Hot and Sweaty

Last Monday of the 2024/2025 school year. Also supposed to be 90 degrees and we’re outside for most of it. There was some claim of low clouds for the morning, but there is no sign of that here, 2.74 miles away from school. I have sunscreen, a hat, a change of shoes (color run), water…but I lose my prep period, so when will I eat my snack and pee? No one is clear on that one. The things that count, though…

So. Cool things. I was followed by this art center I’d never heard of and kind of looked at it and went, huh. Why? And didn’t follow back (probably a mistake). Then saw that someone who had bought one of my pieces was having a show of her collection at said art center…go look at it and notice who else’s work is in the show…with mine. Wow. That’s kinda cool. Here’s the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, Indiana, only an hour out from Chicago (I looked). And the show is Women to the Front (great title)…and here’s the artist list.

Oh yeah. OK. Impressive. Wish I could figure out how to get to that show, but it’s summer and I’ve already spent all my travel funds. Note to self: follow art centers back. Don’t question it.

Did some underglazing on Friday.

Still taking forever. Fun times. I did all the black things. Next? I think red. There also might be more gray (gun, I’m looking at you).

I marched on Saturday…

It was a lot of people.

Apparently over 60,000. All peaceful.

It was a long day…took the trolley in (read my book both directions).

The Man came too…probably a lot more people than he’s been around for a while. But it was good to see that and feel that. The total number of protesters all over the US has been all over the map, from 5-12 million. Still a lot. Maybe someone should listen to that.

We came home and I read to Bowie…

Little cross-eyed bastard. Put him to sleep…

Depositing hair everywhere.

I did a little wool stitchdown.

Nova really wanted to be on my lap, but wool AND cat when it’s hot? Ugh.

I sandwiched and pinbasted Chirp, the next finished Sue Spargo I had lying around.

Might as well finish some things while my brain is processing. I did finally manage to start a drawing…twice…and this isn’t the final for sure, but it’s processing…

I know what I’m aiming for finally. So that’ll be this week.

Yeah this…

And he did say who he was. So much incompetence in government officials right now…and I’m not talking about Padilla.

Astrology stuff always cracks me up. Both the Man and I are different water signs, and incredibly different people. Shockingly.

I think most of those are mine, not his. And barely accurate. Ah well.

OK. School is weird today. Promotion practice, which usually takes a few hours and a few tries. It’s gonna be hot and sunny. I lose my prep period. Then I probably have kids in Period 4? Admin seemed to think Period 3 too? OK. Never happened in the last two years, so not sure I believe you. But whatever. Three years? How many years have I been 8th grade now? Fuck. Can’t remember. So that. Showing videos if we’re back in class. Not doing anything else. Then lunch, then the last few hours are helping to manage kids with Tshirt signing, BBQ, and color run. Then duty (outside in the heat again) and a staff meeting (UGH). Hopefully I will have the energy for clay afterwards, but it won’t surprise me if I don’t. I sense sweat and sunburn in my future. But we’re almost out! Tomorrow is promotion and my room is almost cleared out, so I won’t have to come back on Wednesday. Woohoo! Summer break, I am ready. To sleep for a couple of weeks (it never happens…there’s too much noise and light for me to sleep).

Boggled

I had to leave for school yesterday with only 9% of my book to be read. I think it said 18 minutes. Good book; wanted to know how it ended. Day job. It’s fine, I read during my prep period and then continued cleaning things and putting them away. I have a giant paper cut from all that, which I don’t appreciate. And a few bruises of unknown origin. Always fun. But yesterday was that great day when you get to the end, walk next door to your coteacher, and say, wait…what do we do with ourselves? Grades are done. Everything is set up for the next three days (well, besides whatever clusterfuck we don’t know about yet). I’m supposed to be at an awards breakfast in 25 minutes (ugh…that’s just for setup). But school is mostly done, besides the surviving part. And cleaning. It’s amazing. I’ve almost survived it. I don’t have to go home and prep, plan, or grade. A joy. Almost a joy. Still teaching today.

