So it’s been a little over a month since the imaginary penis surfaced, and the blog has finally calmed down; the emails have reduced to a manageable amount. Ironically, AQS QuiltWeek Chattanooga opens tomorrow and my quilts won’t be there. They are currently hanging at Spool Quilt Store in Chattanooga, which is awesome. It did suck when I got the Friday SAQA email to see the line that said the People and Portraits quilts would be there…oh well. In response, I entered another show last night. So there.
Meanwhile, in AwesomeSauce news, I finished stitching the newest piece down last night…
Straight up, though…I did not come home and start sewing. I was exhausted when I got home. Taught and then had a 2-hour staff meeting. All I can say about those is hey! I get a lot of grading done. Anyway, I laid around on the couch like a potato for at least an hour before I was functional. The cold is improving, which is good, but it was still a long day.
I took a break to eat dinner and came back to Kitten inhabiting my chair again. For some reason, she won’t sit in the other one any more.
See that look? She’s not pleased with my taking the chair. She even tried to sit behind me, which really doesn’t work on this one…it slopes at the front, so I fall off if I try to share it with her.
I stitched for a while and then entered the art show and then stitched again.
This was where I realized I only had the head in the clouds left and it was still a relatively reasonable hour (OK, it was after 11 PM).
So 5 hours and 44 minutes in and I was done. And I found an appropriate piece of batting, so I (knock on wood) should be pinbasting tonight. I say knock on wood because it is Back-to-School night tonight. I’m at school until 6 PM and it’s high energy. Usually, on a good year, I’m dead tired afterwards. Being sick going into it is a little worrisome, but perhaps I will just sit on the couch for another hour or so when I get home before getting up to be the good little (crazy) artist.
I saw The Oatmeal’s comic yesterday about How to Be Unhappy…and it really resonated. I don’t walk around naturally happy. I am content or pleased or satisfied or sometimes ecstatic or passionate or involved or whatever. But I’m not unhappy all the time. I’m challenging shit all the time, my own, other people’s (especially people who don’t signal or toss their cigarettes on the road, let me tell you), society’s, governments’, whatever. When I was in high school, there was some movement to Question Authority. Yeah. I have that gene. I don’t know why. But I can’t just sit still. Or not think about how to change things for the better. Well, except when I’m quilting, and even then, my brain is going 700 miles per minute. It’s not HAPPY per se at that moment. It’s DOING STUFF. And there are times when I look at other people’s existences and wish I had more of that, whatever THAT is, but I think in general I’m OK with where I’m at. There are things I want to change, but that’s normal for me. And I think it’s OK. And it’s even more OK when I’m making stuff. Which is why I do it so much.
*Corinne Bailey Rae, Put Your Records On
Kathy Nida 
We had a discussion about your problem with AQS in our crit group Sunday. We are involved with AQM where your quilt was the first thing most people saw and gravitated too. We also had a piece called What Up which featured a really big dick. No problem. It must depend on the area of the country, Oberlin is very liberal.
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IMHO, happiness is a commodified western notion that doesn’t really exist. Pursuing it or worrying about it gives our brain something to do when it’s not otherwise occupied. I appreciate your willingness / ability to question authority. We should all do more of it.
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