So I’m trying to add the meditation back into my daily practice (I really need 2 or 3 more hours of awake time a day, and that’s problematic). I’m not sure it’s helping yet. Certainly my brain hasn’t seemed to shut the fuck up around bedtime since I’ve started…and yes, that’s WHY I started. Maybe it’s like anti-depressants…it takes two weeks to start working. Anyway, I’m paying for the not-sleep right now. Should be a good day. I’m setting fires all day in class. Actual fires. No biggie. I don’t need to be alert for that. It’ll be fine. (Fills jug with water for counter next to fire implements.) Should remember hair tie.
Things I have in my head from school: too much grading that is not done and time-consuming, one kid acting out and constantly angry and disruptive with no obvious solution, another kid very needy but trying mostly with lots of hand-holding when I have time which is not every day, about 5 kids who need parent-meeting follow-up but I haven’t found the time, one kid who needs all the text blown up to 18 pt or larger and shortened assignments, all the things I’ve probably forgotten that I’m supposed to do. Oh yeah, and the kid who hasn’t come back yet. Sigh. So there’s that.
Here’s a message from one of those kids though.
So you wonder how we stay in teaching. We aren’t saints. It’s this crazy shit.
After work, I kamikazed to some office park in the rain, with a rainbow stretching across the sky, after dealing with one really cranky kid and one kid who was trying to do his work in detention after school. I hate detention, but sometimes there are behaviors that need handling and that is one way to handle them. So I did it. And then went to a union training, where my daughter’s high-school English teacher sat behind me. Small world.
Then back home to grading and dinner and Katie the parents’ dog finally getting to see her family again. Oh wait, and listening to that fucktard that is our president. There was a lot of yelling at the television. The SIL even called, because she was in the car, yelling at the radio. Katie didn’t leave right away…this was after I cleaned the entryway floor so I could pinbaste that quilt, but it was wet out and the parents tracked mud in and so I spot-cleaned it. I kinda knew that would happen, but I didn’t want to do the whole floor that late, after they showed up. A trail of muddy footprints was easy enough to clean up. I don’t feel organized most days, but that was pretty organized thinking for the end of the day.
I had to finish piecing the back. I hate piecing, but I have all these long skinny pieces of stuff leftover from other quilt backgrounds, so I pieced the leftovers…
Part of trying to use up all the fabric…like that’s possible…or even a thing. I used 6 different fabrics…
And now there is not much left of any of them. Good. Goal reached. No new fabric, old stuff used up. I had this huge pile of stuff I use for backgrounds and now it is half the size. Much better.
And then I set to making this thing go together…
I would be hard-pressed to go much bigger…I could move the bench. I’ve done that before.
All laid out…
There’s always a cat somewhere around when I do this. In fact, the bathroom is just to the left. I went in there to pee and when I came out, he was sitting on it. Later he was out in the living room, because I made him go out there.
He was not happy about it. Ironic, since there’s a cat on the quilt right there. On the left. Not a real furry one who leaves bits all over it! This thing has enough fur on it already.
Pinbasting…still the fastest, easiest, least respiratory-offensive method to put these together.
Although I’m fairly sure the backing has got some issues. I don’t really care right now. It will be quilted to death. Everything will behave.
Or else be swallowed.
I have a title for this quilt somewhere. It’s something about swallowing. Nothing gross or sexual, nothing about food…this quilt is so NOT about food. It’s really my brain. Complicated thing, isn’t it? Anyway. It’s pinned. Ready for quilting. I have enough thread to start…I’ll probably run out at some point. So I wrote the color numbers down somewhere. I can start though. Tonight.
*Depeche Mode, Master and Servant
Kathy Nida 