I still haven’t started a new art piece. I need to start drawing, and to do that, I need to not be exhausted at the end of the day. Haven’t gotten there yet. Wednesday night, I finished the Tinsel quilt for my mom…

It needs hanging stuff and I need to handsew the label.

Only 2 1/2 years. I thought it was less. Oh well.

Last night was my monthly stitching meeting with friends, so I worked on the June Rooted block.

Progress. This one has a lot of fussy little things in it. I’ll be here a while. This stuff is very relaxing though. I came home and kept stitching on the bits and pieces of the Homegrown borders, which have been sitting around and waiting for a good long while.

These are all Sue Spargo blocks of the month. I find them relaxing and fun to work on in between other stuff. I’ve got two of them to quilt as well, so I might do some of that in between other things this summer. We’ll see. At the moment, I can’t see past today, so there’s that.

Too true.

Dragging the Man out to a protest march tomorrow. I’m boggled by the crazy out there…not the protesters…the government. The lack of forethought for their behaviors. Yes, if you arrest all the farm workers, there will be no food, you idiots. One of my coworkers said they were only arresting criminals. You know who doesn’t go to immigration interviews? Criminals. People who are following the rules do. There’s no due process here, no checking to see if people have legal status. Hell, they keep throwing congresspeople to the floor. No questions! It’s terrifying. Mindboggling. Anyway. So I get to go to school today, sit through one promotion lineup, dump my kids off to turn in their Chromebooks, teach the rest of the day about goal setting (something no one is doing right now), handing back time capsules, then hopefully going to ceramics. Protest tomorrow. Two more days of school next week, mostly outside in the sun. Which reminds me, I need sunscreen for today. That’s important.

When AM I Reading Today?

I love that I said I’d be cleaning my classroom this week, because that hasn’t happened. At all. And it’s not likely to any time soon. I’m teaching, talking all the time, for the next three days, then we have a day of practice and crazy antics, then actual promotion. By the end of the day, hell, by prep period, I’m out of it. Today. Today I will use prep period wisely. I will. I swear. My coteacher and I will go get all the stupid signatures we need to check out. That’s my plan. The last of the to-be-graded assignments are due at 3:30 today. I have a union meeting after school, and then I’m grading. I came home yesterday and graded while on Zoom with my stupid school board meeting. Fun times. I had pilates (finally, I got in…I need the exercise and the time to concentrate on something besides school, something that’s good for me), so I didn’t go to the board meeting, but my stalwart coworkers stayed past 8 PM. It’s never an hour with this board…it’s always three or more. No efficiency there. We went to Belmont Park with the whole promoting class yesterday…my coteacher and I rode the roller coaster early (it gets chaotic after that).

Look! Real smiles! Seriously love me a good roller coaster. I didn’t go last year for some stupid reason. It does make for a long, exhausting day though. We combined our classes for the last two periods and watched Into the Spiderverse. We didn’t even start it over for the last period; just kept watching. For the last 30 minutes, there was a big ice cream celebration for most of our kids. We kept 7 and sat in the dark air conditioning. I don’t really know how I managed to stay functional during grading for an hour or so and then pilates, but I did.

The pro is that I’ve had some time to stitch in the evenings. I’ve been trying to get the flowers on the Sue Spargo Homegrown borders finally. It’s a lot of little pieces on a giant thing. During book club on Monday, I worked on her Rooted quilt…

Here’s the June block on top of her Tinsel quilt, which I’m finishing for my mom. It’s taking forever…

Teeny tiny binding requires tinier stitches. I’m finally on the sleeves, so hopefully, I’ll finish tonight. I have two more Spargo quilts to finish up. I did have a drawing pop into my head during pilates last night (don’t ask…it’s how Art Brain works…I’m trying not to fall over and it’s creating shit). I’m not saying I won’t start some art thing before finishing the two Spargo quilts…I haven’t made any decisions, because I literally don’t have the brain power for that.

Monday was ceramics…I painted the torso for the fourth time…this time, I actually covered everything, but I had to reattach that damn hand again.

