So. I’m not in Southern California. I spent a million hours yesterday traveling with my parents and then my daughter 3,114.6 miles to the side of a lake in Maine, near where my niece is graduating from college. My dad broke an airplane seat on the way, we met the girlchild’s sweet guy, ate dinner in Boston, and drove through two states to get to this cabin (cabin???) by a lake, where I’m sitting right now. Staring out at the water and the trees and trying to remember how to relax. Really, my brain is gonna make me go finish inputting grades. It’s OK. It has to happen sometime and I’ve had some good relaxation time so far.
Here’s a weird jellyfish glass/metal sculpture in the Boston airport.
There was nothing good to photograph on the plane. I spent a goodly amount of time grading stuff. Pro: it’s done. Other Pro: Alaska Airlines realized their internet crapped out multiple times (I started reactively saving the doc every 3 minutes at some point) and refunded me the $8 I paid to get my job done. Con: Well, work. I did finish my book yesterday, so I’m not feeling too bad. I even napped. Barely.
Weird fact: My brother and I are currently reading the same book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Not a planned thing. Just happened. Weird, huh? We are both liking it.
Here’s one view of the lake. It was more polleny this afternoon. We have two, technically three docks and some boat-type things.
We didn’t get here until 11:30 PM last night…long day. So far, my brother, my SIL, the two nephews, my parents, and my daughter are here. The boychild is working this weekend, so no go. The niece is the graduator. My SIL’s parents come in tonight. Full house. Only two bathrooms.
The parents wanted to go to LL Bean today, so we did.
Girlchild was excited about the giant boot.
I was excited about the sale on Camelbak packs…got a small one to replace my 22-year-old short hike pack. This one has sharks on it and is even smaller, better pockets than the old one. I’ve been looking for a while…mine has holes and wear in the straps. Plus it was on sale. Always nice.
We made it back and I tried out one of the kayaks.
Wind took my hat at one point, but I rescued it. I’ll go back out a few more times. Kinda windy, kinda wobbly, but a nice form of exercise.
Lots of people sleeping this afternoon. Girlchild is cooking dinner for me and the parentals tonight as the rest are out with my niece’s friends…
I’ve been reading a bit. Gonna think about a walk, then input those grades from the plane, and then maybe draw or stitch. My brain, body, and blood sugar are all off from travel and time change. But it’s nice to be away from stressful things, even if it’s stressful getting here. So many pine trees…
A day late. That’s OK. I was in the mountains. I forgot it was Friday. Today is Saturday. If I keep telling you what the days are, maybe I will remember them myself. I have doctors’ appointments next week; I have to remember to go to them.
We were up on Palomar Mountain for a couple of days…one full day really. It was nice. It was cold. There was still snow up there. We had a discount to stay in a really nice yurt and it was cool.
These are nice yurts (Baileys on Palomar)…take advantage of discounts if you can. We had a mid-week discount. I’m pretty sure it’s snowing up there right now though, so I’m glad we came home yesterday.
Inside was warm, sometimes too warm. But nice.
My drawing brain was mostly out of it. This one isn’t going anywhere.
And this one might. Maybe.
We couldn’t get a fire started the first night…pretty sure the wood was wet from the previous storm. The second night, after 5 firestarters and some weird juju of frustration (the Man’s, not mine…or the fire’s, for that matter), the fire started and kept going…me drawing by the fire…
The Man telling me about something circular…
It was cold out. I think this was still firestarter fire, not real fire.
Eventually we got cold and came back inside and got violent and slappy with this game.
I won.
That was after hiking to Palomar Observatory, which I’d never been to. The hike wasn’t hard or long…well, it was 5.3 miles with 800 feet of elevation. So not too bad. Certainly my legs were feeling it yesterday.
Those are some really big acorns…
My app says Canyon Live Oak. Acorns and their caps fascinate me. I brought caps home. Dunno what I’m going to do with them.
It’s funny, I only saw the observatory once from the hike until we were on our way back.
It was cool. San Jacinto in the distance…definitely snow up there too.
It was a nice day to hike…mostly not hot, mostly not too cold.
Definitely at elevation snow. Not a lot by the time we got there.
I stitched a little too…finished this block.
I remembered a chalk pencil for the bike. Started another block while I was there.
Forgot the proof of life picture. Yes! We were in the same place together.
