Intense Heat…

It is October, right? Usually it cools down by now, but no. We were the third hottest place in the world on Saturday, I think. It’s supposed to be hotter today? No climate warming though. This is not a sign of the end of the world…at all. Scientists didn’t predict all this crazy weather. It’s just random. Cough. Cough. Yeah right.

I did actually manage to iron in the heat. The studio was 95 degrees last night…went down to 90 at some point. But here was Friday night’s ironing…

Hanging over the edge…and a top view.

Saturday, I managed some ironing during the day…

Almost hitting the floor…and a top view…

Last night, I ironed the rest of that hand and a few floating things, and then realized the background I’d picked from my stash a month ago wasn’t big enough (whoops), so went through the stash again and found one that’s big enough that will hopefully work. We’ll see how that goes tonight. I forgot to photograph anything yesterday. It was hot. I was tired. I was trying to get the background worked out. I just need to piece it and I can iron things together. Start stitchdown. Of course, this week is a crazy shitshow so I don’t know how I will get things done, but I will. It stays hot through Thursday, although the worst of it appears to be today and tomorrow.

Saturday night, we went to an opening with my work in it, at the Covet Art Gallery in Oceanside. They published this photo before…which is good, because there were too many people to get a photo like this on Saturday.

We managed this…

And I took this one from outside as we left…

It had kind of cleared out by then. They had a nice big outside area in back where many people were hanging out. Good DJ. Funky lighted clothing. I think I want clothing with LEDs in them. Not a lot. Just a few.

This poor little ceramic piece caught my eye. It’s by Elizabeth Marshall.

People who leave their cups everywhere at art shows drive me bonkers. There are trash cans, y’all. Be a useful human.

I also liked this piece…by Cathy Carey.

There were a lot of pieces in a very small space.

Other things we saw in Oceanside included this comfortable skelly…

This beautiful palmed sky…

And dinner…

The Man said I was drawing a squashed fairy. Maybe I was. It was hot at the beach too. No relief there.

The animals are definitely looking for cool spaces…

Tile is nice.

Luna is just a weirdo.

Simba kept coming close to me…

Like, don’t touch me, you furry beast. Soon after this, I dunked him in the pool to cool him off. Seemed to help. But then I saw this guy…

These guys are ground squirrels…I wonder if it’s not cooler underground? Or if he got kicked out by his mom for being annoying. He was there for a while. Catching the breeze. The nonexistent breeze. Yeah, I enjoyed Home Depot on Saturday because it was air conditioned. So was pilates. I went in the pool with the dog. Briefly. I had too much work to do. I got a healthy chunk of it done, but it just multiplies. My car has oil, though the light is still on (fuck. Need to go back and make them fix that), I passed the smog check, I got my blood tested and my A1C is down to prediabetic levels (woohoo!), I went to the chiropractor, got stuff for the project this week, and managed to get most of the sprinklers working, for some definition of working. I’ve been watering things in the dark. It works.

This crap.

The vengeful part of me wants each of them to experience rape and then still say this, but I’m not an evil person (don’t talk to my students about that). And men can’t get pregnant, because that’s the second part of this. The Cornell 7 doesn’t make me feel better about the male half of the population…and the vast numbers of people and part of the government that protects them. We need politicians to pass a test on the main subjects we teach in school. Don’t pass? Can’t govern. You don’t have the brains for it. Jodie in Texas…honey, your state is one of the worst for helping women with reproductive health. Shut up.

Anyway. Sigh. Full week this week…full of a project that might test my sanity. But also might give me time to grade. It better, because I’m behind and I can’t bring it home with me. Too many other things going on. I have something after school every day this week. But today, they get minimal materials and they will test out the shapes. We’ll see how that goes. Then a two-hour staff meeting on something we already do. Fun times. I might make it to ceramics; we’ll see. It’s not air-conditioned usually. Then home to water things and iron things. Might have to do some union stuff in there too. Vote y’all. Vote well. And may the heat fuck off too. With the rapey people. They deserve some more intense heat.