I saved some of the mix of underglaze to patch the hand…smarter than usual. Friday, I’m hoping to start glazing more of the other bits, which will take forever. At least.

The base has been bisqued, but the colors were a bit much, so I finally decided to underglaze over them. I also want to do a wash over it all, but I can’t wipe that away without wiping the glaze away, so I’m going to have to fire it again. Expensive. That said, this piece has so many freaking hours in it, I’ll never be able to sell it. At this point, I just want to be able to finish it.

The crazy stuff I do for fun.

Here’s a sampling of kid stuff about sex ed…

Made me laugh.

A lot.

Sigh. That one. Literally they had a chart to help them fill this out. I mean, he’s not entirely wrong.

Anyway. I’m putzing along with all the things. I have a lot of things unfortunately. I did book my flight up to San Francisco to see the girlchild and all the art that’s up there, including my piece at Sebastopol. So my two summer things are planned. The rest of the summer is managing all the shit at home and getting things cleaned up and gotten rid of and painted and fixed and trimmed and planted. And sleeping and reading and making art. Maybe not in that order. Maybe sleeping first. For a week or two. Not that the living things (or my body) let me sleep for long. I would rather be reading my book today than teaching about sexually transmitted infections, but that’s not an option. Union meeting after school. Then grades. Then stitching of some sort. Wait. When AM I reading today (most important question ever)? Good question. Always.

Free Food…

I wake up to gloomy Juney skies in Southern California, with 7 days of school left, at least 3 of them are chaotic evil, OK, maybe neutral, but probably not good. Today includes two staff meetings, maybe three, with one optional but is it really? I mean, they sent an email at 9:30 PM about it. Last night. Fun times. Free donuts though. How do you get teachers to show up early on a Monday morning? Yeah. Free food. We’re sad. We had this discussion that our appreciation week this year was pretty sad…the wonder of no PTA and IDK what else. It is not ideal.

Meanwhile, the government is trying to make a case for sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, after not deploying them during the January 6 insurrection. I mean, if there were ever a time to use them (since 1960), that would be it. And to ignore the governing bodies already saying, “We got this”…nah, let’s escalate it. After arresting tourists and US Marshalls and kids in or on their way to school and people who have been going through the legal process, paying taxes, contributing to the community, sometimes for YEARS, let’s deport them. Immigrants pay $96.7 billion in taxes each year. They’re not freeloaders, unlike some billionaires.

This picture was all over the internet yesterday…some of my extremely right-leaning friends posted it.

Claiming it was part of the ‘riots’ in Los Angeles. Problem is, that’s not a current picture. It’s from 2020. It doesn’t help when the elected politicians are part of that fraud.

Liars. That’s how they start riots. Lying.

Exacerbate the issue. Make California the problem. Bring in the military. Many of whom are people of color, immigrants. In fact, y’all, most of us are immigrants here. My lily white people weren’t born here. We came from somewhere else. Most of you did.

I’m so irritated by the government’s flailing at the moment, so scared for my students’ families, so worried that those who are apparently in charge will be making things so much worse. Power. Greed. Money. Not empathy, not taking care of people, not making sure things are safe. No Kings protest on Saturday. No dictators. No rich people in charge please, unless they get it. Unless they donate books to schools or homes to the homeless. Donate a significant part of their income. Pay their damn taxes. Pay their bills. Then they can be in charge. Not these bloated idiots.

Sigh. It’s not surprising I can’t make new art right now. Between school ending and all this shit, how could I? I did finish the in-between Boom quilt…

Friday night. Nova not helping. At all.

My mom had given the Tinsel quilt back to me after she finished the snowflake embroidery…

I think she gave it back to me in November, and then it’s been sitting around. I finally quilted it…just luckily had the right colors of thread. Good thing, because I don’t know where to locally get thread any more.

I mean, it’s not like Joann had regularly stocked thread in the last couple of years anyway.

I appliqued stuff, mom embroidered, I pieced it together and added some pieces over the edges, appliqued the snowflake bits on. We changed the borders. I didn’t like the way it was in the pattern, and someone else had done a nicer version, so we did that instead.

