I’m home. Palm Springs was tiring and hot, and my brain is full of ideas (as always), but also frustrated by the limitations caused by being a public school. Like I would be the radical alter of Betsy de Vos if I could and upend the entire standardized testing system, but I know someone like me would never get to that position. And my dad told me to work within the system to change it, so that’s what I keep trying to do. Surprisingly, I think my superintendent and I agree on that, the part about getting rid of standardized tests. So it’ll be interesting to see where things go…especially after these conversations about not teaching all the standards (I’m like, dude, no teacher I know makes it through all the standards…it’s fucking impossible). Anyway. I’m not getting much of a break on teacher brain this summer, that’s for sure. It’s whirling around in my head like a climate-change-induced tornado. One more conference before school starts…it will be local, thank god.
Today is a catchup day, get everything I can checked off the list before I relax (ha!) into two days of art classes that were my gift to myself for the summer. I need to pack up my stuff for that as well, and make sure I have food…because it’s an all-day thing on the other side of town. Ah traffic. You are not my friend.
Days like today feel overwhelming. I have to remember that I need to finish one task before going on to the next one. Multi-tasking is not always your friend. I got up early to sweep the driveway again because they’re resealing the whole private road I live on, including my driveway, and the ficus tree had dropped tiny balls all over the place since the boychild swept it on Monday. As I was sweeping and the balls were flipping sideways and backwards all over the place, and I was thinking, 45 minutes isn’t going to be enough time to sweep the whole damn driveway, the guy in charge comes up and says, “Hey. Don’t worry. We have blowers. They’ll do it in like 5 minutes flat.” I may have told him I loved him. It’s all good. On to the next task.
While I was in Palm Springs, exercising the teacher brain, I drew a little bit…I actually started this some other day, I don’t even remember when. I went back to my room for 30 minutes between sessions to make tea, but I often feel anxious when I’m just waiting for things to happen. Staring at the phone and apps is a common way to deal with that, but it often creates more anxiety than not, so drawing really is a better way to occupy my brain. I sat there for 20 minutes or so, tea steeping, and drew some more…so here’s before…
And after (can you tell hot flashes have been prominent?)…
Nah. She’s not done. But I really should work on waiting with a sketchbook instead of waiting with a phone.
Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of alone down time at the conference…this statue of Zeus (?) on the way back from a happy hour with my co-workers…
The shuttle driver gave us a quick tour of houses owned by people…but mostly this is what Palm Springs is…
Very flat. Big mountains. Hot as hell. Palm trees everywhere.
This was an awkward bad-design moment…the bathrooms…you could see the person next to you through the toilet-paper dispensers.
Very awkward. I don’t know who thought that was a good plan.
We left Tuesday a little early, kinda done with the brain part, and my new driver was just as awesome as the first one…I still stitched. (My original driver stayed an extra night.)
I didn’t get very far…I did more when I got home…although this guy wasn’t helping.
Ah…stitching…
Another thing that relaxes me. This will be the 8th pattern for Global Artisans…
It was nice to come back to drawing…I really am trying to keep this relatively simple (I could put a LOT more detail in, trust me)…but I think I’ve finished the one side…the yang.
On to finishing the Yin tonight, I hope. It’s got a pretty good start.
I was on Etsy the other day because they’re changing their shipping policies in kind of a weird way and I had to deal with it…and this popped up.
You know, I never actually search for anything that specific on Etsy…interesting. I was thinking of putting the embroidery pieces on here. I guess that could still happen, but I have to think about how to finish them then. And increase the prices to cover that and shipping…makes them kind of unaffordable, I think.
Anyway. Back to today. I’m going to need more tea.
Kathy Nida 