Not a Fan. Using Fans.

Hello Friday…a Friday off from work…well, notionally. I will still be working, but around the 70 million errands I need to do this weekend. Right now, I’m downing a ton of water so when they take my fasting blood tests, I won’t get poked 17 times while they try to find a vein. I’m hopeful anyway. So yeah, I haven’t eaten, no caffeine yet. I’m leaving soon (not sure I will finish this before I leave). Also delivering two quilts to a local show, then I need an oil change AND a smog check, plus I have chiropractor, and I need to grade a bunch of tests. And other stuff. Plus it’s supposed to be 105 degrees here, staying hot until next weekend. Not a fan. I will be using lots of fans. Right now, it’s not bad…it’s still in the 70s in this room. That will not last unfortunately.

I started ironing (the best thing in the world to do when it’s hot) a few nights ago. Here was Wednesday’s progress…

Mostly I worked on that mushroom circle…

It was easier to iron it separately and then put it on top of the background fabrics.

Last night’s progress…

I spent two hours ironing things last night. I’m missing one mushroom piece, but it’ll probably show up. I had to cut another missing one because I couldn’t iron down without it. I’m in the 200s at the moment…really hoping to finish it all this weekend, but the oppressive heat might work against me. There’s no air movement at all at the moment. I can have a fan, but only below the ironing board level, and it’s basically just moving hot air around. So I’ll probably mostly iron at night.

I went to ceramics on Tuesday and was trying to clear the newspaper off the base of my piece, and I broke the arm. FUCK. I had done really well, with zero breakage. So frustrating. So I tried to patch it but I don’t think it will hold. I can fix it in the bisque stage, but trying to get it into the kiln without damaging it more will be a challenge. Clay can be such a pain. So I’m avoiding going in because of that, probably. Also, it’ll be really hot there. There’s A/C but it is a challenge to cool a room that big.

I met my parents’ new dog last night, Frida. She seems sweet.

Mom looks tired in that photo. Frida was just spayed; she’s 5 years old and looks bigger in that photo than she really is. She came up and got pets and scritches and licked my leg. So we’re good.

Anyway. So I have lots of stuff to do, most of it not relaxing or chill. There will be no chill for the next week. It’ll just be hot and sweaty. But hopefully ironing will happen around the hot and sweaty. Do I appreciate the random day off? Well, notionally…because yesterday with kids after a morning assembly was more than I really wanted to deal with, and I have a ton of work to get caught up on, but it’s a silly time for a day off. Hopefully I can at least check off a bunch of things on the to-do list (I forgot Home Depot for lab supplies). That would be a plus.

Slower and Sweatier

I was looking forward to this weekend. It’s three days for us (random school board decision), and I knew I’d have a ton of grading and other stuff to do (car needs oil change AND smog), but with three days, I had a chance of getting a lot done AND having time to relax and make art (those are two separate things by the way). But now it’s supposed to be hot as hell and I don’t have A/C and it sounds like ugh. Plus I’m at the ironing stage of this quilt, so doing hot things during hot weather is honestly not particularly fun. Quilts are hot. Hot on your lap. Irons are hot. They put off heat. I can’t have a fan pointed at my head because all the tiny pieces will fly off. So it’s even hotter. Three-day weekend doesn’t sound so lovely any more. Oh well. I’m still going to have to do the things; I’ll just be much slower and sweatier about it.

So I started to sort on Monday night…

Scribble kept trying to stand in the boxes. I spent an hour plus before this packing two quilts to be shipped, so I didn’t have a full hour to sort. At 11 PM, I remembered I had to be up early for a parent meeting, so I stopped…

And finished last night…

It never looks like much here. Just tiny pieces. I started ironing last night, but I didn’t get far.

