Moods Are Weird

Moods are weird. They hide in the shadows. They swoop down without warning, clipping your ear. They surface in the middle of something where they don’t below. Ask me enough questions about what it’s like to live alone with my kids at college, and eventually the mood attacks. Plus I’m tired of working too many hours…although it’s not likely to change for a long time.

I did blow off work last night. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was significantly frustrated by some of my classes yesterday. Field trips always bring out the bitchy-girl attitude and whiny little boys. I’m not in the mood for either. So when I went to my stitching meeting, I chose art.

I actually shoved 8 of these tubs into a bag and grabbed a coupla pairs of scissors, and I sat there and cut stuff out.

Which was probably the smartest thing to do. I was interrupted by girlchild walking home from work (which I told her not to do, but you know how that goes) and mom calling with news that my great-uncle had died. He encouraged me to be an artist, but I haven’t seen him in a while, almost two years. Every time I saw him, I assumed he’d be dead by the next time (horrible thought, eh? But he didn’t look well), so it wasn’t a surprise. It’s sad, yes. But he’d been in the hospital for months and I didn’t even know that. I’m outside the loop.

I got three bins done at the meeting. Then I shopped a bit, because we do meet in a Barnes and Noble. We’re all readers, so it’s probably a dangerous place to meet, but whatever. It makes me happy.

Then I came home and sat on the couch and tried to motivate myself to do anything at all. I had a couple of conversations yesterday about needing a vacation. You know, the kind where you go somewhere and sleep a lot and maybe do some stuff and sleep some more and eat, but you don’t have any errands or work or anything like that. I don’t ever do that. Can’t afford that anyway. Don’t have time for it right now. But now I’m dreaming of it.

I couldn’t finish all the bins though. Too tired. And the movie I was watching was unexpectedly sad. Or was it? I don’t actually think it was. I think I was unexpectedly sad. Or emotional. Or all of the above.

If you’re trying to figure out what I’m doing, last year I made about 15 small bird quilts and sold them. They’re quick and relatively cheap, and people seemed to like them. So I decided to do cats this year and meant to do it over the summer, but life intervened, so I’m doing them now. And there’s only 6 cats (and one is significantly weird), and then there’s an owl and two versions of the heart in hands that I did for a cancer donation earlier this year. I’m hoping to have all 9 done by the end of this month.

Ann Scott asked me some questions about art and quilts; she asked other artists too. You can see their answers here on her blog.

Julie gave me these, in honor of my educating children about zombies…

I can’t decide where to put the stickers. They are just too awesome. So that was a cool thing. Ending on that note. Going to the zoo today. Can’t think beyond that.