Thread-Free

Well that was a stressful day. Yesterday. No need to test my adaptive abilities. Really. First there’s 8 hours of jackhammering, wherein I almost lost my mind, but then Kitten decides to eat thread.

So I’ve been quilting since I was about 22 years old. I’ve sewn longer than that, largely around cats, so yeah, I’m aware that thread and cats are a bad mix. I’ve had multiple cats over the years who were thread-munchers. Some even tried to get bits out of the trashcans, so I had to work hard to keep it away from them. But these two that I have now…well, Midnight likes the poly/nylon-y stuff, but I never leave that on the sewing machine because that stuff is really bad for them. I’ve pulled it out of a couple of cats who literally stalked the machine until I went to pee, and then went for the thread. It’s one of the reasons I always use the quilt under the machine to cover the machine when I’m not sewing. Cat can’t sit on quilt. Cat can’t eat thread.

But the regular sewing stuff, these two cats have never given a shit about it. They sit back behind the machine all the time and have always left it alone. And Kitten’s been here for 6 years, so I don’t know what bug got in her ear, but I turned around, maybe 5 minutes after she went to sit back there, and she was swallowing black thread like there was no tomorrow. Yeah, I pulled. I’ve pulled (gently of course) on multiple cats and been successful. Not yesterday. It was stuck. Dammit. Well, I cut as much as a could (a foot or so) and then called the vet, who had me call the emergency vet. Damn cat. She’s the most expensive cat I’ve ever owned now, between the nasty dental surgery a few years back (she’s got some genetic thing and had to have 12 teeth removed) and this thread thing. They sedated her, tried to release the thread (it was around her tongue). Pulled gently, it’s stuck. Scoped her. By then it was in her intestines and they couldn’t get at it.

So those who have gone through this realize how much money all this costs, and it’s funny, because I went into this summer for the first time in YEARS (like pre-divorce, baby) feeling like my head was (temporarily, due to upcoming college payments) semi-above water. Well yeah. And that was after the car costs from last month, which were fairly horrendous. But I thought I could get through the summer and actually pay the mortgage and groceries and half of the boychild’s health insurance, due on August 1. Because I’m a teacher, and I don’t get paid until the end of August. Summers always make my guts clench financially. But this year seemed doable (unlike last year, which was a giant clusterfuck until I sold a quilt).

So yeah, Kitten had surgery last night. Luckily it was quick and easy and her intestines weren’t shredded by thread and she’s recovering, but she doesn’t want to eat. And every time the doc calls to update me, they reassure me that they’ll do everything they can to make the cost as low as possible, probably because I completely lost it in the exam room. Well. You know. I guess life just wants to remind me that I am not in control. Like I didn’t already know that.

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She’s making a funny face because she only has one fang and it sometimes gets stuck on her lip.

So I had to get one of those pet loans, which luckily I qualify for, and when I start getting paid again, I’ll pay it off quickly (I’ve done this before)…but it means all the extra money I’m earning now is no longer being put away for college. So there we are. I don’t even have a total cost yet on the cat, but I know it’s bad. But she’s also my baby and my responsibility, so I didn’t really feel like I could do anything else. I know some cats pass these just fine, but it’s not a huge percentage. So the quicker I did stuff, the easier it would be on her.

And yeah, I guess my takeaway is to hide the thread no matter how the cat acts about it for the first 6 years, because cats do stupid shit just like humans do. And she’s gonna be fine. And I’m gonna find the money somewhere. Here she is just yesterday, schooling Simba in cat/dog interactions.

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I spent the rest of the evening trying to focus on the copyediting, once they stopped jackhammering…Simba is such a goofball.

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Realizing that my ancient keyboard really is nonfunctional if you’re trying to FIND a specific letter or whatever…

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The kids have been complaining about it for years, but whatever. I type mostly from position, not watching keys…it’s been an issue with the copyediting in the last few weeks though, so I had ordered a new one. Work expense. Which I’m now questioning, like I’m going to be questioning every damn penny for the rest of the summer. And it is probably 15 years old. They did come out in 2005…so maybe it’s only 11 years old. Anyway, I must be rough on certain keys…

Girlchild made dinner and the vet called with the post-surgery news in the middle of that. At least it was quick and there were no complications.

