An Impossible Task

Yes, it’s not Monday. I was supposed to write yesterday. I remembered a few times during the day, but was trying to do stuff. I was not well on Saturday, Sunday still recovering, probably still recovering today, honestly. Seems like my immune system decided it wasn’t gonna work last week. It’s fine; I got antibiotics Saturday and I’m pretty sure I’m OK now (taking ALL the antibiotics until they’re gone, because let’s follow directions, y’all), but when they tell you to go to the ER with certain symptoms and the meds cause some of those symptoms…it’s fun times, y’all. Also, like, what IS a fever? So a lot of second guessing and kind of what feels like a waste of a weekend, thanks body for that, but all a necessary part of the whole life game. Better now. Mostly. Didn’t get to hike. Didn’t get a lot done. Sigh.

I couldn’t fall asleep last night, brain just whirring along, dragging me along with it. Yes, I meditated. I counted to 10 with deep breaths about three thousand times. It was just an impossible task. Sleep because you know what the week brings. Nope. Not happening. Ah well. Move on and caffeinate.

I did trace, despite the illness. Meds helped. Originally, going into the weekend, I had this crazy idea that if I traced for 3 hours each day, I could finish tracing this thing. Or maybe 4 hours. Like I had nothing else to do. I mean, it turned out that it didn’t matter if I had other things to do…but…here’s Friday night.

Made it up onto her left arm…then Saturday night, after the meds kicked in…

Oooh, here it is with the light off…

That might have been Sunday night…oh wait, no, this is Sunday night…

That’s all the Wonder Under I’d traced so far. The three on the left are mostly full. I’m working on the one on the right. I forgot to take a photo last night. It looks the same, y’all. Every night, it looks the same…I just have more things drawn on the Wonder Under. I made it to the mid 900s last night (not done, not at all done). If I keep up the hour a night, I won’t be done until Saturday night. One of the things I thought about last night in the multiple hours I wasn’t sleeping is how far I would get on this piece before I left for Oregon, and the answer is, not far enough to come back and finish it and photograph it before the deadline I’m aiming for, SO. I will have to ramp it up. Knock on wood. Get more schoolwork done at school. Like I can wish for that, but making it happen is a different thing.

I did make it to ceramics yesterday, which is good, because I missed two Fridays in a row. The heart is out on the drying racks (they finally cleared a bunch of stuff off of them…still no room for the torso unfortunately). I’m trying to finish up the building part on this so I can underglaze it.

I added stems and leaves and decorated a bit.

One more arm and then it’s ready for underglazing. That’ll only take 300 hours.

This is where I’m at, but add the California primaries with 62 (?) people running for governor, and the top two Repugs are really disgusting. I mean it sucks being in the US right now with the government we have, but California has been a bit better…big enough to be its own country, and no perfect governor, but not one with his head up the orange ass. We voted on Monday. Glad it’s done, but it did not reduce my stress.

Deep breaths. We’ll know in a week who the top two are. If they are both Repugs, then fuuuck. Is all I have to say.

Then this…

There must be a better way to power AI. It’s not leaving. Can we get the great minds onto how to better use it and power it, so we’re not using human resources to power little boys putting girls’ heads on naked women’s bodies? Is that a thing? Can we do that? Probably not.

Here watch some baby owls learning to do things…

Cute, right? Loud. They fly away a lot these days and leave partially eaten rodents all over the yard. Bleck.

OK. The kids are doing a research project on the planets today, because my past self was trying to take care of this week’s self. Good plan, because I can hopefully grade while they’re doing that. Low-key week for the win. Plus only 4 days. Plus no science interviews, thank goodness (we did 9 last week? 8? I forget. Tired of hearing the same key words over and over again, especially the guy who pointedly looked at me and said he had learned all the new science tech stuff for teaching kids, including…wait for it…EXCEL SPREADSHEETS…like WTF guy…those have been around since I was in school. Nothing new there.). Plus more ceramics after school to make up for not going Friday, then grading and dinner and tracing, at least 90 minutes please. Maybe more. We’ll see. This is the end of May, y’all. The end is coming (of the school year…not the world…yet).

Focus on the Owls…

Midweek. Testing week. Warm week. Lots is going on. Science state testing. Science department interviews. Juggling doc appointments. Trying to fit everything in. Crazy to even try, right?

OK, I underglazed the heart for the ceramic sculpture I’m working on.