Last night, I put the binding on and made sleeves.

I’m not done with the handstitching, but I probably will be tonight.

Trying to do all that while the dumb government attempts to take over the state. I’m willing to stop paying federal taxes…they don’t pay for anything I want at the moment. No education, no USAID, no saving people’s lives with cancer research, no NOAA, so what am I paying for? Teslas? Starlink? Gold toilets? Nothing I want. Nothing I need.

I’m still teaching sex ed. This is a legit concern.

Four more days of that. Today is pretty chill. Gonna test them. Then grades are due Thursday, so I did a bunch of that this weekend, but I won’t be done until Thursday.

This is also legit. Above and below.

She’s an immigrant.

Sigh. I’ve got to get through this week. So many meetings. So much stressful crap. Hoping LA holds it together, but stands their ground. Hoping the pressure of 22 governors against the feds will back all this shit off. Mass deportations. The people who voted for that don’t understand what it really means. Also, tourism is down. Shockingly. You can’t give aid to the fire victims, but you’ll pay for this. You won’t help people hit by tornados or hurricanes, but you’ll pay for this. You won’t send the Guard out to protect people in the Capitol, but you’ll do this.

OK. School. Meetings. Free donuts. Grading. Cleaning the classroom. Trying NOT to build a pillow fort and hide in it for a year or so.

Collapse

I had this goal to have written the massive Quilt National post by now, having missed two regularly scheduled posts. I had a great trip, easy travel, everything was awesome…then I got food poisoning once I got home. Fun times. I missed school yesterday…I think I actually missed the entire day mentally. Pretty sure all I did was sleep and try to drink things. I’m OK (shaky but functional) today, so I guess it’s all through my system. Going back to school today after missing three days with no clue how far they’ve gotten (although it does not look good). Today will be a catchup day, where I roll around the room on a chair, checking in with everyone. Egg drop Friday. Sex ed next week. It’s a lot. I’m not ready for any of it.

Besides the amazing quilts and people, I did do a few other things in Athens…not much though. I did some stitching…first on Zoom with my stitching friends…

Then more on the plane…

Finished this block at home on Sunday night…

I also went for a couple of walks…one with a friend…

And one on my own…

Ohio is very green.

Walked around an old mill that is now a garden center…

Some interesting things going on there…

Went to a winery…who knew Ohio had wineries? It was nice…

The girlchild was in Chicago at the same time…

This is how I learn geography.

I did manage to cut out some pieces for my quilt on Sunday night…

I finished the rest Monday night…before I went to bed for 24 hours straight. Or more.

I will get to the quilt post…it’s in progress. Today will be slow and lots of sitting down, I predict. I already canceled pilates. Pretty sure I’m coming home and lying down again. But who knows…maybe I’ll bounce back. Those younger years when that was easy to do…miss that. Not all of it…just that bit. This morning, I’m stiff as a board. Too much non movement yesterday. Sigh. OK. Take meds, go to work, survive it, come home and collapse.

In Between Time

Up early again…this week has been difficult for sleep, across the board. As I got more and more exhausted, I did a better job of falling asleep and staying asleep, until it gets light, which unfortunately is earlier and earlier. Ugh. Also state testing really messes with kid and teacher rhythms. We’re all off. It’s Friday! I’m not sure what day it feels like. Next Wednesday maybe? Unclear. Anyway, yesterday went OK except for the advisory class discussion on drop shipping as a current job choice. (No, they don’t know what tariffs are.) Like, dude, no one will hire you to sleep all day. Not happening. Anyway. There are 27 days of school left. Yesterday was also the pep talk of “you aren’t done yet.” Difficult for all of us. Today we start state test review for science…hard hard hard…all talking. Ugh. I may need some alternate stuff by the end of next week. Also, I thought I would be so efficient and get caught up on grading. Nah. Did not. Lame.

In art news, since I finished the banned-book piece, which I still need to photograph, I’m sort of in a stasis mode…by choice. I have a friend’s mom’s quilt I really need to finish, so that’s what I’m doing with my normal art time. It’s fine…it’s still quilting. I am doing a bit of embroidery (honestly, when I should be grading) on Sue Spargo’s Rooted blocks…this one is really nice.

