is carrying less and less fabric, so there aren’t a lot of options. Too hard to mail order something that needs to match in a timely fashion. I don’t usually have big enough pieces in my stash to do a whole binding. Anyway.

We photographed it in daylight, which is more accurate color…

Meanwhile, the other show I was panicking about, because the deadline had moved up a month…it moved back a month to June again, so I have a little breathing room, but I’m still going through with bordering the dye paintings and working with those for that show. I already had my next quilt drawing copied when this piece had to shove in, so I have a plan for after…it’s not political, but I kind of need a break from those. I may feel differently when I get there, but my brain gets overloaded if I’m always working on a piece that is a mental challenge. Yes, the world is a mental challenge right now, but I also have a pretty challenging day job and I need to make sure my brain has some outlets that are safe. Besides reading…

Oh wait, that’s me trying to grade with a laptop while another ‘laptop’ sits upon my lap. Top. Scribble is not very patient with my need for my lap sometimes. She believes it is hers.

So does Simba, so sometimes there is competition. The boychild is gone for a few days, so here is Simba’s bedtime sad face.

He only barked once at the neighbors’ pulling their trashcans in and once at the coyotes. By ‘once’ I mean he barked a bunch of times at each of those. After about midnight, he was quiet. Although the competition for lying on me was tense last night (3 of them, sandwiching the shit out of me).

I love this idea but want to know why they are all the same size.

That’s just weird. Then again, so is this, but in a very different way.

Why aren’t they all in jail yet? I don’t get it. Take them all. Lock them up. Throw away the keys (the abusers, not the immigrants). I don’t care who they are or how rich they are or what side of the political argument they are on; get them in jail.

Yeah. Like I said, sometimes the brain needs a break. I probably won’t get that today. I’m teaching light wave behavior, very much on the whole day, I think. It’s been pretty chill the last couple days, even though kids won’t get work done for science sometimes without calling them out. Stop rushing ahead to games and/or stuff for another class that you think is easier. Stop rushing through assignments just to get them done (hence your F). Lots of sitting down with kids and my computer and having discussions about the consequences of your actions, or what I see for reading ability, or how to get better at it and why you might care about that. I actually had a kid Googling yesterday if a teacher could say no to him wanting to go to the bathroom literally 5 minutes after he came in from a 30-minute lunch break. Sigh. Yes dear, I can. Plus a crazy email from a parent using Chatgpt and maybe a paralegal or a really bad lawyer. Fun day. At least it’s Friday and I can go to ceramics this afternoon, then come home and read a bit and stitch a lot and sleep in tomorrow if the animals let me. Three-day weekend (which is already filling up)…which is nice. But grading, yes, that. Unfortunately. Ah well. This job.

Hot and Crispy

So for the last week, WordPress has been using a tiny ugly font on the posts on MY end, but the posts you see are the same. This seems like a little thing, and it’s strangely happened before, more than once, and then eventually goes back to something bigger than 9-pt type. It’s weird and it bugs me, but it is possible that everything bugs me at the moment. Today, we’ve got what looks like Santa Ana winds (wind advisory, plus it’s going to be 90 degrees…in February), which notoriously messes with my head and my hair and my sinuses. Super dry, too warm, pressure changes in the atmosphere. Makes for a head that doesn’t function normally. For some definition of normal. It’ll be gone by tomorrow (the weird weather, not the general malaise).

Meanwhile, I got the whole image ironed together on Monday night…

Which took a little over 11 hours…and then last night, I ironed it to the background (which I had sewn together the night before).

Note Scribble. She posed with it. Sat right down next to it for the photo opp. Now this is at night, with me standing on the fireplace hearth again (I’m short). There’s a ton of details that will get quilted in and that don’t necessarily show up in a photo like this. I guess, that’s normal for me. I will start stitchdown tonight and hopefully get it sandwiched and quilted this weekend. This will most likely be at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, in April…and then will travel to a few shows. Which is cool…more about that later, when it’s actually done.

I started a new artsy ceramic piece on Monday. I had a vision (very vague) of what I wanted to do back in December, but was trying to get the bowl done first…there’s only so much room on my shelf for building. And the studio drying shelves were super full; it was hard to find a place to put the bowl last week, so I waited until Monday and found a spot. This is not a very exciting start, but it’s a start…

Hopefully it won’t take a year to finish.

I need to get past some of these quilt deadlines so I can finish the last ceramic piece (which needs a tiny quilt). Not sure when the deadlines will chill the fuck out. The Man will say I need to say NO more often, but that’s hard to do when exhibition opportunities come up. Pros and cons: I love to have my work exhibiting, but it becomes a pressure that sometimes makes it difficult to work on what I want to work on.