I also entered a show. And laid out the first 100 pieces, most of which are much smaller than this. I’m not sure I’ll be finishing this piece in time for the deadline. I’d like to, but there’s a lot left to do and the day job is a time suck. All my grading time at school gets sucked up by other things. I have a kid who will be out for an unknown amount of time and we’re doing a hands-on group project. The curriculum has nothing relevant she can do, so I’m not sure what to give her. I will have to spend my prep period figuring that out. For one kid. Of 140+. It’s frustrating.

So interesting question…why do so many words associated with extreme heat start with the letter ‘s’? I don’t think I would have noticed if my weather app wasn’t overusing them.

And the next day…

Does sizzling feel different than scorching? I mean, I’m sure it does…dropping below 100 degrees after 104 (now going to be 106) will be noticeable. Sizzling has a sound factor that scorching does not. They both have smells associated with them. Yes, overthinking the weather. It’s not fall. It’s hell. I think I’ll take a break every 30 minutes and step into the pool? Maybe? Dripping chlorinated water and ironing might be a bad combo.

A German woman contacted me about writing an article for an online German textile publication. Here’s the article. I have another interview to do for one in Los Angeles. It’s been a heavy art BUSINESS couple of weeks: deliveries, pickups, packing, shipping (expensive!), writing stuff, etc. I have one more blogpost I need to do for another art group, but haven’t been able to find the time. Oh wait, I think there’s two I need to do. Ugh. Add that to the list.

Today though. Today is Wednesday and it is still a reasonable temperature. Hell starts tomorrow or Friday I think. I swear, every time I look at the app, the predicted temperatures have gone up. Now Saturday is 109. So today and tomorrow are still bearable. Good to know. I have to meet with a teacher this morning about a union issue; I need to talk to another teacher too, but IDK when that will happen. I’m finishing up a simulation today and then trying to reteach how to write the reasoning part of a CER. Double ugh. Then pilates and a Zoom meeting. The Man took over cooking tonight, which is a good plan. Apparently he doesn’t like eating at 8:30 PM (IDK why…I’m totally OK with it). Somehow I need to grade stuff in there, plus fix a sprinkler that looks beyond my capabilities, and iron some more. Same old.

Probably Not Enough Times…

Well that was a busy weekend. I’m still tired from it. I may have been semi-productive around all the things I had to do. I dropped a quilt at a gallery for a show that opens Saturday. I went to another exhibition closing reception and then pulled all 6 of my quilts down and packed them into the car to drive home. I was there for the artist panel, which I enjoyed, but I did work through it.

Writing and sending our team’s weekly email. And then grading warmups and test corrections. I was supposed to be on a Zoom from 3-4 and totally forgot. It’s fine. Hopefully they recorded it.

It was a nice panel. I’m always up for listening to fellow feminist artists.

I cut stuff out Friday night…that’s the moon. Ironically, after the shitshow of a day I had on Friday, I found out the full moon was Saturday.

Everything makes sense now.

Saturday night, after the Man’s dad’s birthday dinner (and 3 hours of canvassing for the local school board and another 3 hours of grading).

And then last night, I stayed up late to finish.

Almost 11 1/2 hours. Ready to iron together? Well, no…it’ll take an hour to sort all the pieces into 100s for easier ironing. So that’s tonight. Am I behind my schedule? Well, yes, I usually am. Can I catch up? We’ll see. I’m buried in grading; hence the grading at an art event and every afternoon/night this weekend. Never stops. But I’m closer.

Friday night, Bowie needed to be close.

And then, so did Simba. Well, he always needs to be close.

It’s hot again here, although we got a tiny bit of rain last night…leftovers from one of the hurricanes off the coast. There’s like four of them rotating around out there, throwing shit our way, but mostly hot and muggy shit instead of decent rain.

The Man’s dad turned 89 this month, so there was a dinner for him.

Not actually in Venice unfortunately.

This is too true.