I still need to finish decorating the arms and then underglaze the torso, then get started on the head. There’s still nowhere to dry the torso, which is part of my problem. I might need to finish it before starting the head. Problematic. I have a neck sitting on the torso and am trying to keep it from drying out.

Meanwhile, I’m tracing the newest quilt…

It’s going well except for the part where Scribble tries to dive under it or sit on it and tore the drawing in three places.

Last night, I seemed to be able to persuade her to stare at geckos and attack her brother instead. Hopeful. Made it into the 200s last night. I’m going to be here for a while…1200 more pieces, to be exact. Also I’ve found at least 5 pieces so far that weren’t numbered, so I’m thriving. Really.

So I’m working on that every night, thank goodness, because it’s meditative and I need that.

The owls babies are all out and flying around the neighborhood, although there seems to be one that is always on the box. But I think there are three now. So check these videos out.

Definitely three…just don’t know if one is mom. I don’t think so.

Apparently they go to bed at about 5:30 AM.

So cool. Anyway, I have to run a short union meeting this morning. We have state science testing. The kids leave early. We get to go out to lunch, and then grade, and then interview. I have pilates. And more grading. And then tracing. It’s going OK, but I feel like I don’t get anything else done but that. So I might have to water some things and plant some seeds and weed a little. Also, I’m not sure the boychild is coming home today. Don’t tell the dog. Fires abound. It’s only May. Not enough rain. Focus on the owls, though. They’re pretty cool. I like to think I’m helping the barn owl population in my area. Which helps limit the gopher/rat population. Also good.

A Threat Call…

I woke up at 1 AM out of a deep sleep, heart pounding, dog growling, as the two adult barn owls screeched a threat call. I wouldn’t ignore that if I were another animal. I don’t know what was out there, but I do know the babies were back to squawking away within 20 minutes, so it must have been OK. Scared me though…and the dog. Maybe a barn owl needs to make it into this quilt too.

So this new quilt comes from a drawing from last summer, which I did at the first all-staff meeting (before kids showed up). They wouldn’t let us have our computers open and they literally read to us from the slides, so I drew. I had copied the drawing back in December or January, but got sidetracked by other things that needed to be done. Originally, I was just going to make it into a quilt, just the drawing, but the world impinges on that, so I added paper above and below, and started drawing a couple nights ago.

Yes, Scribble is lying on the part I was drawing on. Why do you ask? I got some stuff roughed out in pencil…

And last night, I inked that and added more pencil…

And last night, while I was trying to fall asleep, I took notes on a couple more things that could go up here. And more down below. Although I am enjoying branching out into the dye paintings, there is a certain sense of relief about going back to how I ‘normally’ make quilts. My brain likes it.

I also drew, inked, and numbered a baby quilt drawing…

It’s taken me a year to do this, I think. It’s supposed to go in here…

And although it doesn’t look like it’s the right shape or size, I’ve shoved the paper in there and it works, plus I added an inch all the way around for marginal errors. So that’s on my list too.

Monday, I made it back to ceramics…and decided I didn’t need to attach the heart…I could just lay it on there.

It turned out bigger than I thought, which is funny, because I literally had the torso there in front of me when I made it.

I added some veins to the fabric piece, and then flowers to the arm.

We have these punch things, not sure what they’re actually for…cookies? I’ve used the leaves before. I was going to make flowers, but these were more fun.

I made three. I’m going to go back and texture the centers and add stems and leaves and maybe bugs.

Fun stuff.

I was trying to finish my book…

My lap charges a premium.

Our school is doing teacher appreciation week this week. Yesterday was nachos, but they weren’t ready during my prep. I was supposed to eat them during lunch, except I can’t usually substitute like that. Oh well.

But yeah. Give me back my time, show up outside, do the things, follow through…please.

I’m in. Although I can’t really eat ice cream unless we hike three miles in the forest first. Hopefully you’re up for that part too.

OK. Today I teach rock layers. It’s really hard: the rocks where fossils are found usually form in layers. It’s sedimentary rock. The oldest rocks are on the bottom, so if you find fossils down there, they are usually the oldest. The newest ones are on top. There, I’m done. Y’all, it will take all period and some kids will never get it. I’m doing the speedy version, not the fun one where I give them cards and they have to figure out the layers. The state science test is in a week. I’m panicking a little. Oh well. I started planning next year, in that, I made a copy of this year’s calendar and I’m changing all the dates and holidays. That’s it. That’s what I can handle at the moment. It’s fine.