After I finished the first run-through on the lesson I was copyediting, I gave myself permission to iron. It was probably 10:30 by then. I did the octopus, the grassy knoll (OK, it’s not really a knoll), a giant artery (the aorta or some version of it anyway), and the cactus. There’s some cactus pieces.

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While I was working, I was listening to and watching a few of the Coursera courses I’m signed up for this summer. I’m taking two basic college chemistry classes, because I will be teaching a lot more of that this coming year, and I’m decidedly shaky on it. I haven’t had chemistry since high school and I was never great at it, which might make you worry about my teaching it, but trust me…I’ll understand it or I’ll figure it out as I go. I didn’t know anything really about light before I started teaching it, and I did OK. The new standards move the content around quite a bit, and it’s hard to go from being a life science teacher to being a middle-school, 7th-grade science teacher in the days of NGSS if your background is biology. So I’m working on it. Boychild keeps trying to answer my questions, which mostly center around WHY, proving I haven’t changed at all from high school. WHY do electrons do that? WHY do they get excited. WHY do we call it light when it’s really EM radiation? Or IS it? Fuck. I’m still in lesson 1. Let’s hope I figure it out. I have a couple of books from NSTA called Faking It…written specifically for teachers who have to teach this stuff. I might want to read them quickly.

I’m also taking a class called Sexing the Canvas, about art and gender, which not surprisingly, I know quite a bit about. So I watched some videos, did some math (ugh), and took a quiz last night. I think I’m gonna fail the chemistry quizzes, but I’m really just trying to get the concepts more than understand how to work all the equations. We don’t do a lot of equations in 7th grade. I think. I’m OK with failing my first college class (not for credit) at 49 years old.

So I’m in the low 1300s now in the pieces…coming up is a lung and a tiger and then…well…Kitten…because she’s been in a ton of my quilts.

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And I hope she’s in a ton more of them. Thread-free.

Jackhammer in My Brain

Aargh. The neighbor is jackhammering concrete. I can’t think straight. I can’t even think crooked. And there’s a porta-potty up there…that does not bode well for quickly finishing this project. I can only play my music so loud while trying to copyedit.

In other news, I reordered the post-it on my computer that lists all the art deadlines I’m working on at the moment. There are 9 things…well, that’s not true…there are 10 things, because I forgot one and had to do 2a between 2 and 3. If I were really truly anal, I would redo it, but I know it will change yet again, so I didn’t. I don’t have a real due date for one of them too…I had it for October, but someone told me it was August. I hope not.

I’ve done a pre-drawing for number 5 on the list. I’m currently working on number 1 and I’ve started number 2. Number 6…well, I’m debating that one. I have a few pieces that would work for it…but I wanted to do a new one. With the addition of some deadlines that go with the solo show, I might need to revise. It’s lovely to say the show is a year away, but images and lists of work are less than a year away. So yeah. I do plan all this stuff out. And then try to figure out how to be my own creative self within all of that. That’s somewhat more difficult. And I think I left a few deadlines out. Fuck.

I did finish one chapter yesterday…and sent it off. Kitten likes to supervise. Ugh. I was supposed to do the next chapter today, but the jackhammering is totally throwing me off.

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I started cutting stuff out last night…didn’t get far. I just find it hard to sit and watch TV without doing something, because these deadlines are looming over me. And because I don’t like to waste time just doing one thing. Unless it’s reading. I can Just Read.

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And then after TV time (which was really dinner with that guy who puts up with my crazy and puppy bites), I came in here and ironed a crane…a crane that had over 100 pieces in it.

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I wanted to do some in the afternoon, but I was mentally dead. In fact, I have no idea what I did in the afternoon. Cleaned stuff up. I even bagged up all the stuff for the thrift shop, some of which had been there for a year. Seriously. What did I do? I ran an errand. I don’t even know.

I have more errands for today, which is good, because I can’t edit with this going on. Seriously, if I were going to be jackhammering concrete and I had my neighbor’s email address, then I would have emailed a warning…something like, hey, jackhammering Wednesday starting at 9 AM and going on for 17 days, so you should just move out now.

Here’s the pile. I didn’t clean it up. Oh, I also ironed kelp. The greens reminded me.

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I’m all the way up one arm to the shoulder. Octopus next. Then cactus. I’m almost done with the 1100s. Plus the others I’ve already done. Less than 800 pieces to go.

Here’s more to cut out. It took a couple of hours to iron the crane and the kelp.