I’d like to thank my brain for all the overthinking I do when I’m trying to fall asleep. I have a couple of potentially stressful conversations that need to happen today with other adults at school. One I think will be OK. The other one is defensive as shit and there’s no way it will go well. So that’s fun. Imma try anyway because I’m a mature adult who knows she has to work well with other people. Crazy, huh?

Otherwise, there’s like two hours of staff meetings, plus reviewing PE/KE for the roller coaster project, plus grading ten tons of stuff and buying a bunch of other stuff and trying to fix the sprinklers AGAIN and packing quilts to be shipped and/or delivered. Pro: got into four shows. Con: all the packup, dropoff, and pickup. Then grading and cooking and book club (timed dinnermaking wrong, didn’t I?) and then sorting fabric. Probably more grading. Did I mention grading? Yeah. Probably not enough times.

Be an Adult

Hello Friday…before weekend of chaos. Seriously, this weekend is a shitshow. Already looking forward to next weekend. Today, kids will need to finish a unit packet and turn it in, and then actually be mature enough to evaluate their own work and progress and complete missing work. It’s babysitting hell. But I brought it on myself. I can monitor and bug the shit out of them with our monitoring app, or I can ignore that they’re all on games and Instagram and get some work done. It’s exhausting either way. Like sir, your progress report is available to your parents today and you don’t want to do anything about your F in effort? Interesting.

Meanwhile, I did test corrections at lunch yesterday and 48 kids signed up. I had every chair in the classroom full. Only 40 showed up, luckily. And now I have to grade those. That’s 2 hours probably. On top of this week’s tests, which I barely started, and the packets they’re turning in today. I couldn’t deal with any of it last night. I graded two classes of homework after my stitching Zoom. I finished my book (it was at 83%). And I cut things out for two hours. I should be able to do that.

Anyway. Here’s Wednesday night’s trimming…

I forgot to take the official setup photo last night. I even set it up but then took a photo of the dog instead. Here’s last night’s progress (taken this morning).

Starting to see progress there. Left side is done; right side isn’t. I wanted to be done this weekend. I don’t think that’s possible. Here’s the dog picture though.

The boychild is gone a lot in the next three weeks…so Simba is sad. Or he’s an old man and this was after 10:30 PM and he wants to go to bed. Me too, Simba. Me too. Oh wait, it’s morning. I can’t do that for another 15+ hours.

I’ve been going to the chiropractor, trying to get the neck and shoulders to behave. Definitely much better, but it takes up my ceramics time. So I didn’t get there all week. Pro: neck is better. Not best, just better. It’s getting warm again here. It’s not fall yet until sometime in October. Still 90 degrees plus. On top of that, we’re getting the tail end of a few hurricanes, so the humidity gets bad, and that’s worse than the temperature honestly.

Anyway. Today at work was summarized above. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’ll try to be as efficient as possible. Then chiropractor and hopefully pharmacy pickup (they’re so annoying about notifying when there’s a delay in processing…I don’t want to drive up there if it’s not ready). Then grading and housework and cooking dinner and grading some more and then cutting stuff out. Tomorrow isn’t as chaotic as Sunday, but they’re both pretty bad. My fault for getting into shows and having to take them down and having to canvass for work and all that crap.

OK, be an adult. Do adult things.

Not That…

I feel like it must be later in the week than Wednesday. I was ON all day yesterday, teaching writing and graphing. Mostly OK, but like pulling teeth in a couple classes. Certainly lets you know which classes are lacking in some skills. Good thing to know. Since the standard we’re learning about requires graphing knowledge. At least knowing which line is going up faster…or whether it’s going up or straight. Sometimes I think old people thoughts like, “Back in the day, we could actually get them to do math in science.” Not so much now.

In between the 17 meetings (school and art) and trying to get my yard under control, I have been cutting things out. But first, I sorted the fabrics I used by color…168 fabrics in this quilt.

Heavy on the earth tones. Here’s Monday night…

It never looks like much…that’s more than an hour’s worth of trimming.

