It Just Looks Easy

Hey. Short school week. But let’s shove a bunch of meetings and trainings in there and do labs every day and put kids outside for one station when it’s 95+ degrees outside. Fun times. Still don’t have a routine here. I’ll get there. By the end of September…that’s how long it usually takes.

Artwise, I ironed more on Monday…

About 100 pieces…and then I finished last night…

Stayed up a little late. Tonight I can iron it to the background, which is not dark, for once. I made a video of the first stage…

It may or may not be easier to see. Long and skinny is never easy to photograph. All the pieces in this show are supposed to be the same size though. Anyway…I’ll iron it down tonight and start stitchdown. Hopefully.

In ceramics, I worked on the mug…here’s the video so far…

And because sometimes the video is stupid…here’s some photos…

I underglazed the background…

Trying to carve on a bumpy, curved surface is a challenge…

I watch people doing it in videos and it looks so easy.

Practice, I know. I also think their pieces are more leather hard.

So I’m just messing around because I’ve never really done this before. So no, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’m doing it. That might be the key. People always ask me “how did you get so good at…” and the answer is always practice. Keep doing it. Until it looks easy…which is usually like 20 years later. And even then, it’s still not necessarily easy…it just LOOKS easy. I’ll be good at ceramics in my late 70s. Maybe.

I underglazed this too, but I think it needs more coats on the outside.

But I ran out of time.

I’m going to carve it too. Somehow. My plans erupt when I sit down at the end of the day with the clay. Luckily Monday, I had off, so it was the middle of the afternoon…but my brain doesn’t always have a plan until I start working on the piece. Which is fine. These aren’t high art. They’re fucking around.

I just finished reading a difficult book, Know My Name, by Chanel Miller. It wasn’t difficult because of the writing…it’s very well written. It’s the topic. Miller is the woman Brock Turner sexually assaulted…the entitled Stanford swimmer…and the judge let go on a less-than minimal sentence. A friend asked, why are you reading it if it’s hard? Because her story deserves to be read. I knew so much about him and how it ruined his life (um…read the last bit here)…

She talks about Stanford’s lack of appropriate response, the court’s lack of care for the victim, society’s blame of victims, and how it all affects the victim. It’s her personal story of getting through the aftermath, as much as anyone ever gets through it. It also has her victim statement, which is difficult to read, but the book ends like this…

She deserves to be heard. Some nonfiction is a chore to read…and this was not. It was difficult because of the topic, and at times, I would close the book and go water some plants instead, but I’m glad I read it. We shouldn’t be hiding the victim’s experience…it should be known, respected, and heard.

Anyway, on that light note, I have a meeting in 39 minutes, I need to move my lab stations before that, I have labs all day…need to have a discussion about appropriate and kind behavior in lab groups apparently…then pilates (I was waitlisted, but got in!) and book club! for a book I just finished yesterday. Didn’t like that one as much. Oh well. It’s a long day. And it’s supposed to be close to 100 degrees…not liking that bit, but it is Southern California summer…it had to get hot sometime.

Relaxing for Me Is…

I love a good day off. A three-day weekend. We’re only three weeks in, but it’s appreciated. And my crazy school board has added two more three-day weekends to the fall. Why? I don’t really know. The board claims parents requested it for travel with their kids…and yet, I have four independent study contracts in the works for September, three for parents who are traveling with their kids…possible a fifth one coming up. I think it’ll be a pain when we get to June and have to add those extra weekend days on, but I don’t think anyone asked the teachers. We also know that the week after a 3-day weekend, it takes twice as long to get kids back on task, and by the time we do, the week is almost over. But I…I still appreciate the extra day. It gives me time to not stress about school. Today I’m going to make some scones for breakfasts for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to go to the ceramics studio (I would have done that anyway on a Monday), I’m going to read my book, and I’m going to rip the tape off all of the painted hallway. Oh yeah, I also need more paint from Home Depot. Ah well. I knew that might happen. I did finish painting the hallway…mostly. There’s some texture stuff I still need to do in the new drywall area, but otherwise, we’re good. I should touch up the ceiling, and I definitely need to sand and paint all the doors, but that’s not happening right now. Right now, I’m putting the art back up. One step closer to putting away all the crap that got spread out by the summer carpet extravaganza. I rolled two coats yesterday and used up every drop of paint. It’s good.