After school is a union meeting. I’m already tired. Tired of meetings and kid drama and adult bullshit. I should start a new book (seriously, I finished that other one last night, so I’m allowed).

The Shortest, But Longest Days…

Oh hey, it’s Wednesday. Weird week. State testing started yesterday, so we have the shortest, but longest, days with kids for a couple days. I keep my advisory for 3 hours and 15 minutes and they annoy me the whole time by being unable to follow directions, log in, keep their computers in good shape, did I say follow directions? Be quiet, don’t turn around and make faces at or talk to your friend, stop trying to contort your body into stupid positions. Just take the damn test and then chill out. None of this crew brought a book for after. They didn’t believe me when I said no computers, despite that being a school rule for the last million years. Then they leave around noon and we go get lunch and then try to work the rest of the day. I did actually grade for two hours. It was yucky. Whatever. We have one more day today and then we skip a week, then math and science will be the week after that. I just need all this to be done. I need the rest of the year planned…usually this is when we take a breath and relax a bit because sex ed is a known quantity and it’s all planned for the end of the year. But no. Not this year. Sigh. I’m frustrated. And tired. I know that. I might always be like that at the end of the year. I probably am.

I finished sewing the braids down last night…it took longer than you’d think it would.

I tacked each braid down every few inches or so.

That was after one night. And then last night, I did the rest.

Bowie slept through most of it. I was trying to fall asleep last night and was thinking about what else to do on this piece. I have an idea, so I’ll hopefully work on that tonight.

I finished the heart on Monday at the ceramics studio.

It goes on the fabric piece…not sure when that will happen, because I have stuff going for the rest of the week.

I got a quilt back from a show yesterday…like this…

Luckily, there was no damage inside. It does look like they ran it over with something though. And it was wet, so recently? It rained yesterday. It was packed well, luckily.

I keep thinking of this, how we are all human, despite the stupidity.

And this…

I didn’t get to the history of DNA this year. I usually teach it a bit and always the Rosalind Franklin part.

And I had just heard a new astounding set of numbers about this…

We just absolutely suck as a culture for causing and ignoring this.

So here’s the owls though…

Mom is out and about (probably because those babes are fucking annoying). And you can barely see the two baby heads in the hole of the box. Right now, WordPress is showing that the video is private. Not sure how to fix that. Hmmm. OK, I think I fixed it. Love it when they change how things work.

OK. Today. Second day of testing, usually harder and shorter. But the kids are still here for three hours plus. Then some lunch, some planning, maybe grading. Pilates, pack bug quilts up, book club? Busy. Long. Oh wait, meeting this morning too, ugh. So much adult drama yesterday. Could do without that. OK, though, gotta go now. Art tonight…at some point.

Gonna Get There…

Gotta write fast; got a meeting this morning. My team had five kid meetings this week and divided them out. We usually all go, but we’re all burnt out on them and so we tried to be organized about it. We’ve been to so many meetings this year for kids…and mostly for the same group of kids over and over. And nothing gets solved at a lot of them. Hopefully today’s will go well…it should.

So art is a struggle at the moment. I guess I got to do ceramics yesterday…

I worked on the hands a bit and then figured out how to add a neck that was removable. There’s still no room to put her on the drying racks, so I figure I’m going to have to start underglazing her and let her dry on my shelf? And then try to do the head? Not sure. Actually, I remembered some other things I was going to do, so now that the fabric has solidified a bit, I might do that. We’ll see.

I managed to paint these for the bugs the other night…

I was going to start attaching bugs to them last night, but started to book flights to see the girlchild and got sucked into an Expedia loop that ended with me on two different airline websites instead, telling Expedia to fuck off. That was 90 minutes I would have spent sewing bugs on. So I guess that’s tonight. It’s fine. Really. I do like a big project. These little fussy ones finish up easy and quickly (well, though, is it?), but I get more frustrated with them. Like, it’s small…why isn’t it done already? So yeah. Getting there.

I also started some embroidery on this dye painting…

Hello Scribble…but I need a specific yarn for the hair, I think. And the yarn store isn’t open until tomorrow. So it’s on my list for after school. I do want to do a big piece next. Like the one I planned to do back in January. It’s been waiting patiently. It deserves to be made. I don’t even remember what it looks like.

