Deep breath in, deep breath out. It’s Friday. Oooh. Deep breath in. We only had a 4-day week. Deep breath out. There’s another 3-day weekend starting tomorrow. Deep breath in. Yesterday was a bit of a shit show. Deep breath out. It’s fine. We did the eyeball dissection lab…

It’s not hard, unless kids are being stupid. 99% of the kids were awesome, although having to yell through Period 6’s chatting habit so we wouldn’t still be dissecting at 2 AM was not fun. The four boys who were jerks about everything? Yeah. Well. Take the F. Take the phone call and see the principal who will call your mom and your made-up excuse for not wearing safety glasses? Sigh. Just stop that crap. It’s annoying.

I think eyeballs are way easier than frogs (we do those in 7th grade). Anyway, today, they turn a bunch of shit in and that’s good. I graded for about 3 1/2 hours last night (and no, I’m not done), which helps my panic recede a little bit. I’m gone for about 46 hours this weekend to see the girlchild, so I won’t be doing a ton of grading until Monday. Which is a holiday. Hallelujah. There’s also drama about kids changing teams and behaviors and bullshit and that was a huge chunk of yesterday, so I was extremely tired and irritated. Fun stuff. I’ve slept, I’ve meditated with fabric. I might be ready for today (nah, there’s a meeting this morning and it’s gonna be a rabble rouser).
I’m still binding. I was watching ceramics school videos Wednesday night…

I have like 99 hours of video to get through…I think I’ve watched 4 of the 33 instructors so far. It’s fascinating, but I feel like I need to take notes and that’s time-consuming. Will I ever read the notes again? Hard to say. It helps me remember things though. If I write them down. Even if I don’t read them.
Last night, my brain needed story time, so I watched whatever I was binge-watching three weeks ago before I started stitchdown.

I’m not even halfway y’all. It’s fine. It’s dark, the thread’s dark, I’m tired. I fly out tonight, so it won’t get worked on until Sunday night at the earliest. It’s fine. When I get back, my friend’s mom’s quilt goes back on the machine to get finished and I draw the next one and maybe start tracing it. I might even start drawing it this weekend, if I feel into it. I miss drawing all the time. I hate that this job has taken so much of my time. I made it to ceramics on Wednesday for just enough time to fix cracks and put new moist paper towels on everything. I’m hoping to go Monday for a couple of hours. I might need glaze too, but I doubt the clay place is open Monday. Their hours are horrible. Sucks. Ugh.
OK though…I did get on the announcement card for this FIG show opening in LA in a couple of weeks.

I feel bad because I’m about 90% sure I can’t go to the opening. I mean, I could, but then wouldn’t get grades done and I don’t want to do those on my birthday weekend. I’m not sure what I DO want to do (hike, have a nice dinner, draw, read my book), but I know grading isn’t part of it. EVER (and it often is because of when the trimester ends). Moya Devine made the original collage and then I made an art quilt based on that. I had to make the image my own at one point. As always. She made one of my drawings into a collage as well.
OK. I need to get my butt to school to deal with this meeting and the day. Then come home and actually PACK, beyond making piles that will eventually come with me. I’m looking forward to seeing the girlchild and being in SF, even for just a short time, despite all the stressy shit surrounding the trip. It’s just this time of year. Seven weeks until Spring Break…which comes with its own pile of stressy shit. In awesome news, the mammo came back clean, although then they sent this letter that says I should have an MRI screening as well because I have more than a 20% chance of breast cancer. Well that’s a nice letter to send. I bet most people never see that letter, because they’re like hidden in the app. I’m supposed to talk to my doc about it. Fun times. FUN TIMES. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT.