Hey ya…running through my brain…I guess I need a soundtrack to get going in the morning. And all day. Into the night. Actually, I never really have a problem with the staying up late part. I’m not good at the rest of it. I swear yesterday felt like Friday…it’s not fair to have another one. At least there’s no assembly today, right? A few more are suspended, a few more coming back (I think?). It feels closer to the end than it actually is? I keep having to tell myself I’m not done yet…I have to teach actual science for another three weeks. Like I told the kids: one more unit (short), one more homework, one more test. And a bunch of other shit. When you get to the egg drop, you know it’s time to stop learning science (and that’s three weeks out). Meanwhile, I’m still grading and lesson planning and cleaning up and copying shit and handling issues and managing time and interviewing a bunch of kids who have never ever taught before and wondering how they would survive my challenging school, and realizing I was one of them once. And I survived. 23 years of surviving.
It’s all good; we’re getting there.
I’m still tracing. I make a goal of 100 pieces a night. Sometimes 100 pieces takes me less than an hour, sometimes more. So really, it’s about an hour. Little pieces are faster and generally easier to draw. Big ones take longer.
Wednesday night, I got to the 300s…
With Scribble. Who had to be persuaded to lie on that part while I drew on this part. Here’s what we got done…
Last night, she mostly stayed out of it…tried to sit on it a few times, got moved, play-whacked me, moved off, came back, put paws under things, got bopped on the nose. They all learn eventually. I don’t mind her up there, but I have a job to do and she can’t get in the way of that. Kitten learned but loved to lie on the glass, but was also respectful and didn’t whack things. Or tear things. Or bite things (except pencils, which is allowed, as long as it’s not in my hand at the time).
I got to the 400s…so there’s at least 10 more hours, maybe 11 before I’m done. Some part of my brain is like, you have a 3-day weekend. You could do it. And I could, but I also need to do yardwork and grade and hike. So there’s always this balance.
See that bird? I forget they can do this crazy shit, holding onto trees without a branch. Need to draw one like that sometime soon.
Need to ask the Man what kind of bird that is (it was in his feeder).
This is so where I’m at.
The crows are definitely out and about these days. The crows, the owls. I’m in.
OK. Teaching the solar system (fast version) today. Lots of talking unfortunately. Then more science interviews. They get old, y’all. Yes, you recent grads can parrot all the vocabulary, but it’s silly asking them all these questions about stuff they’d do when they have no clue. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes today. No ceramics today; I won’t be done with interviews until after 5 PM and will probably be exhausted. I mean, I’m already exhausted. It’s not like today will be restful. Then I’ll be tracing later. I have a 3-day weekend. I do expect some art time, but there’ll be some other stuff too. There always is. It’s nice to have the extra day though. Appreciate that.
Kathy Nida 