I also finished this Critters block (Sue Spargo). The ants were fun.

Meanwhile, political shit is crazy. I mean, no matter what you think about what happened and how people reacted…

The difference between those reactions and those directed toward families who lose children in school shootings is boggling.

And those are the jokey ones. Here’s the real shit.

THAT. Is incredibly sad.

Followed by this crazy shit.

We’re already having issues getting treatments approved. We have an idiot in charge of HHS, increasing measles outbreaks, bad math when it comes to medical expenses (I would like a 600% decrease in my medicine costs please)…and now we’re trying to block new science. This will be why you won’t get new treatments for your cancer in the future.

Only the rich will be able to afford them, and they’ll have to fly out of the US to get them. The attack on science, women, people of color, the poor, LGTBQIA. And the billionaires get more billionairy. Vote, y’all. Vote loudly and often. Yell lots. You know what still hasn’t happened? Epstein files. Cheaper gas. Cheaper food. Nothing is great. We’re still at war. We’re still randomly killing people in the Atlantic Ocean. We’re doing so many illegal things.

Well. Cheery thought. Gotta get out of here. Giving a test on natural selection today. Then starting evolution tomorrow. Through state testing…in bits and pieces. Got lots of work to do. Got lots of planning to do for the summer. Deep breaths…gonna get there somehow.

There’s Always a Back…

It’s another Wednesday where my brain keeps skipping ahead to Thursday. Surely I’ve lived through three workdays by now. Only three more days of sex ed and then back to the normal shitshow. Which isn’t planned yet. Minor issue. I’d really like to be planned out more than a few days…more than a week would be nice. It’s a constant scramble and that’s part of the exhaustion. Plus grading on top of it. I’m going to have to start grading a test tonight that I gave yesterday. Not sure if it’s going into the progress report. I’m not that on top of things yet. Never am really. Don’t want to spend the whole weekend grading. So we’ll see where I get.

I finished the embroidery, for some definition of embroidery, on the quilt. I think.

You can barely tell in photos. Then I started adding beads last night…

You can barely tell…I mean, the larger ones are obvious. I’m not done. It’s more about catching the light with those.

Also adding to the texture. It’ll be way different in person than in a photograph I guess. I’ve been told my work is anyway, so there we are.

I added to the ceramic piece on Monday…

Pounded out a slabbish piece and kind of squished it up and laid it over her arms.

Hopefully it will hold up. This thing is getting heavy. Gonna do some arm decorating, fix up the fingers with some details, and cut a hole for the neck. There’s still no room on the drying racks. Might need another plan at some point.

My co-teacher gave the kids pipe cleaners for their nervous fingers during sex ed. I found this outside.

Not particularly accurate. To our credit, 7th grade teaches anatomy; we just teach what happens if you use it. Pretty iconic otherwise. The orange is disturbing though.

Melania does think AI can do my job.

This is the problem though. Melania needs to read more dystopian fiction.

I love this…it’s so true, and at some point, when I was answering a question about abortions, I mentioned that non-science people shouldn’t be making laws about science they don’t understand (ectopic pregnancies cannot be transplanted, you idiot politicians)…

Also the kid who wanted to know why he had to learn about pregnancy…HE. I congratulated him on his decision never to have sex with a woman. Yes, the boys are driving me a little bonkers at the moment. Today is STIs. Scary stuff, but less scary than when we taught it. It’s all less scary. Videos of childbirth are good because it scares them. The animation they make for pregnant moms, which is what we have to use instead, is very vanilla. This whole new curriculum is just a lot of teacher reading and not a lot of good interactions. I might have the energy to do something about that someday, but not today. The LONG email I sent with corrections still hasn’t been answered. Sigh. Whatever. Highlight the damn words that need to be written so my low readers can FIND them, you assholes. Sigh. REALLY SIGH this time.

OK. Like I said, teaching STIs today. Preventing them tomorrow. Then goal setting and we’re done. Hallelujah. Then back to natural selection and then state testing and I can’t believe we’re getting to the end of this shitty year. Only 40 days of school left and one of those is promotion. One is a field trip. Four are testing days, which are hell in their own way, but the kids leave at noon and then it’s quiet. I have pilates after school and then I will come home and weed or grade or both and then play with more beads. I did weed a lot yesterday too…hoping to get enough done to scatter the wildflowers (aka fancy weeds with flowers) the boychild gave me. May the planning and grading go well. May I be less tired than yesterday. May my voice last the entire day (questionable). Oh shit, I’m doing test corrections at lunch. May the kids remember to turn over to the back of the page. There’s always a back. Just sometimes it’s blank.