Bowie wanted to smell this one in progress.

And I took it to my stitching meeting last night and kept working on it.

I think I have four blocks done of nine. We’ll be here for a while.

Then here’s the quilting…

I’m in the outer borders. There’s definitely something weird going on in the last border that I’ll deal with when I’m done playing thread chicken with the light blue thread.

I only had two small spools of it and finished one of them in the beginning of the third border, so unless I do a lot more squiggling stitching in the last two borders, I should be OK and not run out in the last two inches, but you never know. Then quilt around the corner blocks (fast) and the two outer borders just need outlining, and then I can trim it (it’s fucking huge…not sure how I’m doing that) and then putting binding on.

Meanwhile, here’s Kitten. She did not have a good day yesterday. It involved a ton of laundry and a bath. She’s looking pretty good considering all of that.

She was pretty mad at me at the end, but still loves me. So that’s OK then. It’s hard to know when it’s time. I keep thinking we must be close and then she rallies. Poor old lady. A lot of her current issues are because of the little boy cat, who doesn’t understand sick old ladies. Sigh.

OK. I’m waiting for solar to show up and turn off the electricity, probably soon. Then school, turn in huge packet (which I then have to grade), teach how to take a test (Step 1: stop freaking out. Seriously.). Then hopefully ceramics. Rescheduling telephone call with doc. The Man has a show tonight. I’m exhausted, but it’s a friend’s birthday party and I know the band is all freaked out because their lead singer may or may not have quit or taken a hiatus, so they’re all singing tonight. Well, not all of them. So I’ll go to that and see how much energy I have for it. Small confined space with lots of loud music and people and alcohol and whatever. Right now it sounds kinda hellacious, but sometimes it’s OK. Friday nights are rough though. Looking forward to going to sleep tonight and NOT having to get up at 6 AM tomorrow. For once this week. I did finish my book by the way. I know you were worried. I wasn’t.

I Could Be Reading…

So state testing has started. Some years, it’s easy, the kids are into it, it’s chill. Some years, it’s not. This year? Not. Fun times. Today will be worse…it’s the performance task. Some kids will just skate through it. Some will pretend and then hit submit after writing one sentence. Some kids will just repeatedly lose their minds that they’re being asked to test at all, to sit still, to be quiet, not disrupt those around them, not bang on the table or pile up all their snacks and drinks (that did really happen yesterday. All of it.). So by the time 12:15 comes around, all my patience for the day (and possibly three or four days afterwards) is gone. Not great, because we’re testing again today. And I still have to teach for days until the end of the year. One kid was already like, why do I still have to do work? Because they know they’re promoting (probably) or not and they think we’re done. We have 29 days left, dude. Don’t stop now. Sigh. My stress levels are high…my face is breaking out…my blood sugar is a mess. And today is my 500th pilates class! Not sure it matters. It’s not like I’m stopping now.

OK, artwise, I’m in a weird place. I did finish the book piece. I managed to construct it properly…

The first two pages are shoved into that envelope of the last two pages. There’s certainly a few things I would have done differently, but it’s done now.

I need official photographs so I can enter the show, but I’ll do those when I’m home in daylight.

Eventually, I’ll have my photographer take photos, but I don’t have time for the thing it’s being entered into, which has a tight deadline. If it gets in, it’ll be in the downtown library for 5 months. I’ll let you know.

So what next? Well, I don’t have my head around the next big quilt, although I know there will be one over the summer. I was thinking of doing something smaller just to keep me mentally going through the last weeks of the school year. I haven’t figured out what that is yet, though, because I’m trying to finish my friend’s mom’s quilt. I was diligently working on it in January and February and then a random deadline popped up and I got sidetracked. I mean, I did purposely put this one away to finish the other thing. So I’m finishing this…I’m almost done anyway. Well, for some definition of ‘almost’.