I sort of realized I needed to have this little piece shipped to arrive by October 1, so I spent some time with it this weekend. Friday night, I was still cutting things out. It felt like a lot.

Saturday night, I finished it, so it must not have really been a lot…and then I sorted it all, because I knew it would only take like 20 minutes or so, but half the time, I was trying to keep Bowie (the kitten) from knocking all of them over…no picture, because of that. Cut…

and sorted…

Remember this piece is small…less than 400 pieces. All small pieces too…then last night, I started ironing them down.

Got it more than halfway done. That’s over 2 1/2 hours of ironing. Little pieces are not always easier to iron than big ones. My goal is to finish tonight? Maybe? Stitchdown this week…I don’t have a ton of nighttime stuff this week. Get the damn thing quilted by the following weekend? Then decide what I’m doing next. I have lots of thoughts.

Friday after school, I went to the ceramics studio for a couple of hours. I forgot my glazes, so I couldn’t work on the mug…but I am trying to use up the last bits of the 25-pound bag I bought and the part of a bag that was a freebie. So I made a random bowl that I will sgraffito, and I again tried to slab build a mug. And again, it was way too big. IDK why I keep doing this. I did want to try to round the bottom with darts, and that worked pretty well.

But I’m thinking it’s going to be another plant pot. Which is fine. Everything else is drying…seriously, I have four things drying? I’m going in today and will remember the underglazes. Hopefully. I still have a little bit left of the clay on the right…I was saving some for a handle…for the teacup. Tea tureen? It’s huge. It doesn’t need handles. It might need a lid. No. Maybe I will make a little picture frame. I don’t know. Sometimes with clay, I have a plan. Right now, I’m trying to finish the plans I have and make a decision about what clay to buy next, but I don’t actually have room for any clay in my cubby until everything is on the drying rack. So there’s that. I’ll be carving for a bit, I think.

I finished a drawing at dinner on Saturday…I’d barely started it the previous Saturday when they brought the food, uber fast.

This place was slower. Good? Bad? It was busier. Eh.

We have a new friend to make Simba bark like a maniac.

There is no shortage of wildlife in the yard. Which is a good thing. Speaking of wildlife…

Cats in weird positions for the win.

OK. It’s nice to summarize when I don’t have to go to work. I need to shower, make scones (maybe not in that order), prep the crockpot (not sure there’s room for that in the fridge…could be problematic), do a little bit of school stuff so I’m ready for tomorrow, fold my laundry, go to ceramics and play around, iron some more, check art entries, pull some tape, hang some art. See, it’s a day off and I’m still busy! But some of it is stuff I really want to do and most of the rest is stuff I’d have to do around work if I were going today…which is why I’m writing this at 10 AM and not 7. It’s all good. Also go for a hike today. That’s important. OK. Gotta go start the process. I think I really am more about being able to check things off a list than sitting by a pool all day. I will sit and read, don’t get me wrong, but relaxing for me is the making art part…so if I get to do that for a few hours during the day, it’s all good.

Collapse?

I was sure yesterday was Friday again. Apparently my brain is prepared for 4-day weeks, not 5-day weeks, which means next week will feel fine. Three-day weekends are lovely. Except the kids come back kind of out of it. Me too really. At least I know what I’m teaching next week. I have three kids on independent study contracts and I haven’t been able to plan that far out, and we don’t have an alternative curriculum for this first unit…although I’m pretty sure I had to do this last year for some kid. I just need to find whatever I did. I had 40 minutes after school yesterday and was going to grade an assignment, but then got two new ISCs and had to try to find stuff for the next three weeks for them to do. Annoying…because I don’t have a textbook. Minor issue. That said, they are on labs for today and next week, so hopefully they’ll behave and slow down and read before doing (had a few issues yesterday).

