Thunderstorms and Nucleotides

I think I spent most of the night with a terrified Golden Retriever on my feet, hiding her head under a Justin Bieber blanket. Calli doesn’t like thunderstorms, and we had a big one last night, rattling the windows and shaking the house. Please don’t ask me why we have a Bieber blanket. I can’t explain it. There was lots of rain too, which is good, because we always need it. It did make it hard to grade efficiently though, and since my goal is to grade one full assignment a day until grades are turned in, I didn’t get much done while calming a giant dog who wanted to alternately climb into my lap and dig a hole under the couch. Or through it at times.

I did eventually make it in here, the studio, though. It was late and honestly maybe I should have gone to bed. I hate all those articles about how lack of sleep fucks you over every step of the way, but not sleeping is what gives me time to make my art, which makes me mentally a much more stable person. There needs to be an equation for that…some way to show that the balance is in the positive direction, even though it seems illogical. Of course, last night I was trying to figure out if it made more sense to make the God gene (the gene or string of genes that makes someone more likely to believe in a god or gods than us flaming atheists) the dominant trait or a mutation. And yes, I know the God gene is controversial and unproven, but it’s really hard to look around the world and see all the people for whom religion is such a significant part of how they live their lives and try to figure out what in their brains makes that a survival trait or something they need, when my brain is so opposite of that. There has to be a brain part that handles that, a brain part that’s created by a string of nucleotides, and there are variations in the string so you get a range of behaviors related to religion from crazy cultist (which might be a whole ‘nother string of nucleotides…and then there’s environmental factors) to an atheist like me who has never believed and never will, who just can’t see the sense in it at all.

I mean it all comes down to the nucleotides. And the environment in which they exist.

Anyway, you can see how my brain wallows in scientific shit on a regular basis, right? Luckily I know how to Google shit (unlike my students apparently) so I can read about theories and studies and crazy shit instead of sleeping, right? I know. Whatever. There was a lot of shit in the last two sentences.

So anyway, it’s going to take me days to get through all of these at this rate. Here’s the 2nd heart in hands (going backwards now)…

Pinned, ready for handsewing. It’s a dark dark blue, not black. It was actually hard to find something that worked well with this color, which is not a good sign, because half the quilts in there have that color background. Sigh. It’s always so hard to believe that I have all this fabric and still have a hard time picking matching stuff sometimes.

Eight more to go. Plus all the handsewing. I was stuck at school for hours yesterday with detention and tutorial, and two parents showed up, so impromptu parent meetings, and then I had to go to the school board meeting as a rep, because the district doesn’t want to pay us for our work…so today, I’m outta there as soon as I can be, I swear, although I have to get a blood test, pick up the fixed car, copy stuff, and I can’t even remember what else. All the stuff I didn’t do yesterday, right? If I can get more of today’s assignment graded at school, then maybe I can get more quilting done at home tonight. I can always hope. (I say that a lot.)

I think my nucleotides are scrambled.

Stop Making Art and Go to Bed…

Things might be getting under control. Knock on wood. Presumably there’s a dryer arriving soonish, within a matter of days. I have no idea when, though, which should be interesting, because I’m rarely home for deliveries of anything, let alone large appliances that need installation. The car is fixable and should be done today or tomorrow; meanwhile, the kids’ car is done and bouncing around with me in it (needs new shocks, so not bouncing well or happily). I might actually catch up with grading sometime soon, although then I will be promptly behind again, because that’s how it works. One of my coworkers is already done and I might need to kill her. I’m obviously doing it wrong. It rained last night, but I managed to get the dog walk in before it did…it was a nice walk; that monster hill no longer kicks my ass. School does, though, and it’s really because it seems like this year’s batch of kids doesn’t understand turning work in, and their parents don’t care. So some days are significantly frustrating, because work completion means you can’t just stare at a computer screen and wait for magic. You have to go DO it. It’s funny though. We used to have kids take notes from powerpoints and then maybe make or draw something or fill something out, but now we tell them they have to go create their own meaning. You figure it out. I’ve given you guidelines…now go do work. And they don’t. They beg for notetaking because they don’t have to think. All they have to do is copy from the board. So it’s torture for all of us. I haven’t given up yet though. It’s only first trimester.

I planned to finish grading one assignment last night, and it was so long and drawn out, the answers so tortured themselves that I felt like crawling under the couch to escape them. I finished though and then came in here to do whatever I was gonna do. Oh yeah, finish quilting the owl.