Scribble is still adjusting to the nearness of a dog. Simba doesn’t freakin’ care…he wants to be next to me.

I try to come home from work and read for a bit every day. I usually get some sort of fluff to sit with me.

This is Nova while I’m trying to grade.

She was on my leg earlier (when I was reading). She sticks a single claw into my leg over and over again. Makes it difficult to concentrate.

OK. Union meeting this morning, finishing up the EM spectrum in class (hopefully all on task and focused, although one class…ugh…there’s always one class). Then pilates…I got in even though I only signed up two nights ago (I had to wait for the 3rd to be allowed to…did I sign up at 1:30 AM? I did.). Then book club…boom…boom…I finished the book last night at the gym. I finally made it back to the gym, where they have new equipment…took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get to the programs. The screens are sliding by; one of them could have instructions. Really. Yes, I’m old. I do read instructions. Gen X thing. Then grading in there somewhere, hopefully also at school; I’m behind again. Then stitching stuff down and going to bed and not having to get up early tomorrow. Inevitably Scribble will start playing with the strings on the blinds at 6 AM anyway. It’s funny how she’s matching Bowie’s kitten energy, the things he did that he grew out of. Poor Bowie…still freaked out about coming out of the room when anyone but his dad is around. Not sure why, but it makes me sad not to see him stomping around the house like normal. Hopefully he’ll come out soon. Weird times. OK, off to school. Hot and crispy day.

A Better Place…

Hey. Early Monday, too many things going on, too many things need to happen. I need to come up with a title for the piece I’m working on, and I don’t even have an inkling (no, I don’t want help…I just need headspace). Usually I stare at the picture, read some online stuff about the topic, stare at it again, go heat up my tea, stare at it some more, look up quotes, shake my head, go out and plant something or sweep something, pretend it’s a normal day, go to bed, and just as I’m falling asleep, it comes to me, and hopefully I’m smart enough to document it somewhere. But often not. And then I have to wait for it to wander back into my head.

Yeah. Fun times. OK, fast and furious here. I didn’t iron Friday night because we went to watch a co-teacher dance in a local performance.

I got home super late and went straight to bed, pretty much…and then spent 22 minutes finishing my book. It was good. What can I say? The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. Because this…

Too true. Saturday, I ironed for about 4 hours…avoiding most other tasks. Dude, I’m on a deadline.

There’s a certain stage when you’re ironing tree parts and freeway interchange parts when it is pure overlapping chaos.

Scribble in the room! Also, all those random things piled on the ironing board are weights to keep the rest of the piece from sliding off.

It’s heavy at this point. And still chaotic.

But getting there.

Then last night, I almost finished.

I just have the owl on the top right and then need to iron it onto the background. And come up with a title. No, I still don’t want your help. Thanks.

Sigh.

I hiked Saturday; the wildflowers are starting to bloom.

It was nice, except for the ebikes.

Annoying. No engines in nature, y’all. Unless they’re rescuing someone or something.

I think I need more hikes. I used to hike after school…ok, not in winter. It gets dark too early.

OK, I scrolled a lot in between grading and ironing.

Not surprising. And here’s Charlie Kirk on it all.

We’re there. The tyrannical part.

Humanity is the least humane thing out there in the US right now.

Please…arrest more people so we don’t notice how many rich white males are on the Epstein list. Take them all! Jail them all! I don’t care about their politics or what they do for a living. They belong in jail.

Yeah. I’ve been saying white men are the problem for years.

Sigh. So if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have noticed we’ve got some family stuff going on, trying to find the Man’s sister. She’s in danger. If you live locally and you see her, please call 911 and reach out to us if you can. I know it’s unlikely most of you will see her, but just in case…you never know.

I have an early meeting (hate Monday meetings), then I’m teaching the electromagnetic spectrum, and going to a physical therapy evaluation for my very cranky knees. Then hopefully to ceramics, but also have to pick up a handle arm thing for the toilet that broke last night (couldn’t break Saturday so I could go to Home Depot over the weekend, could you?), plus pick up meds that got sent to a local pharmacy instead of ordered online like I asked, then not sure what else. Maybe grading, definitely reading to dissociate, then ironing an owl. Good times. May the world be a better place by the time I get there…or at least not a worse one.

At Least It’s Friday…

Today is the shutdown. I’m with you in spirit, but as a public middle-school teacher in a Title I school, I’m going to be at school with my students. Also, Friday subs are the hardest to get for anyone, and we’re doing a lab, so I would have had to make up some filler assignment, because you don’t leave a lab with a sub unless you want no materials at the end of the day. And a friend is performing tonight, opening night, and we’re not blowing that off either. Need to support teachers in their life-affirming activities, like dance and art. But do we need to hit them where it hurts? Yes. Absolutely. Target sent me yet another “we’ll cancel your Target card” letter (the third so far, each with a 2-month deadline, which I ignore). I’m just avoiding them, Amazon as much as I can, anything else that seems dodgy or billionairy. Not a word, I know. But there are small, independently owned businesses going under right now due to tariffs and people just not having as much money (um, the grocery bill is still bad, y’all…it’s not great here), and it’s not OK that the tariffs are singling them out. Just trying to get art quilts to shows here from out of the country or vice versa has gotten so much more complicated.

Sigh. Things aren’t changing in the right direction fast enough.

In quilt news, the ironing is going well…

Well, as long as you don’t mind a kitten climbing on it (I do)…

She also tried to run off with the safety pins, so those are closed up again. I keep this door closed most of the time right now, because I don’t really trust her in here. It’s chaos and thread and pins and tiny pieces and not very cat friendly.

So that was Wednesday’s progress…looks slower because it’s a lot of smaller pieces.

And here’s last night’s progress…

I’m in the low 300s at this point…the body parts are next and that’s complicated. I have a thing tonight so odds are I won’t be ironing until tomorrow, but I’m hoping to spend a few hours tomorrow. The deadline looms.

I also went to ceramics last night and put the last two colors on the bowl, underglaze anyway.

I also did the fingernails and filled in the mouth areas.

That looks better.

Right now, it’s drying so I can put it in the bisque fire. I’ll clear glaze the outside and then find some shiny glaze for the inside. Realistically, I can never make anything in clay to sell…this already has over 10 hours in and it’s not done. It’s a good thing I’m not doing it for the money.

There’s competition some nights for my lap.

Simba was hesitant, but submitted that belly rubs made it OK. Scribble is unsure…

Really unsure.

The crazy shit that comes out of the government’s mouth is sometimes mind-boggling.

That and Kyle Rittenhouse and that crazy fucking couple with the guns. Like it’s a different story every time. And some people are excusing it every time. I’m hoping the reps start to stand up and yell more, prosecute, fire people, refuse to pass bills, demand for change, quite honestly, get that dumbass tested publicly, transparently, because no way he’s competent to be president right now. That said, neither is Couch Vance. I’d love to hear some of the conversations he and his wife of color have about some of the shit he says.

I read this and went, huh. Yeah. Ugh.

And then I read this one.

OMG yes. I guess that’s too much to ask? Certainly it doesn’t make as much money for the already rich.

Sigh. All I do is sigh and try to hide in books these days. Can’t hide unfortunately. My co-teacher and I had a short discussion of what to do if ICE shows up at school if we’re on duty (grab all the kids and throw them behind the gates). We can’t call our local police; they’ve been told by the mayor to support ICE, to help them. Fuck that. You’re not dragging middle-school kids out of here. Or their parents. Not OK. We are not OK.

Today. We’re doing a lab about light, mostly UV to start, just an exploration. Then duty (no ICE hopefully) and going to watch a friend dance with a bunch of people, then probably home to sleep honestly. It’ll be late. Then art tomorrow, and a hike, to try to get this blood sugar under control. It’s still whack and I still don’t know why. Sigh. SIGH. At least it’s Friday and more art time is near. I can do that.

That Matters…

Yes, I’m writing late today. I took the morning off to attend an art-related Zoom that is usually difficult for me to go to, due to that lovely day job, but the kids are walking to the high school today in the morning anyway, so I’m not missing a lot of instructional time; I’ll be back to give a test to my afternoon kids, which totally thrills them, let me tell you. So I slept in (a little bit, because let’s be honest, my body thinks I should be up at 6:30 all the time and so it just wakes up and I don’t fall back to sleep easily). I’ll shower in a bit. I might put a second coat of paint on the deck wall (I was working on the deck and plants last night in the dusk light and it was not easy, but it needs to get done and it’s always dark when I get home these days). I’m definitely inputting grades…yes, taking time off from work and still working is what teachers do; why do you ask? And hopefully I can start grading that other academic assignment…I’ll be coming home from work and doing that for sure. Unfortunately.

Luckily, there is progress on the quilt front. It took 11 1/2 hours to trim all the pieces…

And then I sorted them the same night…

Scribble was not particularly helpful in this process. As you might imagine…although she eventually chilled out and just watched.

Nova was chilling on the couch.

Then last night, I started ironing the whole thing together.

I did almost 100 pieces in an hour. Pretty soon, it will all be small pieces and progress will look much slower. I’m not expecting to be done quickly, but I’m hoping to get some big chunks of weekend time in the next few weeks. I need it all ironed together and to a background by February 15, then finished ASAP. Ha! OK. Doing it.