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And then I couldn’t fall asleep. Which is the opposite of the night before, when I could fall asleep but woke up at like 4:30 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. Sleep is just not my thang. I do it wrong. With this jackhammering thing going on, I would have been better off if I had gotten up and edited for a while.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to take two college chemistry classes online at the same time, which is interesting, because one explains the other. Sort of. It makes me feel kinda dumb sometimes, because I have a lot of “why” questions and not a lot of answers. Boychild says “because” and then tries to explain. I’m sure my facial expression tells him exactly what I’m thinking. And then I Google stuff and find out the rest of it. I’m a shitty college student. Now. I used to be a good one. Now there are so many other things I’d rather be doing. Like jackhammering my neighbor.

Clearing My Mind…

So today we will apparently lose 10 degrees in temperature, which will be nice. I’m also done with the chunk of copyediting I got up front. I’m waiting to hear from them about whether it was acceptable and if I’ll get more, but meanwhile, I don’t just rest on my laurels…I’ve got quilts to make! Well, after I get my eyes checked and run the 17 errands I didn’t run over the weekend, because I didn’t have time. But also, I finished cutting out all the Wonder Under pieces…

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There’s Midnight inspecting them. That box is full of pieces, 1900+ of them. The Wonder Under is not great on some of the small pieces, but I’ve dealt with that before. I can retrace or match tiny pieces of WU paper with tiny pieces of WU fusible. Both work. It took 13 hours to cut them all out, so a little less than I thought. I suspect the next phase, ironing onto fabric, will take 20 hours at least. And I need to straighten up in the studio first so I have room to do that.

So once I’m done with errands, I sort pieces, which will take an hour plus, and then clean up, and oh shit. I don’t have a background. Hmm. Crap. I hadn’t even thought of that. I know I have some big pieces that might work…or do I? I have one 2-yard piece. That’s not big enough. OK. It’s a good thing I started writing this before I left…I need a background.

This was while editing yesterday…he’s sitting on the chair behind me…

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I’m pretty sure he can’t get up there by himself.

Anyway, I’m hoping today is artistically successful…because I’ve been missing it and don’t want to get too far behind. Work is good for paying for college, but it’s not necessarily good for clearing my mind. And that’s an important part of the summer.

Warm…

It’s warm here in my part of town, hovering around 100 degrees, although they say the “real feel,” which is the sweat dripping down my back, is 110 degrees. Ugh. Love summer out here in non-air-conditioned land. All the animals are flat and splayed out. I don’t blame them.

I worked most of yesterday, and will continue that today, as much as I can…waiting on a decision between style guide and opinions. Apparently not everyone works all weekend. Shocking!

I got no Wonder Under done yesterday, although I could have…but I decided to draw instead. I was driving and this drawing slammed full-force into my brain. You could almost feel the impact. I have a couple/several shows coming up that I need to make work for this summer, and so they are always floating up there in the netherwhere that fills my brain, percolating in a smelly corner, fires fanned by crazy-ass artistic fairies who form images and then squish them together until they are almost fully formed. So I drew. And this isn’t really it…this is the practice drawing…

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For one thing, the real one needs to be big, and this is the 9×12″ sketchbook. So I’ll do it again and stretch it out. I think the largest figure does actually need a head. And more of a torso. And something in the background. Maybe. But it’s the first official drawing of Summer 2016. So that’s cool.

I drew it while watching the second of the Somm movies about wine sommeliers and winemaking. I liked the first one better.

So here was my view most of yesterday (and continuing into today…).

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As time went on, the cat got longer and more into fondling the keyboard and the mouse…not helpful. Right now, she’s covering the number pad and blocking half of the mousepad and trying to whack my hand every time I touch the mouse. Must be warm…

Boychild decided to teach Simba about the pool…Calli already knows how to cool herself off…as is apparent…

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Simba was not thrilled, but did know how to doggy paddle (apparently some don’t). But then got out and rubbed his entire body in dirt. So he got his first bath from us right after. Apparently that was also traumatic. And exhausting.

The heat certainly does suck energy out of you. OK. Back to work. I will resurface for Father’s Day dinner and then see if I can get some of that Wonder Under done, despite the heat and the workload. I can’t actually finish the editing without a definitive answer, so that’s OK. It’s good to have an excuse not to work all night.

And maybe I’ll get another drawing in there too…