All I had to do was the background, so it didn’t take long.

The book on Pandas…it’s the right size for the student lists I use to record grades when I’m grading online. It’s in here because I was grading on the iPad in here on Saturday while I watched something (old Dr Who?) on the computer. I was tired of sitting on the couch. Needed a new vista. That’s when I heard the neighbors’ realtor tell someone they could trim my trees. Hence a flurry of emails. The fuck you can. My trees.

It wasn’t late enough then to go to bed, so I decided to try to at least cut out the binding. And then that turned into sewing it on and making a sleeve and pinning it all down.

All that’s left is the hand-sewing. Almost 1 down, 9 to go. Picking the bindings is difficult…I don’t always have enough of whatever fabrics I used in the quilt to bind it as well, so then I have to find something new. Plus they’re tiny little fuckers. I cut this one a little TOO tiny. So I’ll adjust for next time.

But now, I really need to write a study guide before I leave for school (ugh). I have a board meeting after work where the reps all show up in red and look angry that the school board disrespects our work so much that they can’t offer us more. It means being at work for over 10 hours. Not looking forward to it. I’m already tired. That’s my fault, of course, because I don’t know when to stop making art and go to bed.

Stop the Breaking…

I got in the car on Saturday after finishing that post, ready to run errands and buy a dryer. Ms. Efficient, totally handling everything…completely laughed off the repairman’s death sentence on my Maytag. Yeah. I guessed. Because you know. The universe. Whatever. My mantra for the year. What-the-fuck-ever.

I got in the car. And it wouldn’t start.

So I sat there for a minute, because it had done this twice before this week, but the kids’ car is already in the shop, so I don’t have a backup. I was waiting to see if it happened again (and fatally, because the car eventually started the last two times with some tinkering…and it’s not the battery, and my car guy hates it when I bring in the car for nonreproducible problems) and for the Honda to come back.

I tinkered like the last two times, trying my solution and my ex’s solution (it died in front of his house earlier this week). Nope. I call him, hoping he did something I don’t remember. I try it and it doesn’t start. And I guess that was the straw…the one with the camel, you know? I started crying. But my brain’s already a step ahead, trying to figure out the car situation at my parents’, realizing they must have a car there, and I need to go over there to get their Consumer Reports anyway, so I bum a ride over there, grab the book, steal my dad’s car (I did call first but they didn’t answer). Run my errands. Come home and buy a dryer online. Do a ton of grading work, input grades (which is why I have 20 panicked student emails this morning), and then go off to watch not-horror movies.

Mischief managed. Hey, I’m not saying I was calm and collected all day. I was pretty irritated at the universe. I cried quite boisterously for a while. Then yesterday I got the damn thing towed to the fixer guy and left it there. This morning I’ll drive over and give him the run down and the keys. I still have dad’s car. If he needs it, he can come steal it back. Maybe it’ll be something easy, instead of fatal error (that’s what the repair guy called my dryer issue).

I also got everything back in the closet with the hot-water heater, cleaning out years of junk in there. Then I cleaned the cupboards above the washer and dryer, making room for all the crap that’s been stored on the washer for way too long. Then I installed a plastic-bag holder and hooks for the dog’s swimming towels (this swimming habit of hers is killing me). Finally, because all the pantry stuff had been stored in the kids’ bathroom, I went in there and cleaned it. It’s freakin’ spotless (well, don’t look too closely at the tub…I was getting tired). Now I just need to put the studio back together with the same zeal.

I graded for a little bit more last night, until I was sick of it…and came in here and quilted the second heart…well, first I had to negotiate chair space with Kitten.

She allowed as I might have her claws in my butt. Then I quilted it…

And started the owl, before realizing that the clocks had in fact changed already and that was real time.

Dammit. So it’s outlined, but not quilted yet. Tonight. And then I can start trimming and binding…not my favorite part, but the almost-done part. So far, the simplest one has taken 27 minutes to quilt and the most complicated one has taken 61 minutes.

Then before I went to bed, I found all the drawings I’d enlarged so far. There was one I’d forgotten about, so I think it’s next. Maybe. I’m still debating. There’s the one the owl above comes from, but it really needs more on the bottom. I guess I could enlarge it and then decide. Because last night, I thought the decision was made, and this morning, that other drawing is still talking to me. Guess I should listen.

Got a busy day. Hopefully nothing else breaks or stops working or gives up on me completely.