I also made it in to work on the bowl…mostly underglazing at this point.

I think I have two more colors I want to put on there, but also, I wish I had painted inside the mouth. I might just do a tongue and not worry about the background, but it looks weird now, so not the best decision I’ve made this week.

Also probably not the worst, y’all. And it’s only Wednesday; there’s still time for worse decisions. I am liking the bowl though. It’s fun.

I’m finishing up teaching digital and analog signals this week, and found this mix tape in the box of cassettes I brought to school.

Yup, my brother made that.

Trying to explain to these digital kids that you made a tape to share your music with your friends or a relative and it was like a gift, and how you thought about them when you made it, and then when you listened to it, you thought about the person who made it for you. They don’t get it. Sad. But things have changed. They share TikTok videos and memes. Maybe it’s the same?

Yesterday, I left school quickly and came home to work on the deck in daylight. I have part of the house wall that really needs paint, and I wanted to do that before I started pushing plants back up against the wall. So I did a little sanding and one coat of paint last night, as the sky turned into this.

My eucalyptus tress still look sad. Hopefully they’ll be fluffier by summer. I have too much of a view of my back and lower neighbors’ yards at the moment. I could do without that. But the sky was nice. I moved three plant shelves back toward the railing, but also realized I don’t remember where everything goes. I’m sure it will be fine (she says). I’ve moved a few anyway that needed room or to dangle. Some things need some major pruning or replanting, so that’s a different issue.

I’m thinking about using this when we teach natural selection…but then the kids will think it’s a choice.

Honestly, I don’t know how much natural selection we’re going to get to this year, thanks to the school board fucking up our schedule. So frustrated with this year. I can’t even look at the calendar for April without stressing. My blood sugar has been super reactive this week. Not sure what changed except everyone around me is sick and I’ve definitely been fighting something off since Saturday, but I’m not sick…and my blood sugar is an asshole. Things that normally don’t shoot my blood sugar high…well, they are. So it’s just gonna be high this week I guess. Sigh. I have pilates today; hopefully that will help. I don’t feel more stressed than last week, so who knows what else it could be. Random shit…brought to you by my body.

Discombobulated is one of my favorite words.

I never considered what bobulated would be.

I try to do this every day.

It helps.

This thought also helps; but it’s also depressing.

Economic shutdown Friday. I can’t skip school; it’s not fair to the kids. There aren’t enough subs. I already have plans for Friday night to support a friend; the money was already spent, though. We are going out after, but I’m pretty sure it’s an independent place. Not a Cohn-owned monstrosity. I’ve got my eyes open for what’s happening Saturday. One rep emailed back. I don’t actually need to hear from them. I need to see them vote and start yelling. Get Noem out. Get out of Minnesota. Get out of everywhere. No ICE.

This is boggling.

So unsustainable. Then again, our need for money and power always is unsustainable.

This is an issue.

And frustrating, because they think we don’t think too. SCIENCE! I didn’t even post the measles graph for 2025. Measles cases went from like 238 in 2024 to over 2000 cases in 2025. Thanks RFK for being an ignorant dickhead.

Imma leave you with a sleepy kitten.

She’s a good baby.

OK, I need to shower, set up some stuff for school, get on a Zoom, maybe paint a wall, grade some stuff, input some grades, then go to school and give a test, go to Pilates, come home, grade some more after reading some of my book, and then iron. Busy day. Even “taking time off” (whatever that means). But art is in there and that matters.

Lurking…

Hey. The weekend, it was messy, wasn’t it? Whether it was extreme weather or extreme authoritarian government actions, it was difficult for a lot of people. I called my Senate and House representatives (unfortunately, Padilla doesn’t have voicemail…so I guess I try to call while I’m teaching? Not particularly convenient for your constituents sir). I’m hoping the ICE funding doesn’t pass the Senate, hoping no more Democrats slip over to the dark side. They aren’t MY reps, so IDK what their logic was, although I’m sure it’s somewhere on the internet. At some point, all that news gets to be too much for all of us. That said, thank the brave folks of Minnesota who are still recording the bullshit, even as we hear it out of the government’s mouth, but it doesn’t match the videos. It’s wrong.

I saw someone that I know post that if the sanctuary cities would just hand over the illegals, none of this would happen. So ignorance of how the immigration system works (I’ve been through it with my ex) and why people might immigrate to another country…and the fact that all us white folks are immigrants here. We overran the place, destroyed so many existing communities and families…why? We wanted freedom! And land and resources and power and money. And forgetting that part of the story is boggling.

This country was built (correctly or not) on immigrants. And so many of the people being rounded up are going through the process legally, showing up to appointments, following the rules, NOT breaking the law, NOT gang members. Especially now, in Minnesota, how many of the people being harassed, thrown to the ground, dragged out of their houses…how many of those have already been outed as whoops, we didn’t get the right person? It’s insane that this hasn’t been shut down, that the funding is still there, instead of protecting people, feeding people, making sure they have the medication and healthcare they need. This is what you want your tax dollars spent on? When food and electricity costs are going through the roof? Insane that some of these people can’t even look at the weekly grocery bill and see the effect all this is having on them personally. And lying about it.

We saw all the videos, y’all. Where are the gun people? Why aren’t they screaming about their 2nd Amendment rights? Why aren’t they on the news for that? He didn’t pull a gun…he recorded bad behavior. And they killed him. He was innocent and they killed him. And he’s not the first and won’t be the last. Sick.

The climate stuff is supremely worrying. We’re making it so much worse. It will take years to get back to where we were a year ago. The scientific ignorance this government propagates is mind-boggling. And to prioritize machines over people’s lives? This is mind-boggling.

Shut it down. We need regulation so humans can live.

So did I make art this weekend? I did. I also had three art meetings and the Man’s band played at the Music Box on Friday night…so I went to that too.

Sometimes the guitar player stands in front of the Man the entire show…

Photos are hard. I did come home and manage to cut stuff out for about an hour before I fell exhausted into bed…

I cut again on Saturday…

And I was really hoping I’d be done last night…

But I needed about another 30 or 40 minutes and I had to go to bed to get up today and teach.

So you can see in the top bin that not much is left. I’ll finish those tonight and sort them all, and start ironing this together tomorrow night. The next part is not quick and it’s a tight deadline.

One of the art meetings Saturday was at the Mingei…they have this cool mini-exhibit of aardvarks in the front.

I’d never really thought of the artistic possibilities of an aardvark, but now I am.

My quilt was sighted in one of the pictures from MOCA Connecticut…

Very cool.

I finished one book and started another.

Today after school is a school social event that I need to be part of, but…

I always wonder this. Pointlessly. I’m hoping to go to ceramics after that. We’ll see. Mondays are delightfully quiet at the studio. But I have book club tonight too, so time is an issue. I did finally finish my grades (there were so many issues with grades this time; crazy stuff). I’m pretty convinced I forgot to do something I was supposed to do this weekend…there were things I hoped to do that I didn’t get to, because everything always takes twice as much time as you think it will. And I didn’t factor in having to yell at the government again (although maybe that should be a weekly allowance of time, based on what we’re seeing). Sigh.

Here’s the most recent quilt, in case you haven’t seen it…

We Hold These Truths…that’s a body bag in the left bathtub. Way too real right now.

OK. Today. I teach. Something. Um. Digital vs analog. This week is a mess. Lots of talking today I think, unfortunately, and tomorrow. Then testing Wednesday, except for the kids on the walking trip; their test will be Thursday. Which means adjusting shit for that. And I’m talking Wednesday morning off for an art thing, so I need sub plans. My co-teacher is out (sick)…I thought I was coming down with something yesterday, but today, it seems to be gone? Knock on wood. So either I kicked it or it’s lurking. Fun stuff. Then an hour meeting about bullying and another hour or so of socializing (not my favorite), then hopefully clay and book club and cutting things out. And sleep, glorious sleep. I’m still so tired after this weekend. Did not recover from last week. Ah well…we soldier on. Hopeful.

Fantastic Fibers Again

Sigh. So Fantastic Fibers was always a great exhibit, or it was in the past. I entered it almost every year, and then last year, the juror was the crazy lady who banned me from a series of shows because someone said there was a penis in one of my quilts, and there wasn’t. So I emailed the Yeiser Art Center about that, understanding that the juror was set, and explained why I wasn’t entering, stating that the woman was not a good fit for art quilts. She was incredibly biased. Which I get that everyone has biases and I might enter a show and not know the juror’s hatred of the nude female body and I might not get in because of that. I’m never guaranteed an acceptance; trust me, I’m fully aware of that (been exhibiting my art, quilt and otherwise, since I was 16 years old). That said, don’t state you’re a “nationally acclaimed celebration of fiber art in its many forms. Established as an annual event, it has a rich history of highlighting innovative and traditional approaches to textile and fiber-based art” if you pick a juror like that.

Just to be clear, they never answered. They could have…we understand your concerns, we hear you, and this was our decision this year. We hope you enter again with future jurors. And maybe taken that to heart with the next juror.