Rolling into the weekend tired though. With about 17 thousand things on the to-do list. Not as bad as next Saturday though…it’s full and includes a brain scan. My EEG came back normal…so I’m not having seizures. Good to know. I suspect after all this they will just say, we don’t know what it is…live with it. And it’s not horrible…it’s annoying, especially at night…but I can still see and read and draw and all that. That niggling idea that it’s a symptom of something larger is hard to push away though. Thanks, anxious brain. Appreciate it. Suspect the next quilt will be about the brain thing. Maybe. I don’t know. I have to make a piece for a show in May…and NOT about that…plenty of time.

So I’m still struggling to get an hour a night of art, although last night included picking up three quilts from the photographer, organizing the pictures, and entering one show. So that was quite a bit of time. It’s just art business, which I don’t count in that hour.

Wednesday night, I finished ironing to fabrics…

It took a whopping 7 hours to iron these to fabric…lots of tiny details. And there are 77 fabrics in this little thing.

I started cutting things out last night…

That is 48 minutes of cutting. Doesn’t look like much, does it. Well there will be more of that tonight, after teaching labs all day and going to ceramics and coming back and watering and I’m not sure what’s for dinner because it was supposed to be leftovers and I don’t have any. Minor issue. I suspect the Man has leftovers.

OK. Here’s Seeking the Crone’s Protection…

52″w x 78″h…will post it in the Recent Work tab later this weekend…along with the other two. I need to go to work. I’m tired and need a ton more caffeine, but I still need to work. Really.

Oh yeah, Google Classroom (our main learning management system) went down during Period 3 yesterday…I tracked the crash and then it coming back by Period 4 (we couldn’t get the digital stuff done in Period 3…so we’ll have to do it today).

Fun times.

OK. School. Labs. Organize shit. Clay. Collapse? Maybe.

One Way or Another

Still trying to find a balance. It’s way too easy to fall into the habits of previous years, where work follows you home. I did work last night…and the night before…and the day before that. I’m not getting enough done at school; we’re setting up labs during prep and trying to figure out what we’re teaching next. There’s adjustments…plus not everyone has computers, so we still need stuff on paper, and then our building’s copier is broken (again), so we have to compete for a copier. And I’m trying to grade one academic thing because I know there’s another one coming today. It’s not hard; it’s all just time-consuming. Plus we had to meet yesterday to explain (justify?) the way we grade in science. And the teacher making the complaint didn’t even show up to the meeting. Love that. Well it’s done. And realistically, we never really hit a balance until the end of September. It’s not even the end of August. Yikes!

Art is slow too. Just getting the time and energy at the end of the day is hard. I’m almost done with this one…Monday night…ironed the main figure…

Last night, ironed a bunch of bits and pieces…

The two side heads, the eyeballs, etc. This is all I have left to do…

Some buildings, a bird, some hair, lips. I’ll be done tonight finally. Then cutting them out.

I did make it to clay yesterday…checked the boot…

I could underglaze it Friday…if I remember to bring the underglazes. I didn’t yesterday. The bag is also drying…but it will have glaze after bisque. Need to buy that glaze.

I worked on the mug…

Apparently I’m trying to make it as lumpy/bumpy and bulky as possible.

Seems that way…

It keeps me occupied at least.

Today. At least I don’t have to be at school early. Although it is unknown if the other teacher expects us to have prepped all her labs for today (I didn’t finish yesterday…we don’t start until tomorrow). I need to go fight for the copier because of the kids with no computers. I have one loaner and an iPad that I can’t figure out how to make it connect to the kids’ accounts. And more than one kid without a computer in more than one class. I have pilates after school. And I’m cooking dinner. So there are three more classes of that academic thing that need grading, and I’m not going to get to it at school today probably. Which is unfortunate. Not gonna think about that right now. Right now, I’m going to finish this cup of tea, wash my dishes, make more tea, take my meds, and head for school. The rest will figure itself out, one way or another.

There’s Always More…

OK, we’re back to feeling like nothing got done over the weekend. I remember this feeling. It’s frustrating. I crossed off some things, but more magically appeared. Or I made more just by existing. This morning, in the shower, I remembered things for school that I should have done Friday. Oops. Oh well. It’s either happening this morning once I get there or it’s possibly not happening.