Last night, I cut these two crazy mushrooms…

Very satisfying to finish. Kind of crazy to contemplate.

I stayed up too late to do another hour. I had two Zoom art meetings last night and I graded through both of them…I thought about cutting stuff out, but getting the assignments done was more pressing. I just finished the last test/packet grading cycle and another one started. We did the test Monday and the packet is due Friday. Ugh.

I have a piece that was at the Rancho Penasquitos library, traveling, currently at the La Jolla library, that will go to University City library next month. These are photos from Rancho P.

It’s the quilty one in the bottom right.

I think this is the 3rd library?

Some San Diego library patrons have been trying to ban books by checking out the ones they think are problematic and then not returning them. Dick move. This exhibit is about banned books, so it’s important that it travels.

Today I’m teaching conservation of energy…another concept that might be complicated. Certainly it’s another day where I am ON ON ON all day. Then pilates after school, figure out where I put all the greenery trashcans and put them out, maybe fill some more, cook dinner, and then I get to cut things out. Hopefully. Long day. Parents are finally on their way home, so I made the last mail trip for them. Nice to have that off my plate. Looking forward to the trimming part at least. And reading my book. It’s a good one. Not written by AI. I read enough of that all day long. One art meeting last night kept talking about what they were using AI for, and I’m like, nope. Not doing that. Not encouraging that. Not destroying the planet for THAT.

Openings & Closings: Come See My Art

There’s a bunch of these coming up locally, so I’m putting them all here.

The Feminist Image Group show Master Glitch is closing this Sunday at the Techne Art Center in Oceanside. There will be an artist panel from 2-3 PM. The closing reception is from 1-4 PM; this is your last chance to see this exhibit.

I have 6 pieces, mostly big ones, in this exhibit. I will be there at some point, probably later.

Then Saturday, October 3, from 5-9 PM, I have one piece in an Oceanside Art Museum Artist Alliance exhibit, In Flux, at the Covet Art Gallery.

The exhibit will be up for most of October if you can’t make it on October 3. I will be there at some point, probably earlier in that time frame.

The last one is a California Fibers’ exhibit, Tactile Thinking, at Hyde Gallery at Grossmont College. The opening is Tuesday, October 27, from 4-6 PM.

I will have two pieces in this exhibit. I will be at the opening.

That’s what’s local for the next month…

Participating in Art…

Rough weekend. Not as bad as next weekend. I think of a good weekend as some relaxation time with a book or some art, and a hike in the late afternoon (haven’t done that since I got back from Oregon…mostly due to heat, but lately due to life). Lots of time to wander the house, maybe water some stuff, clean up a little. Just not a lot of pressure to get things done. No deadlines looming. This was not one of those. Grades are due Tuesday (I finished those). It sucks to spend most of a weekend day on that. And that’s what happened. There’s no way to get all the planning, copying, designing, and grading done during the real work day. Or even in an hour after the kids leave. It’s frustrating. September is always a hard adjustment. We’re getting near the end of it though…so maybe I’ll adjust better in October. Ha!

My art goals this weekend included washing a few more dye paintings out and finishing the ironing to fabrics on the current quilt. I did achieve both of those things. I ironed Friday night…

This thing took forever, mostly because each little clump of mushrooms needed a new color range.

I ironed for a little bit on Saturday afternoon, after finishing grading the assignments I needed for the progress report.

The Man had a show Saturday night until midnight, so I knew I wouldn’t get time after that. And then last night, I stayed up a little late to finish all the ironing.

Almost 16 hours to iron 800+ pieces. Insane. Also, I need to organize the fabrics in color order. There’s lots of brown. Because mushrooms. Anyway, I’ll be cutting things out starting tonight. Hoping to be done by the weekend, but that may not be realistic. I do have 70 thousand Zooms this week I can trim through (slight exaggeration). This one has a deadline.

