Today is the shutdown. I’m with you in spirit, but as a public middle-school teacher in a Title I school, I’m going to be at school with my students. Also, Friday subs are the hardest to get for anyone, and we’re doing a lab, so I would have had to make up some filler assignment, because you don’t leave a lab with a sub unless you want no materials at the end of the day. And a friend is performing tonight, opening night, and we’re not blowing that off either. Need to support teachers in their life-affirming activities, like dance and art. But do we need to hit them where it hurts? Yes. Absolutely. Target sent me yet another “we’ll cancel your Target card” letter (the third so far, each with a 2-month deadline, which I ignore). I’m just avoiding them, Amazon as much as I can, anything else that seems dodgy or billionairy. Not a word, I know. But there are small, independently owned businesses going under right now due to tariffs and people just not having as much money (um, the grocery bill is still bad, y’all…it’s not great here), and it’s not OK that the tariffs are singling them out. Just trying to get art quilts to shows here from out of the country or vice versa has gotten so much more complicated.
Sigh. Things aren’t changing in the right direction fast enough.
In quilt news, the ironing is going well…
Well, as long as you don’t mind a kitten climbing on it (I do)…
She also tried to run off with the safety pins, so those are closed up again. I keep this door closed most of the time right now, because I don’t really trust her in here. It’s chaos and thread and pins and tiny pieces and not very cat friendly.
So that was Wednesday’s progress…looks slower because it’s a lot of smaller pieces.
And here’s last night’s progress…
I’m in the low 300s at this point…the body parts are next and that’s complicated. I have a thing tonight so odds are I won’t be ironing until tomorrow, but I’m hoping to spend a few hours tomorrow. The deadline looms.
I also went to ceramics last night and put the last two colors on the bowl, underglaze anyway.
I also did the fingernails and filled in the mouth areas.
That looks better.
Right now, it’s drying so I can put it in the bisque fire. I’ll clear glaze the outside and then find some shiny glaze for the inside. Realistically, I can never make anything in clay to sell…this already has over 10 hours in and it’s not done. It’s a good thing I’m not doing it for the money.
There’s competition some nights for my lap.
Simba was hesitant, but submitted that belly rubs made it OK. Scribble is unsure…
Really unsure.
The crazy shit that comes out of the government’s mouth is sometimes mind-boggling.
That and Kyle Rittenhouse and that crazy fucking couple with the guns. Like it’s a different story every time. And some people are excusing it every time. I’m hoping the reps start to stand up and yell more, prosecute, fire people, refuse to pass bills, demand for change, quite honestly, get that dumbass tested publicly, transparently, because no way he’s competent to be president right now. That said, neither is Couch Vance. I’d love to hear some of the conversations he and his wife of color have about some of the shit he says.
I read this and went, huh. Yeah. Ugh.
And then I read this one.
OMG yes. I guess that’s too much to ask? Certainly it doesn’t make as much money for the already rich.
Sigh. All I do is sigh and try to hide in books these days. Can’t hide unfortunately. My co-teacher and I had a short discussion of what to do if ICE shows up at school if we’re on duty (grab all the kids and throw them behind the gates). We can’t call our local police; they’ve been told by the mayor to support ICE, to help them. Fuck that. You’re not dragging middle-school kids out of here. Or their parents. Not OK. We are not OK.
Today. We’re doing a lab about light, mostly UV to start, just an exploration. Then duty (no ICE hopefully) and going to watch a friend dance with a bunch of people, then probably home to sleep honestly. It’ll be late. Then art tomorrow, and a hike, to try to get this blood sugar under control. It’s still whack and I still don’t know why. Sigh. SIGH. At least it’s Friday and more art time is near. I can do that.
Kathy Nida 