I did do some art this weekend. That’s the plus, I guess, is that I push and shove to make time for that. I ironed all three nights, although not more than an hour each night, really. Friday night (with exhaustion)…

I had labeled the original pencil drawing with the flag colors and country names, and then photographed it, because I erased all of it to do the final drawing. I printed those photos Friday night to help me remember what I’d drawn in June.

Here’s ironing all the flesh of the minor characters…the warring factions.

Russia and the Ukraine, the US (embarrassed), Palestine, Israel, and Hamas. I’d like my country to stop providing weapons to wars…it’s complicated, though, because the Ukraine needed it to protect their country from Russia taking over. It made sense to help them. But Israel? Not so much. But not Hamas either. That whole conflagration…we should just be providing medicine and food and persuasion to knock it off and be peaceful. Not helping Israel kick Palestinians out of their homes…and killing innocent people. It’s a fine line, maybe. Anyway. This piece is about war…and how to stop it. Read Lysistrata.

What I finished Saturday night…

More than an hour. It was nice. Last night? Not even an hour…but a lot of little things got ironed down…

And I picked the fabrics for the central main figure…I just didn’t iron them down. I’ve done all the 0-100s and the 300s and some of the rest. I don’t think I have a lot left. On a small piece like this, it’s easy to bounce around and do all the missiles and bombs, then all the fires, etc. I suspect I’ll be done tonight or tomorrow night.

I wanted to do ceramics Friday after school, but I staying 90 minutes to set up for today and also to do seating charts. And then I was way too tired, so I went to the studio on Saturday instead.

I cleaned up the girlchild’s boot vase and forgot to take a picture of it again. It’s basically drying slowly. I then cleaned up the not-paper bag…

It had a cracking issue in the base, so I fixed that, but it’s also probably ready to dry. Then I worked on my mug…

I’m going to do a combination of relief and sgraffito, I think. We’ll see.

Normally I’d go in today to work in there, but there’s a 2-hour staff meeting and then book club at 7, so I don’t have time. No worries; I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe I’ll remember the glazes too.

I also got this one out of the bisque fire…

The top part is still drying. Color is pretty true to vision at the moment.

I haven’t decided how I’m going to handle this…whether I’m going to leave it bisque? I think so.

This one got glaze fired…some interesting things happened with the skin color.

Needed another coat? I don’t dislike it, but it wasn’t expected.

The back seems to have been glazed, even though I didn’t glaze it. It stuck a little to the ceramic cookie. Doesn’t really matter…this is meant to go on a garden stake. Interesting to try anyway.

We hiked 3 miles Saturday. It was cooler and nice.

We really have flailed on hiking this summer. Too much to do, too hot. Working on remedying that. Although the Man has so many music shows, it might just be me doing this.

This one…still up way too early in the morning, claws out.

Ugh. Sweet but psychotic. OK, I need to go to school, make more ice, figure the rest of Friday out, copy stuff, figure the rest of grading out, grade a thing, input grades, sit through that 2-hour meeting. I’m teaching energy today, ironically on a Monday when I don’t really have any. It’s OK…it’s not that kind of energy. And maybe the tea will kick in. Got some work done yesterday…finally caved and spent a few hours so this week won’t totally suck. Really trying to limit it though. Walked away with more to do. There’s always more to do though.

NOW It’s Friday…

OK. NOW it’s Friday. Yesterday was NOT Friday, despite my brain repeatedly trying to make it so. It’s fine. I’m tired. We’re all tired. We’re all already behind on school stuff. Very little that is supposed to be done by today is actually done. I stayed an hour at work yesterday to finally type my rosters up. Sure, I could use the school ones, but they drive me bonkers, and I add stuff like nicknames and tutorial teachers for the special ed kids so I know who to bug about missing work. Makes MY life easier. Once it’s done. I have to start grading things today. Fun times. I also need to find the demo stuff for today when I get to school, plus lock everything up because the district is doing this mock Williams Act thing where they inspect our classrooms and make sure every kid is assigned a book, except science doesn’t have books, so we have to show them digitally, but not every kid had a computer until yesterday afternoon (and some STILL don’t), so there was no point in going through the process until everyone had one. So they come today and we are explaining today. PLUS, we get a school board member touring today…stay the fuck out of my classroom. Yay!

Anyway, we’ll get to a routine. The kids are starting to test the boundaries with gum, food, games, phones, airpods, and dress code…fun times. Oh yeah, and throwing things. I might need to stay after school more than an hour today to get seating charts done.

So I’ve been short on art time most nights. I cooked late Wednesday because of pilates and getting all the trash ready for pickup and IDK what else I did. So I finished cleaning up the studio finally and picked the fabric for the background of this one, and laid out the first 100 pieces.

Not much…cleaning took a long time…a few hours. I swept the floor even…didn’t mop though.

Last night, I started late because I ate late because I had my stitching Zoom…but I got a few pieces ironed.

Honestly this piece isn’t very big…hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few days.

At my stitching Zoom (during the Zoom? At the couch?), I worked on embellishing the flowers around the edges.

Not quick. But I finished one…that I started during dinner TV hour sometime this week…

They’re not hard, unless you’re tired, and then reading instructions is hard. Stitching is not hard. Progress.

Nova has taken to hiding in the hammock because the kitten can’t reach her.

His neutering is maybe scheduled. He was sleeping with me last night, and then he wasn’t (he bit my knee at some point), and then he was again, and then he wasn’t. I get it, Nova. I’d sleep in a hammock too if I could.

Bowie trying to figure out how to attack Luna from below. Luna contemplating landing on Bowie.

I don’t think I fell asleep until 1 AM because of the cats and dog moving around and making noise (barking at whatever was on the roof…nice, Simba). Not a lot of sleep all week.

Apparently the Man’s car resembles enough of a naturescape that this praying mantis was hanging out.

OK. Go to school, lock up all the cabinets so they think we don’t have chemicals in a science classroom, then find the demo stuff. Wait. Find the demo stuff, THEN lock everything up. Teach kids how to access a digital curriculum we never wanted and will probably never use, then teach about energy…while we have none…ironically. Get through the whole day, work some more after school, and then go to ceramics and try to figure out what I’m doing next. All good. It’s Friday.

Stashes of Snaps

Hmmm. So not much art happening at the moment. Mostly cleaning up after art. Which is a thing. It’s a thing many people do when they’re procrastinating about making art. Me? Not so much. I hate the cleaning up, but realize it’s necessary. It’s part of my process. I put things away so that there’s a fresh palette for the new quilt. The last quilt was BIG and had lots of fabric, so I had a lot to put away. Plus I had the bug fabrics and the needlebook fabrics (you haven’t seen that yet unless you follow me on Instagram)…and some stuff I bought. So it was chaos in here. Hadn’t been truly cleaned out all summer due to moving everything around for carpet and then the girlchild was here. So now would be a good time to try to straighten shit up. Except it’s hot and I’m tired and cleaning is not my superpower. So Monday night, I dragged myself in here and started stacking up fabrics by color. I got about halfway through, also sorting out big pieces for backgrounds and backings, and then left it for last night to finish.

That’s the top of the ironing board. The one the kitten would topple the next day.

Ugh. I have to tell you, as someone who doesn’t really like cleaning and organizing, having to do it again the next day, organize the SAME things you just organized? Extreme will power in play. I want to be ironing, not cleaning. But I did it. I did more, I put a bunch away (all the pinks and some of the browns and whites and all the oranges…those two cupboards are way too full). I unfortunately have more to put away tonight…I also have the trash to deal with, the food waste, cooking dinner, and pilates. Not a light night. It’ll be fine; I just don’t have a lot of hope for getting to the actual ironing tonight. SOON. Maybe.

I did go to ceramics yesterday. I worked on the girlchild’s boot she made on Saturday. She mentioned decorating it with stars. I looked up cowboy boots stars and got some ideas.

It still needs a little work? So Friday. And then I’ll let it dry etc etc. She also left that not-paper bag for me to work on, and I totally forgot to check on it and my mug. It was hot. I was hot. I wanted to get out of there before the classes showed up, so I rushed. Ah well. Everything can rehydrate if necessary.

I also finished (well, almost) the needlebook my quilt guild did…

I should probably be able to tell you whose pattern this is. Dammit. Hang on. Rosie Taylor…she’s on Etsy here. It was relatively easy. I mean, it still took me forever because I was doing it in bits and pieces, but it turned out well. It’s not done because I decided to put a snap on it and I didn’t have any. They arrived yesterday, so that’ll go on soon and then I’ll lose all the other snaps for any future projects for which I might need them. When I die, my children will find stashes of snaps (and many other things) all over the place and they’ll wonder what the fuck I was thinking. Fair enough.

OK. So as you can see, I’m not getting much done. I think I finished the needlebook Sunday night because I didn’t want to clean the studio instead. So much needs doing. I don’t know how normal people do it. I guess they don’t work? I don’t know. Or they have help. My local SAQA group is moving their Zoom meetings in 2025 to a day and/or time I can’t go to…ever. It’s frustrating. Some of us work full time, y’all. And then they’re doing an artist’s day out to a show I’m actually in, on a weekday in the middle of the day. I guess I’m not interacting with that group much any more. Sadly. Another group I’m in keeps setting up meetings with less than 10 days’ notice. Well I’m usually already booked by then. So I’ve missed a bunch of their meetings. I missed ALL the meetings in July I think. All my quarterly groups met on the same weekend, the one when I was in San Francisco. It’s fine. When I am retired (if I ever get there), I can go to ALL the meetings and advocate for those of us who work during the weekdays and can’t do the things. It does make one feel a bit isolated though. Luckily I have the ceramics studio and my stitching group.

OK, I must go to school and do the things. Finishing up safety today with an academic assessment. Still getting new kids every day. Have a couple kids I’ve only seen once. Some I’ve never seen, but that’s normal at the beginning…usually they’ve moved. Lots of crazy stuff needed left and right. I tried not working at home, but last night, had to cave. I needed an hour with no distractions to figure out a plan and the order…did that. I still need rosters. Like today. Ha! I’ll get those done eventually. Maybe.

Teeth Chaos…

Hey. Monday. Too early. Too much. Bright sun, blue skies. Still pretty chill…morning air…but we know what you’re gonna do for the next three days…be hot. Not a huge fan of the hot. Don’t really feel ready to teach today, but what’s new? I tried not working all weekend, until I remembered there were a few things I actually needed to do. It’s a balance…I spent an hour typing kids’ names and printing their pictures. I sent a parent email. In three languages. It’s OK. Friday self wasn’t prepared to get the classroom set up for Monday, so I need to do some things this morning. I’m not quite into the routine yet…after two full days with kids. This week? It’s the first full week of teaching. It’s gonna be tiring. But it’s not hard teaching. Reminds me: I need to find my apron for tomorrow.

OK, so artwise, I wasn’t super productive because the girlchild was here and there was stuff. Plus I needed an oil change…and to finish a book. Very important. And recover from school.

So I finished cutting out all the Wonder Under for the newest quilt, which is pretty small. This was Friday night’s progress…

After taking a nap on the couch and trying to figure out what dinner looked like because everyone left.

Saturday night, I was more awake…

Finished it up and then sorted it…

There’s less than 400 pieces, so it was fast. Next step is cleaning the studio, putting all the fabric away from the last quilt, so I can start ironing for this one. I did not do that last night.

Saturday, the girlchild and I went to ceramics. I finished up the basic shape of my mug…

Very lumpy bumpy. Gotta work on that, but it was getting too wobbly for that. Girlchild made two things…a bag…

And then a cowboy boot…on the left…

Both need a little work, firing, and glazing, so those will end up on my to-do list. Fun to hang out with her and clay though. I realized I have like no pictures of her from this weekend except that. And we took no family photos last night at dinner. Totally out of it. I keep meaning to do those things and forgetting. I do have Bowie helping to hold my book up.

Not really. He does like to lean on an iPad though.

I said no to one of said roles last week.

Life/work balance y’all. And J.D. Vance? You’re a dick.

Although I guess technically you could argue I take care of kids, if by ‘take care’ you mean ‘educate for the future’. I’m with the princess. Where do men come up with this shit? I hope his wife has read Lysistrata and is withholding until he stops being such a dick.

Here’s my brain.