Well, the next deadline for Fantastic Fibers is February 2, and everything I’ve seen shows TBD for the juror. I’m not entering until I know who the juror is. And when I say “I know who…”, I don’t really care who it is. I don’t know all the people chosen for these, and I don’t enter shows because I can guarantee I’ll get in…there are no guarantees. I do read their background though (and sometimes wonder about it). I just don’t trust the Yeiser any more. I would trust them if they had answered last year.

So y’all, I emailed again, asked if they had picked a juror yet. Guess what?! (my students would say, “Chicken butt” and they’d be right). No one answered.

So I don’t know what to do about that. I keep checking the website and the Cafe entry form, hoping it will change, but it hasn’t. I’m disappointed…maybe it’s just a matter of no one updating the Cafe form…but also, I appreciate art centers who support the artists, and sometimes that support includes answering emails. Torture, I know (I have to answer MY work emails within 24 hours of receiving them; I know some places are short-staffed, but this seems like an easy one). I did email a week ago…maybe the answer is still forthcoming.

Make More Tea…

Well I’m a bit tired. Not uncommon I know, but cat night shenanigans were at an extreme level last night (not mine; she was quietly asleep by my leg) and my sleep was stolen with a pillow over my head mostly. It’s always fun to go to school when you are already really trying to get your eyes to open and you’ve already had your shower. It’ll be fine. Really. It will. Grades are due, mine were done, until I realized the ending date had been set wrong (not by me…higher up), so the last stuff I put in is not counting. The district reset the date to January 14 now (it was December before), but no clue why, because the trimester closes on a Friday? Whatever. If you want your employees to stop giving a shit, keep doing random things that make their jobs more difficult. Seriously. I guess the kids will have the grades set as of December because I don’t have time to go back and redo everything, and it won’t even count the one grade I input for that week because it was due the 16th. Whatever. I do the best I can for the kids DESPITE the adults. It’s all I can do.

Still trimming tiny pieces. It gets hard to tell the days apart by looking at the bins, especially in the middle. Here’s Wednesday night…

And last night…

I got through a big chunk of the flesh pieces, so it looks like a lot. I don’t have a clue how far along I am; I just know I probably won’t get much done tonight. The Man has a show, and although he’ll be done early, the second band is friends of ours, so we’re probably staying. That said, we’re both exhausted and cranky from the cat crap, so maybe he’ll want to come home early (I’d be OK with that). This weekend is also a shit show of meetings, plus I’m trying to regrade the things kids did this week so the improved scores go on their progress reports, but realistically, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull that off.

Scribble wants to help…

You know, usually, she just sits next to me on the couch and sleeps when I work here, but lately, she wants to be asleep on my lap, which is cute but more complicated. Easier to just read with her there.

Apparently she was interested in the book, because the boychild sent me this yesterday.

Bowie is still isolated in a room, so she hasn’t had him to play with. I’m hoping he can come out soon too. We offered it last night, and he hid under the bed again, which is really unlike him. He is eating more and peeing, but has a hard time seeing water in the bowl…that has always been an issue. Anyway, not sure what is going on with him, but the Man has been sleeping in there with him and his other two cats were scratching at the door all night, which is why I had a pillow on my head. UGH.

I finished the last Sue Spargo Rooted block last night, finally.

This was a fun mini-block-of-the-month…

Now they just have to be trimmed, sewn together, and bordered. I think there’s more embroidery on the border, but not as much as on the last one. These are a nice size of block to travel and stitch on. They’re fun to do. I can’t really carry my art quilts with me when I travel, and these are more mindless for me, so easier. Not that I travel a lot, which is why it takes me forever to finish anything. I do have the next one all appliqued down and ready for stitching. I didn’t sign up for the mini one this year…I have a lot of these; I’m way behind, and sometimes they don’t appeal to me…like this year’s. The Christmas tree one my mom and I did together…that was nice because she got to do all the embroidery and keep it. I think I have three minis saved up. Plenty to work on. Hell, I always have plenty to work on.