Her mom made the quilt and sandwiched it, but unfortunately was unable to quilt it before she died. So it’s here and I’m quilting it. I’m in the outer border at the moment, with the rest done. I think. Honestly can’t remember if I finished the center panel. I think I did.

I did. So I finished outlining the symbols in the blue border and will overall quilt that starting tonight. Then I need to outline the reddish brown and black borders. Some things have happened to this quilt over a long time (fabric replaced, not by me, possibly already partially quilted? I just don’t know). And then I’ll put the binding on. And hand it over. And then, like I keep saying, not offer to help ever again (which is really not in my nature…sometimes I say no and then go back and say yes; please don’t take advantage of that). So when I’m done with this, I’ll start something new. Or maybe in between. We’ll see.

Clay is going. I made most of a priest and 3 handmaidens on Monday…

I was thinking when I went in next, I could start underglazing, but no. I still need to give him a cross and a head. Most definitely a cross. Head? Hmmm.

We watched the first episode of Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale last night…made us both cry. Good times. So Friday, I’ll go in and try to make a head. And a cross. And THEN I can start underglazing.

The bees left yesterday. I figured they would. I came home and washed the composter lid and side, then sprayed it with citronella, hoping it will cut the bee pheromones. They keep coming back. Not sure what to do about that. I have a bee-friendly yard…maybe a bit TOO friendly. And no, I haven’t fixed the damn sprinklers. I think I need two solenoids now. I don’t know. Maybe I need a new controller.

I had two cats on my lap in rapid succession last night. Luckily the chonk here didn’t stay long.

He’s a year old now and solid. Sometimes sweet, sometimes not. Like all calicos. I have a hole in my right hand from his morning whack. He’s harassing the old lady, who basically needs to be carried into the litter tray and food multiple times a day. She can get there, but he attacks.

OK. Testing. Afternoon is science planning. I’ve managed to grade quite a bit so far, so that’s good. I had to get a loaner computer Monday after school because my screen just went black when I was at lunch. Fun times. So Monday was stressful. I guess the good news is the eye with the vitreous humor detachment is fine (as fine as anything with a big blob rolling around in it is), but she thinks the other one will detach too. Except the right one has always been worse, more nearsighted, with an astigmatism. The left isn’t as bad. So let’s hope it doesn’t. She does think the blog will wander south with time and only show up when I first get up in the morning. Sounds good. Somehow I found the energy to go to ceramics after all the running to the IT department (not at school) and getting a new computer. After school, I have a telehealth appointment with my doctor where she will tell me I need to get my numbers down and I will ask her how to do that and she won’t have an answer. So there’s that. Then my 500th pilates class and book club. And someone else is cooking dinner. I’m already exhausted because I didn’t sleep well, so I’ll be quilting after that and going to bed. Oh! Also trying to finish my book before the library sucks it back from me. I went to the gym last night to help me finish it, but I’m at 86%, less than 100 pages. I’m up early to go to the meeting my principal just canceled. I could be reading. I should be reading.

Physically Impossible.

I’m sitting here with two computers in front of me, deep breathing, trying to get two things done at once, which is, of course, physically impossible. But one computer is incredibly slow, so I type in between, in the wait times while it responds. I’m also waiting for the electric company to show up to remove something so I can get a solar battery installed. Unfortunately, there are bees in my composter (right next to the freakin’ meter, talk about bad timing, y’all). I think they’re chill enough right now that it won’t be an issue, and I’m hoping they leave by tomorrow, because otherwise, I’ll need to delay the battery install. Sigh. I have an eye doctor appointment this morning, so things are already wonky and I’m already stressed…plus it took FOREVER to fall asleep (probably related to all of the above and other shit), so I’m tired. I’m always tired. This may not be any different. Also there’s the issue of not posting the assignments for school too early, so kids will actually have them to do in class and not have them done and be acting out. Yes, there are scheduled posts, but they work about 50% of the time, so sometimes, you just post everything early and pray a little to the Goddess of Education, who is a little over-stretched herself at the moment.