I’m a Big Girl…

Hey. It’s Friday. I say this once a week. I saw three squirrels cavorting on the slope this morning. I’ve only ever seen two at a time, mostly one. This was definitely three. Fun times. I definitely have the trees for it. And the one I’m watching right now? Definitely a young one. Not super tiny, but not an adult. Cool morning focus…on nature (even destructive nature) rather than the shitshow that is school right now. Behaviors have ramped up in all the classes, and I don’t think teaching sex ed early is helping. The baby squirrel went up one of the trees and is now coming down another one. Adorable little beast. Unlike boys during sex ed. I shouldn’t say ALL boys, because it’s not. But it’s a healthy number of them. Speaking of not all boys but way too many of them…

I mean, I guess I’m alternately shocked and not surprised at all that a ton of men checked into an online rape academy. Certainly I’m holding other men responsible for shutting that shit down if they ever get a hint of someone they know visiting that, but also, why is it allowed to exist? I’d love to have all those men outed. Names published. Fired from jobs. As we teach sex ed and little boys write on the question cards, “how many holes on a girl can I put my dick into?” Seriously disturbing sometimes. Also there has been a huge thing on consent, with parents monitoring kids’ phones and the kids saying they don’t have their consent, (and my laughing my ass off, because who pays for your damn phones and phone bills, you sweet dingbats), and then I explain how you can’t give consent under 18. And you know, it’s always the boys yelling, Bill touched me without my consent; can I hit him? Can I sue him? And the girls are sitting quietly in their chairs. I do mostly clump boys together on one side, girls on the other. Kids get to choose one person to sit with and there are some boy/girl combos. One set is dating and I warned him; usually I don’t let them sit together, but I think this pair is OK. The other pairs are friends and that is their support system. But one (annoying) boy noticed yesterday (on Day 4) and yelled out about it (because apparently we have to yell everything out), and one of the girls answered, “Maybe we just wanted to sit with our friends so we don’t have to listen to you,” and I’m with her on that. I’m kind of done with it, and we’re not even halfway through. My voice is shot; my patience is heading for the basement level. Deep breaths. It’s Friday. I can do it. I’m teaching pregnancy today. That should shut them up.

Artwise, I’m still embroidering. I have a lot done (it doesn’t look like a lot though)…

I finished that blue-green color and the lighter purple, and started the bright pink.

Then I need to find a proper purple; then sequins and beads. Another week? I may pause and do bug legs for a few days. I was too tired for them. They require thought and I’ve been doing yardwork every night and then grading and barely starting embroidery at 9:30 PM and hardly getting an hour in. Ugh.

I did go to ceramics last night because I have physical therapy for my knee after school today and then a show tonight (UGH).

She’s got two arms now and roughouts for hands. I’m trying to do hands differently…put something in them and then carve the fingers, because the fingers are always breaking. We’ll see how that goes. I have to make sure it doesn’t dry out too much so I can’t carve it, and my original plan for the arms changed mid-arm and then I still don’t have enough shelf space available to dry this or start the head and originally there was going to be a barn owl on the head/shoulders and I’m not sure how to pull that off. SO. Yeah. I’m rethinking.

She looks like she’s doing a low row in pilates. ANYWAY. I’ll get there. I don’t plan much in ceramics. That’s the point for me. Brain loosey goosey.

Speaking of loosey goosey, here’s Scribble.

She’s a sweetheart. But still kitteny.

Hey so I finished my taxes a week or so ago and I’m still pissed off that I’m paying for a war. And ICE. And those dumbass goons in the government who quote random shit and say even more random shit. Also my right eye started twitching today and I blame all of this: school and world.

Unfortunately, the monkeys are mine. Every day. In class.

Another photo of my piece at the No Boundaries exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum.

And my Stitchpunk piece at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. I always forget that they’re traveling around, although hopefully I’ll see this one in Oregon this summer. Or is that Fierce Planets? I can’t remember.

Woman 3.0. Hopefully dealing with fewer stupid men online.

Leaving you with Simba AFTER I stopped rubbing his belly.