I just realized I could see all my brain pictures on the app, so I’m totally using one in a drawing in the future. This one is nice. Teeth chaos in the front.

And this is from the book I’m reading. I can’t decide if she’s being serious or making fun.

I’ll keep reading…maybe it will become obvious.

OK. Teaching safety today. Some other general sciencey stuff too. Two staff meetings, ugh. Then driving the girlchild to the airport. Fun times. I’m tired, it’s true. I often am. Hoping to figure out the sleep thing soon…doesn’t help that there’s a kitten who sleeps like a 1-year-old…or worse…actually, maybe like a 4-month-old. Not up every two hours…he gets a solid five. But that’s it. Neutering is in his future. Should help.

A Lot of Hope

Hey. Yo. It’s Friday. I’m tired. I have survived the first day of actual school with kids. It was fine. Too much talking. I have a new prep period; kind of adjusting to that. It’s earlier but not by much. Definitely had a pulled muscle yesterday, but I think it was from pilates on Wednesday. After school, I did a 1-hour round trip (rush-hour traffic with accidents as a side) to drop another quilt with my photographer. That’s three. It’s cool. I feel like I finished some stuff this year finally.

I traced the last two nights…

Either Bowie is slightly better at listening, or I’m better at picking kitten sleepy times to trace. I had to move him off the light table to be in zoom with stitching friends and trace, but he was so tired, he just curled up again and went back to sleep.

And I managed to finish tracing…

Small quilt, small pieces, not very many of them. Compared to the bigger ones. And then I started cutting them out. This is where small is not so fun.

I started. I will continue. Probably tonight, but who knows? I’m missing the Man’s show tonight…

The girlchild is here, I’m exhausted, the boychild is home from fires. I just wanna hang out. Watch, they’ll both just disappear and I’ll be home on the couch with all the furry beasts. That also might be OK. The Man has a ton of weddings coming up in the next 6 weeks…wants to sneak me in. I don’t mind crashing like birthday parties and stuff, but weddings are dress-up things. Not doing it. So lots of Saturday nights coming up where I will just have to sit around and make art? Hmmm. Pros and cons.

Ceramics-wise, I know two of my things came out of the bisque fire fine…the base of the world figure is there on the right.

The top part is still drying. And the sgraffito thing I made for the garden stake thing they’re doing…it’s there in the middle bottom.

The clay is really light for the background. Wondering about getting some black clay for a sgraffito thing. I just don’t need 25 pounds of it. Hmmm. Anyway, I haven’t been able to get to the studio yet…maybe tomorrow. I also need to fill a tire with air, possibly get new tires, put oil in my car, and also washer fluid. All that popped up in the last week or so. Sigh. Couldn’t do that over the summer when I had plenty of time? Nah.

School! Here’s the 8th-grade team (minus the combo team). We’re back together after…um…2 years?

Yes, we have matching shirts, but science went for a darker gray. I would have gone even darker if there’d been an option. They like their super light colors. I do not.

Here’s my specific team, again.

IDK how many years we’ve been a team, but it’s been a long while. The principal thought about breaking us up because there were so many new teachers, to spread us out. I’m glad he didn’t.

Sometimes they drive me nuts, but that’s true of all teams. And no, I don’t get to be on the same floor as them. So they talk about stuff up there and think I know what they’re talking about. I don’t.

My district passed that stupid parent info thing that violates state law. And some states do this stupid shit.

There’s a local election in November. If it goes a certain way and the dumbasses are in charge, the next 5 years are gonna be shit for teachers in our district. Please vote intelligently. Research the stories you post and make sure they are the truth and not made-up-shit, because I see so much of that. And it’s exhausting. And if you’re trying to friend me on Facebook and we don’t have a personal connection, and you have a picture of Trump and his fist in the air with his tiny ear scratch as your main photo? Don’t friend me. I’ve been unfriending a lot. I keep some because of that personal connection, but I do sometimes question their sanity. Kids first. Your adult agendas need to consider that if your child tells their teacher their pronoun/name preference and NOT YOU, it is because YOU ARE NOT THE SAFE SPACE. You do WANT teachers to be a safe space, right? Well then don’t fuck with our ability to be that. And figure your own parenting shit out on your own time.