OK. Today. Will be long. Luckily, no meetings today, just teaching digital and analog signals, and mostly, it’s the kids working independently. Halle-fucking-lujah. I’ve been ON for days. ON ON. ONONON. Singing too (frequency, highs and lows, and my voice is shot). Played guitar, explained cassette tapes and records and old phones and video recorders and cameras (actual FILM cameras) and CDs and Walkmans. It’s been a lot. So it’s good that today is more on them than me. We’re behind in planning, so I just finished Monday’s worksheet last night and copied it after school because one of the copiers is down. So I have worksheets for Monday and Tuesday…don’t need one Wednesday, and I have no clue what’s happening after Wednesday. Light, I think. So hopefully the copier gets fixed. My partner has dance performances coming up, so she’s trying to grade at school, and so I’m trying to do things on my own, and realizing my teacher brain needs someone to bounce stuff off of…which I knew, seriously, that year when she was out was hard, but I’m not sure this one is easier. Her kids are lower than mine; I have all the honors kids, so we do kind of plan alone…together…sometimes. And support the new guy. And then all the union crap. And walking field trip crap. And and and. It’s a lot. It always is. I haven’t gotten home before dark any night this week to paint the wall next to the deck so I can start putting plants back up against it. Hell, I haven’t been able to do anything with the deck since Monday. Ah well, we do make decisions as to what to do with our time. I will be at ceramics after school this afternoon before coming home in the dark and then heading downtown for the show. It’ll be fine. It’ll all be fine and eventually we will get more sleep than last night and everyone will stop being so cranky (cats included). Maybe. Until then, I’m gonna make more tea.

No Peace…

Hey. Weird week again. I don’t know what day it is. I think that starts in mid-December and continues until my first full week…which technically is next week. Maybe then I’ll feel less discombobulated. Or not. It’s not like this year has started out stable and balanced. I just had another art deadline moved up last night, by a month. I have nothing for that show at the moment, due to some subject restrictions. I might not enter. I might not be able to. I have a couple of ideas that could happen relatively quickly, but I need to finish this one first.

I’ll be trimming all week…here’s Monday’s progress…

And here’s what I had to deal with…

Every stage is new for her, so she has to explore it.

Which is sometimes problematic.

Last night’s progress started like this…

And eventually turned into this…

Which meant I could do this…

I see progress, but it’s slow. I was grading stuff last night and in an art zoom, on top of all of it, so trimming was only an hour. I also worked on this last night…

I’m going to add a bunch more colors around the spirals (or as spirals?). The black is like a base for it. Yes, this bowl already has 7 1/2 hours in it. Seriously unaffordable. I mean, I love working on it, so it’s OK, but seriously never making money at ceramics. It was nice to be there though, just glazing and carving. And I bought more clay for the next artsy piece, which has been in my head for a month now.

OK. Today. Teaching geese and canaries (sound waves). Bunch of kids will be in and out for high school meetings. Yesterday, there were probably 15 phone calls pulling kids in the last three periods of the day. While I’m trying to teach. Fucking irritating. They gave up on calling me at some point (I couldn’t hear the phone through the oscillators and piano keyboards) and sent a kid with a note. WAY BETTER Y’ALL. So many interruptions to the job. I finished my grades (mostly) last night, a week early, because the principals decided to change the dates and no one told the teachers. Fuckers. It’s fine. I can’t do them this weekend anyway. I have three art meetings. It was four, but I wasn’t going to that one anyway. Too far. Too much other stuff I need to do right now. I do have pilates after school though and then this is the one night this week when I don’t have something on Zoom or in person (thank goodness). So I will sit quietly, read my book (that goes back to the library on Saturday), consider Greenland as its own free country, send good strong independent thoughts to Minnesota, and hope for world peace. I’ve been watching Homeland lately and it’s really not the best for a sense of peace. I do realize it…but am also sort of OK with living in that discomfort at the moment. Because a huge chunk of our country is living in similar discomfort. Sigh. Why do we treat people like this? It’s all money and feeling safe and power, but there’s no empathy in it. And I can’t live in a world without empathy.

Drippy Icicle Lights…

I know, I know, it’s late. I had stuff to do this morning. I made wontons. I took a shower. Really that’s it. Oh, I talked to the girlchild. That was nice. So no, I didn’t blog this morning. Honestly, I love a 3-day weekend, but I’m not sure what the hell I do with the extra time. The bathrooms and floors still aren’t clean, I didn’t finish grading stuff, I didn’t finish inputting grades, I certainly didn’t finish putting everything back on the deck. My to-do list is still a shitshow. My green pants still aren’t wearable. This is crucial. I hope to fix this tonight. And the grades inputting. Maybe…no, I’m not doing a floor…c’mon, it’s almost 5 PM and I have a 6:30 Zoom? OK, maybe a floor or a shower. We’ll see.

Meanwhile. MLK. I watched a couple of excerpts of his speeches…man that man could talk…so beautifully. Made me tear up…especially in light of Minnesota…and Greenland…and Norway…and Venezuela…and another ICE killing. So did I do right by MLK today? Probably not. But I did talk to the plants I was moving about how the new pot would support them better than the old one. More about that later.

In the quilt realm, I did OK though. Friday night, I managed over 2 hours of ironing (I stayed up late).

I got the fleshy bits ironed down. Scribble was still not helpful.