No judgement in that face. I did rub his belly for a long time (not long enough, lady).

OK. Teaching pregnancy today. No videos of women giving birth, unfortunately. The school board thinks that’s too much. I think it scares them and it’s useful. Plus it gives me a break from talking. I talk NONSTOP for this unit with the new curriculum. Yesterday a boy yelled out, “Pregnancy, Why the fuck do we need to learn about that?!”. I calmly said, “well, I guess you never want to have sex with a woman then.” Fun times, y’all, fun times. After teaching that all day (it’s OK, the one class that got to the anatomy review yesterday shut up SO FAST…it was joyful), I will get my knee poked and prodded again, then remember to pick up my insulin (if I forget, it’s OK; I’ll be back tomorrow for the boob squeeze, version 1). Then the Man said I should NAP for the show tonight. Four hours long. But there’s a taco truck. But the three songs he’s in are the last of 43? So holy crap, bring my book and go read in a corner? We’ll see how I feel. Currently I feel like crawling into a pillow fort, but that’s not an option. I’m a big girl and I need to do all the things.

Art Will Be at the End of It…

It seems to be Monday again. Some cruel joke. We start sex ed today, a full 6 weeks early, and I am so not ready. I have 32 kids opted out (I think…something like that)…I have one class that only has 6 girls left (girls opt out more than boys). I clustered them in a little pod, like wagons circled together for protection. Occasionally a girl wants to sit with a boy. Some make total sense, and one this year is a couple…I don’t think they realize how awkward it will get when we start talking about how pregnancy happens and STIs present. I don’t usually let the couples sit together, but we’ll see how this works. Big class. Not a lot of places to put him.

So there’s that. I’m totally behind in grading because I did not have any time this weekend for it (or motivation; let’s be real). I’ll need to be a little more on top of it this week. Somehow. Ugh. I’m too tired for all this shit.

So what did I do this weekend? I picked up quilts and went to an art group meeting and went to dinner at my parents because my brother is here visiting and that’s really it. I was out of it for most of Saturday, even though I did things. Stitching-wise, I worked on everything. I finished the edges of the 5 bugs…

Now they all need legs…well, except the ladybug. She’s got them already.

Pink or green legs? I’m thinking lime green.

This one looks really weird without the rest of its leg parts.

Some of them also need antennae. Maybe that’s tonight’s project.

Then Saturday, at the artist meeting, where I saw an artist’s studio that would be lovely, yes thank you, I would like that much room…I worked on this…

I took an improv quilt class last January? Or the year before? Finished the top and went, eh, I’m not really an improv quilter, what am I going to do with this? So I started stitching on it last summer, put it down after that residency, but picked it up for this meeting and did some more stitching. Because my brain is all over the map at the moment. Proof of that: last night, I was working on the pink head again…

Scribble is not so helpful. But I did pull out all the beads and found the sequins. I’m still doing thread stuff right now though. It takes forever.

The ceramic piece got more stuff on the front…

As I watched this…

Which was awesome and awe-inspiring and all that good stuff. Unlike the rest of everything.

Ok. I am really tired still. Blood sugar has been crashing at night, so I’m reducing my insulin to see if that helps. It’s exhausting to deal with. I didn’t get any yard work done this weekend, so hopefully I will later this week. I’ve got some ceramics time built in. I’m going to need to grade stuff. I need legs for the bugs and more embroidery all over the place. This week is less busy than last week…well, at least at the moment, so that should help. Today is just the intro to sex ed, so it’s mostly my telling them how all the things work and how not to piss me off while I’m teaching it (fun times, y’all…some of the boys lose their freakin’ minds). There are a couple of kids I won’t mind not seeing for two weeks, honestly, so that’s a plus. Anyway…art will be at the end of it and that’s always a good thing, even if I’m jumping all over the place with projects. There’s a reason for the jumping and I’ll get all these little projects done eventually and get onto a big quilt…hopefully by June. Which is a long way away unfortunately. Sigh.

Supposed to Do…

Hello all. It’s Wednesday, although my brain is convinced it has survived more than two work days this week. It’s wrong…well, unless you count the weekend, when I also worked. As always. I finally finished all the bindings on the dye paintings…with everyone’s help. Here’s Nova…

Who headbutts things and then drools on you.