I also managed to wash out two dye paintings. No photo of that. I have two more to do and then another one that needs more dye painting. Not sure when that will happen. I have a Friday off next week (random 3-day weekend, thank you, school board). Maybe then.

Some book club friends of mine drove up to Oceanside to see the FIG exhibit there with 6 of my pieces in it. They sent me a photo…

I was in the middle of grading and it was so nice to see that. It’s one thing to tell people you make art, and another to have them just show up to see it. It was cool. By the way, the closing exhibition is this Sunday from 1-4. I’ll be there for the last bit, mostly to take stuff down.

The Man’s show Saturday night was interesting. I enjoyed the show…the venue was weird about glass on the dance floor, but they ran out of tables/seats and the bar was serving in glass?

The Man had hurt his back on the way over…but he powered through.

They do fewer shows now, so I try to go when I can. I was pretty tired though. Not so tired that I didn’t dance a bit. A lot. Maybe.

Scribble tore up a cat toy and then fell asleep on the innards.

She’s a cute baby.

I wish this were true…but it’s not.

AI is staying. It’s annoying except when it’s helpful. Like what is up with Muse wanting to help me. I don’t even know how to turn that off. I just keep Xing the box. I read a thread about AI and art and someone was saying that if we didn’t let them use AI, then they weren’t allowed to participate in making art. Um. Sigh. So many things wrong with that. Also, I could stop putting my images online, but the whole purpose of social media is to share, and I want to share my art…I just don’t want AI (or anyone really) using it to copy or make their own art. I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand. It’s not the same as a human brain processing images it’s seen and interpreted with its life and background and turned into its own art. It’s just pulling bits and pieces and putting them together. There’s no life experience in that. And it shows.

Anyway. No AI here y’all. Shockingly. Work today though. Giving a test. Didn’t really tell them it was today. I’m OK with that though. Then a staff meeting and chiropractor. Trying to get my neck/shoulders to behave. Then hopefully cutting some stuff out. Probably need to do yardwork first…I did some of that yesterday. It finally cooled down enough and I had time during daylight (well, almost…I was stomping around in the dusky bits trying to figure sprinklers out. Was not successful). So more of that this week. Also have a fence falling down I need to deal with. I’m not sure HOW to deal with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Dreams

Y’all, the day after Back-to-School Night is always the worst. I feel like I’ve already done a whole week. Usually I’m smart and plan independent work, a low-key day, but no…we’re doing a lab. Ugh. Bad plan. So yeah. At least I’m getting better from the weird virus I had…never really manifested as a cold…just sat around and made me feel like shit for four days. And grades are due, so I’ve been trying to get through all of that and plan for next week and copy stuff for next week and go to a million meetings…I have another one this morning. Most of the issues we’re having are either learning issues that should have been dealt with by 8th grade, but teachers dropped the ball (which is so annoying) or parenting issues…please don’t let your kids do whatever they want. We’re in the middle of some particularly exhausting parental bullshit. Fun times.

So I make art all through that, because it is my sanity. On Wednesday, I started sorting fabrics for the next figure. I did iron some stuff too, but not much because I was washing out a dye painting as well. Here’s the washout, but it still needs a couple more washes…

Another one of my summer pieces that needed more washing. There’s still more.

Here’s the beginning of laying out the second figure.

I didn’t finish on Wednesday. Thursday, I got home close to 7 PM after staying all day and working. So I didn’t work at home. I had a book that was getting sucked back to the library that I needed to finish for book club (it’s 11 weeks before I can get it again), so I was trying to finish that and gave up and went and ironed for almost two hours…

I ironed all of the fleshy bits for the second figure, which rolled into a brownish-green color, but I still have all the things in and around, like the heart and the eyeball and about a million fungal things with mycelial things.

All that stuff. And another bin full of stuff. There’s a tree in there too. So I still have no clue how many I’ve ironed and how many there are to go, which is how I predict how much time is left. It’s frustrating, but it’s my fault for numbering the way I did. I pulled from the 400s to the 700s for the 2nd figure, but not ALL those pieces. So I’ll be working my way through these tonight. I’m getting close, but I’m not there yet. And the weekend is a shitshow, as always. It must be September.