She’s a sweetheart actually. After ironing the fleshy bits, here’s all the stuff that goes ON the fleshy bits…eyes and hearts and veins and lungs and trees.

OK, trees is weird, I know, but there was also ivy and a snake.

Saturday was my deck/ironing day (no school!), so I ironed for over 4 hours and got most of it done…all of it except the sun and the owl.

Sunday, it took another hour and a half to finish the ironing…156 different fabrics.

All in a bin…

So I can spend the next few days (few???) cutting all the pieces out. Usually that’s faster than picking fabrics…less brain power, less thinking. So now I’m hoping to be done with the cutting out by Saturday? That might be ambitious. The Man has a show Friday night that I’ll be at, and I have a meeting Saturday afternoon, and two meetings Sunday. But maybe if I hope to be ironing it all together by next week…because I need an ironed-together quilt top by February 15, but if I could get closer to done before that, it would be awesome. I will not be done by February 15, just to be clear, but I will definitely be ironed together by then. Total ironing to fabric time? 15 hours and 17 minutes. Longer than normal. Lots of little decisions to make.

I also did some underglazing on the bowl on Friday after school.

Clay is SLOW. I mean, I guess my version of quiltmaking is too. So there’s that.

I hiked Saturday afternoon…3 miles.

It was delightful.

The weather has been strangely warm. But nice. Spring is in the air…yes, it’s January, but it’s also Southern California, so the weeds are proliferating and the yard is a jungle and I could do yardwork every day for 8 hours and never catch up.

Speaking of yardwork, so the boychild and I replaced the deck railings, which were disintegrating. We replaced one of the railing posts too. So I had to move all the plants away from the railings. It’s been on my list for over a year to go through all the plants and repot things that were falling over or out of control, and to just generally clean up the space. But as I do that, I find more things to do. That space under the window…there used to be a planter that hung from the wall, and I don’t remember if we installed it or if it was here when we moved, and I don’t know why two of the slats are missing. I do know it all needs painting. So I pulled everything away and washed it down, and tomorrow, when it’s dry, I’m going to paint it.

Before I move the plants up against it. If I were really good, I’d replace those slats, but IDK what wood that is and it sounds more like hard work, considering the planter is going right up in front of it. So that’s a delay.

Here’s the long view toward that area…

All those planters were up against the railing before, but a lot of them need help. That plant in the front is leggy as hell. I’ve trimmed it before and it does well, so I’m going to do that again.

So basically, in two days. all I got done and set up was this small section of the deck…

Which is all the Man and the dog care about, so that’s fine. I’ll do the rest as I can. Or I’ll get tired of it and move it all back without cleaning it all up. We’ll see which Kathy wins out. I do like plants, but I run out of time.

This was funny…this is Instagram.

Almost 12 years, y’all…I didn’t know Insta had been around that long, but I guess it makes sense. They suggested I add a reel a week. A reel of what? Me talking to my plants? Scribble biting my hand? Yeah. Maybe.

Now for the screenshots that talked to me in the last three days…this one, for sure.

Although maybe I am a very hungry caterpillar. Hard to say.

W.T.F. I am boggled. Fuck the EPA.

Sigh. Why do people think this is OK? How do you live in this world and be OK with this? I guess it’s OK when it’s not you and your family being affected by it? Except they all are. Now we all are.

I could totally get behind this (I am actually part Danish)…

But this thing worries me…

I just looked up my insulin and it’s from Malaysia/India…which explains the emails when I had an issue with one of the pens. But I don’t wish death on the other insulin users, and I don’t want to worry about shortages for insulin users. Plus didn’t that orange fuckup tell us the meds would be 150% cheaper? Waiting on that too.

More people need to think about how this works…

Ecosystems include humans, even when we’re stupid and think science doesn’t matter.

I love this too…

I hope it goes away before it destroys the environment…although it may already be too late.

OK, well I go back to school tomorrow…teaching geese and canaries (sound waves and wave energy), then digital and analog signals. Spent some time with that today. Wrote a rubric that I remembered about at 2 AM. Thank you, school brain. Spent some time today finding a bunch of analog and digital things to show students (records, old video cameras, old cameras, cassette tapes in big wooden boxes). Fun times. Tonight, my local guild has a Zoom with Jane Sassaman, which sounds lovely. My book is due to the library Saturday and it’s for book club on Monday (a week from now). I’ll finish it; it’s good too. I have three Zooms this week (it’s a lot) and who-knows-what-else for school that hasn’t come to the light of day yet. Deep breaths. My neighbor above me still has their drippy icicle Christmas lights up and I’m not mad about it. It’s very relaxing to watch.