I started embroidery (finally!) on this one last night…

Probably take forever. I was going to do more applique on it, but that would have meant getting off the couch and I was well past that. I will still DO the applique, but I need to prep for it earlier in the evening. Probably not tonight. Today is a mess. We’re going on a field trip to the Midway (big military boat; my favorite thing really…ha), then we’re back in our rooms for two periods and I still don’t have air conditioning (it was 97 degrees outside yesterday). Then pilates and cooking dinner. Ugh. I’ll be half dead by the end of it. And I’m grading like crazy to hopefully limit what I have to get done over break.

I went to the ceramics studio last night and took this half-assed photo of the bowl ready for glaze fire.

It took me almost an hour to do the glazing. I’m hoping it turns out well.

The Forbidden Words Project quilt is done…I have three words/phrases in it.

Let’s see if I can find them…

The girlchild might make it to the opening where this will debut up in San Francisco. It’ll travel…hopefully I’ll see it at some point.

Yesterday was crazy hat day AND tattoo a teacher (fundraiser)…

What’s funny is that I went to the ceramics studio after and forgot I had the tattoos and got some weird looks until I remembered.

Good times. Getting them off was a bit more challenging, but I think we’re good.

This is where we’re headed. Again.

I’d like to bring up the guy who said my comments about the Repugs/MAGA need to throw women back to the 1900s were a conspiracy theory. After I bring him up, I’d like him to explain what’s happening now and how I was wrong. (not happening; it’s fine. It’s not like I wanted to be right.)

And this. Sigh.

Keep voting y’all. And caring about all the people. It’s what we’re supposed to do.

What Happened to Your Face?!

Hey yo. I’m not sure I can feel this tired in the morning forever. I feel like my body should be adjusting. I’m going to bed at the appropriate time for the time shift, so I’m getting the ‘right’ amount of sleep (or the amount of sleep I normally get anyway, which is probably nowhere near enough)…but I feel like a truck hit me every time I get up. I’m sure this happens every year and I feel like shit like this every year, and every year, I mentally block it out and think it will never happen again. And then it does. Good times.

Quilt progress…I finally got binding and sleeves on all four quilts…OK, this isn’t a picture of that. I think I finished quilting this one? I don’t even know.

I just pick up the next one on the pile and figure out what to do with it next.

I used the same purple binding on two of them because the fabric store I was at is apparently phasing out the fabric parts and there were very few fabrics that would work and I didn’t have time to drive to the next fabric store, the better one, before it closed. So I got what worked.

They have different sleeve fabrics, which doesn’t matter at all. To me anyway. Don’t look at my backs. They’re not meant to be pretty. Some people do that; I don’t.

So tonight, I’ll start all the handsewing of the bindings…I think I’ll leave at least some of the sleeves loose so they don’t get in the way of any embroidery I might be doing.

Monday, I cut a hole in her chest.

I needed it to be sturdy enough for that. And then I started adding things…

That took a long time…and it’s not done. Fun though.

My bowl made it through the bisque fire.

It has one tiny crack on the edge that will either fade away or turn into something horrible in the glaze fire. That’s how it goes. I have no room on my shelf for it and I didn’t bring my glazes on Monday, so I’ll have to remember on Friday to do that. Clear glaze on the outside, something on the inside. I don’t have a lot of choices for the inside.

I have two pieces in this show that opens this weekend. I should be at the opening in the first hour.

It’s usually a pretty cool venue/gathering of quilts.

I finished a book yesterday. This is a quote…I used to know how to screenshot stuff with my iPad, but apparently I forgot and resorted to taking a blurry picture with my phone.

I agree.

And this too.

OK. My mouth is still sore. My face is still bruised but better. I’ve had a billion students yell, “What happened to your face?!” at me in the last two days, even though I explained it. Shows you how much they listen. I’m exhausted. I still have six stitches in my gum, which will come out Friday. I’m running out of pain meds, but will be fine…really…I think some of the pain is the weather seesawing between chilly and rain to Santa Ana winds and hot weather. They fixed my air conditioning at school before it hits 93 degrees tomorrow. I’m behind on EVERYTHING. In case you were wondering. Today, I am continuing to teach Punnett squares and then going to a union meeting. Then coming home and grading and handstitching. And OMG sleep. Ugh. So I can be up even earlier tomorrow morning. There’s 8 days of school before Spring Break. And one assembly. And a field trip. And and and. Ugh.