The weekend. Sigh. I meant to do some things and then got in the wrong headspace and didn’t. Love that for myself. I did apply to an artists’ residency, hopefully something I can do this summer. Maybe not though, depending on timing and availability. I got the banned book piece to the next step. I finished stitchdown and pinbasted Friday night…

Ironically, I un-pinbasted them on Saturday and put a backing on them…I think it’ll be better that way. Then I quilted them Saturday night…

All together, they took a little over two hours…

Not long. Not hard.

Little quilts are easy.

But still not cheap. Time is money? My time is worth something.

Then last night, I started construction…this is the hard part. Not exactly sure what I’m doing. Scary to cut it and not sure it’ll be the right size, but doing it anyway.

So hopefully construction goes well over the next couple of nights. Certainly I’ve done it in my head about 3,000 times by now.

Oh, here’s the bees…

I went out yesterday evening to put the compost in, opened the lid, threw it, and ran. I went back when it was dark, when they were all chilled out.

I knocked off the honeycomb. This morning, there were three batches of bees…one still on the corner, one down on the ground under that (the biggest chunk), and a smaller chunk on the lid, which still smells like home, but is 20 feet away now.

They’re fascinating, but I need them to live somewhere else right now. Well, always. They love the composters unfortunately. I have an anti-bee spray I’ll use this time. I wash with hot water and soap, but it’s not enough I think. This composter has had bees at least three times.

The SDGE guy is out there…he wants me to check on him in 10 minutes in case he gets stung and has an allergic reaction. Chill guy.

I did not make it to ceramics Friday. Had a meeting after school and then had to set up for the sub this morning, and I was exhausted by the time I was done. No energy. Came home and graded instead.

Here’s my dinner drawings from the last four weeks.

I can’t explain them. I just draw. No purpose.

I find it relaxing. Yes, I can talk to the people I’m with while drawing.

It’s the only time I really get to draw these days. Which is frustrating.

Sometimes they bring the food really fast and I don’t get to finish. Or I’m drawing super slowly and I don’t finish.

I thought the Man’s plants looked like they were talking to each other.

Laughing plants.

This is way too real.

Except I do finish things. I finished one last week. This current book is really good so far. Hoping it stays good.

I’ve been working on this in bits and pieces at meetings and things.

OK. Sigh. Today is chaotic, but I’m hoping it will even out once I get through them dilating my eyes, my going to Costco with dilated eyes, then getting to school and hopefully having my eyes undilate (last time, it took over 4 hours, so I’m a little nervous). Plus I didn’t tell the kids I would be out…some of them are just jerks when you do, so I just decided to make it a surprise. The SDGE guy did not get stung by bees (they are so chill still)…good thing. I want to read my book, I need to grade things, I want to go to clay (it’s quiet on most Mondays), and I’m hoping the eye thing goes well. The doctor wasn’t particularly personable the last time. Didn’t tell me all the things, but wrote them up and I read them later. I guess that’s a thing…if you read. Hoping to come home to no bees hanging around and plenty of time to try to make that quilt thing go together. And the headspace to do so. Mondays. They just are.

My Oomph

Morning morning. Definitely Friday. No sleeping in this weekend. Ugh. I just never get to sleep enough. My fault most of the time. Last night, I stitched early, so I graded until 10:45 PM. Bad plan. Then the brain is ON. It’s fine…it gave up the ghost quickly, but man. Don’t do that again.

I got the fourth page ironed down on Wednesday night…

So there’s all four…

Now they need stitchdown and then quilting and then assembly. Not sure what that last step looks like. I stitched down one last night. I’m hoping to do the rest tonight. We’ll see. Then sandwich and start quilting tomorrow. I’ve got meetings I need to go to and I’d like to hike. But there’s yardwork too. Need to fix that solenoid! And weed whack. Fun times.

Plus there’s a shit ton of grading again. Although state testing starts next week and I can do some of it then. Meanwhile, it’s May now and all of my calendars are still on April. Fix that.

By the way, here’s the uncropped photo…

I needed a flat light-colored place that was low enough for me to get the camera semi-straight. I have at least 5 photos that I tried to do on the ironing board. Mistake. Bowie is happily watching.