Welcome to my TedTalk. Oh, yeah, today is a chill day in science…some vocab, some cover pages, some coloring. I’m in for it. Plus trying to learn kids’ names (hard!) and get ahead of next week for once. Sundays free! Hopefully. I have a lot of hope for life-work balance this year.

Because I Do…

OK. Midweek. No kids yet…they start tomorrow. I’ve sat through a ton of meetings, including a really stupid school board meeting that is gonna cost thousands to fix (why are we passing things that are against state law?). Plus I had an EEG with sleep deprivation…26 electrodes stuck onto my scalp, then got to go back to work after that. Yesterday was LOOOONG. I was up at 4:15, per instructions, at work by 6:15 (I worked here first because the alarms at school were on…and maybe I set them off yesterday, because now they’re telling us a later time. Whoops! I searched through my email and found an earlier time, so who the fuck knows what happened there.), worked until 11:30, when I went for the EEG, came back, worked some more, went home and showered gel and crap out of my hair, then to the school board meeting. Home. Cooked. Ugh. I remember how hard it is to get up off the couch after all that and DO something. But I did. Because I do. I packed up the big quilt to deliver to the photographer tomorrow. Had to iron it and dehair it and wrap it up. THEN it was 10:10 PM and I still wanted to do real art, like something besides paperwork and gruntwork.

So on the art front, I’m going to have a piece in an upcoming show about women’s rights, called We Got the Power, based on the story of Lysistrata. The CAMP Gallery in Miami, Florida, has been doing an annual show of art related to literature, called Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse and this is this year’s version. I did a drawing back in June/July and was accepted based on that. But now I need to make the actual piece. It’s small. It’ll be easy. Well, but it’s complicated, because…me. It’s got about 390 pieces in it I started tracing Monday night…

I forgot what it was like to do this with a kitten in the house. Luckily, it’s small. And Bowie mostly listens to ‘no’. With Luna, I just had to wait for her to be asleep to trace.

The pieces are small too, so it’s going pretty fast, although most of this was Monday night. Last night, I got about 30 minutes after getting that quilt ready to go.

Much easier when he’s asleep.

I’m somewhere in the 200s. Not very far in. Tonight I need to pick up the girlchild from the airport, plus I’m fucking exhausted from yesterday, and kids start at school tomorrow, so I have to be awake, alert, and not cranky. First day. Yikes. All that to say, I don’t think I’m getting this fully traced tonight…it’ll probably be done tomorrow night.

Monday, I went to ceramics and put two things on the drying rack, after finishing this up last week. There will be some glaze added after the bisque firing.

And some iron oxide. I also started a mug. Like a real mug. To drink tea out of. Both my mugs (the ones I like to use) have cracks in them. In fact, there might be three with cracks, now that I think about it. So I am preemptively making a new mug. We’ll see how that goes. I have a few non-artsy things to make and this seemed like a good time to do that…finish up the little bits of clay I have before I pick a new type to try. Not sure when I will next be able to go to clay…maybe tomorrow after school? If I’m alive? Oh wait, no, I’m delivering a quilt. Ha! Well. Maybe Friday or Saturday.

There was a fire near where we often hike…

They stopped it, but there’s only one way in and out to the area that I know of, so they were having people shelter in place. Scary. I don’t think it burned the actual part of the reserve we hike, but we might need to go up and hike it. Once it’s safe.

This amuses the crap out of me.

Seriously. I wear all black all the time. When I’m depressed or not. It’s just easier than colors. I know, ironic when you look at my quilts, but black always goes with black. Although there are different shades of black, but they all go together! OK, I know some fashionistas would argue with me, but whatever.

OK. Today currently has three meetings, plus I really do need to get all the school stuff done. Well or do I? Because then what would I do on my prep tomorrow? I know all my preps will be buried eventually, but not yet. I am tired. Really tired. The beginning of the school year is always like this…tiring, sort of anxiety-making, too many meetings, lots of discombobulated rushing around and trying to remember to do things. Plus coming home and realizing you have no free time anymore. I hate that part. But I gotta pay the bills, so that’s how it rolls. OK. More tea. That’s a given.