Rustic Sphinx moth last night.

The cats were fascinated. It was apparently throwing itself against the screen. The Man sent photos of all four cats enthralled. Cool moth though.

OK. Lab today. Meeting this morning. Kamikaze out to a new chiropractor after school. The neck is truly a mess. I need a new pillow and don’t know what to get. Hoping they have suggestions. Plus relief. Of some sort. Grading. Figuring out dinner. Ironing. Tomorrow, a lot of the same, although the Man has a show. So hopefully I’ll get plenty of rest tonight (ha!) for that. More than getting up at 6 AM anyway. Hopefully I’ll be efficient at school today and get through some of the grading while the kids follow instructions I explained yesterday. Hopefully no fights about vaping in the bathroom (not me). The right eye is twitching. Early in the year for that. It’s fine. I have art to make, shows to enter, residencies to enter. That’s where my brain is right now. And the stuff at school doesn’t make those dreams go away.

The Alternative

Being sick sucks; being sick as a teacher sucks even more. The job is physically and mentally challenging on a good day; trying to do it when you’re feeling shaky is harder, but the alternative is writing sub plans, assuming your classroom will be a disaster and no one will get anything done, and betting on the fact that you’ll feel better tomorrow…like is THIS the worst day of this illness? Or will that be tomorrow. And it won’t matter tomorrow because it’s a lab day (not leaving that with a sub) AND back-to-school night and one teacher on your team is already going to be missing. Plus you don’t really know how you’re going to feel until you get up in the morning, and then it’s too late usually to get a sub so a bunch of random teachers will have to be in your classroom. So yeah. That’s where I’m at. Today is NOT independent work mostly. There’s a bunch of talking and excitement I’m supposed to be pushing out (with what energy?) and then lots of walking around and encouraging. Meanwhile, the honors kids are trying to work ahead on everything, because it’s how they roll. They don’t know how to just let something sit. And wait. I understand that. I want the blank papers done too y’all.

I’m still ironing…so very slowly.

Not sure why it’s so slow.

Last night’s…

I just laid out the 400s. Some of them were already ironed to flesh bits, but mostly not. I might be halfway; I might not. It’s impossible to say. I feel like I’ve done a lot and question why I am not done yet.

I washed out the dye painting that needed repainting…

Doing some crazy stuff with distilled water in the laundry room, because I think my really hard water bleaches some f the dye out.

After drying…much better.

So yeah, the dyes I mixed at the end of July are still working.

I also washed out one of the glue resist pieces…

It needed more glue removal. I think it’s good now. They’ll both go through a regular machine wash at some point.

And then I finally made it to ceramics.

I’m done underglazing. Just need to figure out when it can go in the kiln.

I have a neck that fits in that hole sitting in my damp box, ready for me to build a head. And maybe a bird. That was the original plan anyway. We’ll see how that flies. It’s nice to have progress at least.

This AI conversation…interestingly, I heard one pundit talking about how we needed to stop separating AI from the techies who built it/own it. To hold them responsible.

They designed this system to make them money, and in doing so, endangered the future of billions of humans. And the big dumb guy says all we need to control it is a smart president. Oh well.

I’m sick. Definitely worse than yesterday. Hoping the meds kick in. I’m supposed to have pilates after school and it’s too late to cancel without a penalty. I’m watching a squirrel yell at something in the neighbor’s yard. I need to be better tomorrow. Doing a lab while sick is hard. Labs are hard anyway. It’s not even set up. I need to go in this morning and try to get through that. I started yesterday and it got too complicated. I really just want to go back to bed. Too late for that. Time to bully through. Ugh. And grades are due next week, so I just grade nonstop at the moment. Also not fun. Hope it gets better…the cold at least.