Yesterday was principal’s day. We had shirts made with our principal dressed as Elvis (it’s a thing he does) and we all had Elvis glasses.

Some had sideburns. He was pleased. This time of year is a shitshow for everyone, so I’m glad he got some oomph to get him through the rest of the year.

My oomph is coming from exercise and books and art. There’s a few kids who just need to figure out their stuff, maybe realize they’re going to high school in August. There’s a lot of stress bumping around about promotion and those who might not promote, plus all the end-of-year stuff. I’m missing a half day on Monday for an eye-doctor appointment and I’m not even gonna tell the kids…they’re worse when they know. I totally changed what I’m teaching next week…couldn’t get enough understanding into them to get to the next point. Next year. We’ll fix it for next year. It took us 7 years to get 7th grade curriculum set up. This is only year 3 and I didn’t have help for 2 of those. It’ll be fine. Today, we’re doing a natural selection simulation that’s pretty good (until the bunnies take over the world). Next week, we’ll finish the unit and start state test review for science. That’s a big ugh for me and them, but it needs to be done. Meanwhile, I’m hoping all the adults involved figure out how to help and stop hindering. I have a meeting after school for a kid who will probably not promote because parents waited until MAY to figure out what was going on. Fun times. Then ceramics and fabric and I probably have to make dinner…I think. Although the Man is now eating fairly normal food…but his official dental appointment to release him from soft food is next Wednesday. From what I’ve seen, he’s already released himself? Who knows. And then, into the weekend…which seems to be getting shorter and shorter the closer we get to summer break.

Hopefully on Time…

OK. I lost a week in my head. I seriously thought I needed to be done with these banned book pieces by next week, but I have a whole ‘nother week. Whew. Although it’s still a rush, it’s not an insane, probably can’t do anything else rush. The Man’s show isn’t until next week. I have a weekend coming up with two back-to-back meetings (difficult, but OK), but the rest is pretty clear. I got two more pages ironed (basically I’m getting through one a night). Here’s page 2…

The embroidery did really well with the dark background…it hides the tails even better than I’d hoped. Here’s page 3…

There’s one more…it’s got some complicated hair in it, but I’m hoping to start a little earlier tonight.

Last night, I worked on the sculpture…I had to fix some things again…the damn fingers on the left hand keep breaking off…

But I’ve started to build a head…not sure if it’s too big though. Hard to do it this way, for sure. I also added a bomb and an atomic explosion…

I think that arm might be officially done. The other arm needs some stuff though.

I think I’ll be cutting into this for the mouth. It is a removable head, so I can work on it separately from the torso. The torso really needs to get fired, but I need to underglaze it first…and I obviously haven’t even started. And the base needs to do something. Besides take up most of my shelf at the moment. Hard to get my head around the 3D stuff, but that’s good for me. My brain needs the artistic workout.

Oh hey, I got into another show, Sebastopol Center for the Arts’ International Fiber Arts XII exhibition. War Zone will be traveling there in June. The show opens June 21 and runs through August 3. I’m debating going up for the opening. We’ll see. It is summer break by then.

It’s not a huge piece, for once.

This is too true.

OK, school today is still chaos. We had a lockdown that fucked up classes last week for a shooting in the neighborhood, then a sex trafficking assembly that fucked up classes Monday and a little bit yesterday, and I’m still trying to get everyone on the same page for instruction. Hopefully by Friday, at the rate I’m going. I’m about 15 minutes off at the moment. Interestingly, the classes that have had the most time are the furthest behind and those with the least are the furthest ahead. The best-laid plans…are not laid at all. Then the human sexual health curriculum parent meeting is after school…no one showed up last year, but you never know. I have fewer kids opting out this year than ever, so either parents aren’t paying attention or they’re more accepting? That seems unlikely. But whatever. After that, I’m coming home and cooking dinner and making art…and maybe replacing the solenoid so the sprinklers can run. I’m so tired when I get home that I don’t want to start in case I fuck something up. Sigh. It’s fine. I’ll do it. And then iron things so I can do stitchdown tomorrow. Getting there. Hopefully on time.