It happens.
We came back, cleaned up, I peed some dogs. The one on the right is hunting bees. Or bunnies. Hard to say which.
Stood in line for 3 hours at a quilt store that’s closing so I could use up my gift card and my mom’s too, because she showed up halfway through and handed me more. Then held my place in line so I could find more stuff to buy. She’s a good mom. I’m supposed to be at the ceramics studio right now but there was a full on flood-level band of rain that came through and dropped like half an inch of rain, so I didn’t drive in it. I will now, because I think that band is done and I can wait out the next one. There’s an art opening at Oceanside Museum of Art tonight, though, and that’s gonna be a slog if it’s still raining this hard. Ah well.
Last night, I suffered cats. Lots of them.
They missed us. And then I finished trimming this one…
Time to sort and then to iron. Meanwhile the girlchild and friend camped in the Northern California band of this storm last night. They were not washed away.
There is a tent under there. There is also a rain fly. The tarp is just extra. I wonder if there is a tarp underneath as well? Hmmm. Did we train her well? Maybe not.
OK. Art opening tonight. Ceramics studio for now: gonna see what came out of the kiln plus do another level on what I’m building…maybe start something new? I need to be back here by 3 PM I think. Ugh. I’m sure it made sense to sign up for things weeks ago, but today’s brain is not up for it. Typical.
Well hello 2024. Nice to see you, and all those folks in the back kicking 2023 to the curb and welcoming you with open arms. Not sure where I am on that yet. 2023 wasn’t fun, but I’m not seeing the light in 2024 yet. I’ll let you know. No matter what, it’s some sort of a mental reset, although for teachers, I think Winter Break is a reset even if you don’t give us a new year in the middle of it. For me, I will hopefully get caught up and even ahead of the game. That’s the plan anyway. Although, what I planned to do today didn’t happen. I cleaned up my office space instead, the area around the computer and the sewing machine. It needed it. It was a disaster. It will be again, but I can start clean and semi-organized. Just don’t look at the rest of the house.
So the Man and I planned a weekend away to start the New Year. It’s been rough for both of us in the last month or so, and this was a better gift than anything else we could think of. We didn’t have much of a plan, but getting out of here is always a start. We started with a winery gift card I got in 2022 for Christmas and kept forgetting to use…we drove out to Julian…
Had a tasting and got a bottle of wine out of the gift as well…
Nice gift. This is Menghini Winery. We made the mistake of missing the turnoff through Wynola (we came through Ramona, probably because Interstate 8 is still down to one lane eastbound), so we had to endure the crazy Julian traffic.
The bathroom at this winery is stellar…
That is a living ivy plant both outside and in. I’ve been looking at bathrooms for ideas; I’ve got at least one bathroom remodel coming up in 2024 probably. A living plant taking over one wall wasn’t on my list…until now.
From there, we drove out to our Airbnb…it was OK. Not the most comfortable for a cold night. A fireplace would have been nice, but we left things too late and decided a real kitchen was more important than a fireplace.
There were horses on the next property over…
And turkeys wandering around both properties…
There was a lake with kayaks, but we weren’t in the mood…
Although it was a pretty lake.
We went for a hike on Sunday…
The Secret Canyon Trail from the north end…it’s pretty flat for apparently the first 7 miles. We did not do 7 miles…
Nowhere close in fact. There were two water crossings that weren’t bad at all, and then we got to an iffy one, but realistically, the Man’s back was bugging him…
So we did a little over 3 1/2 miles…not much…
But it was nice. No one else on the trail…that’s always a plus.
Then we spent most of the afternoon and evening reading, playing a game we both won…
I did some drawing…
(small table)…I was drawing on the bottom of the drawing I’d chosen, which was from two locations and dates in 2022.
I added more after this.
Then I numbered it…
And then some crazy drawing I did late at night…
I can’t explain this, but I’m glad to have the mindset and the down time to have done it. To more of that in 2024. However I can figure that out.
I do notice that the harder stuff is, the more I dive into reading. I went well above and beyond my Goodreads goal…
Not sure what this year brings for reading, but hopefully it’s a lot. I realized today that I hadn’t read the book I need to read for school…I’ve read it before, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember what happens at all. I should work on that. Or not? Hard to say.
Anyway, we drove back from the mountains today, and I started by cleaning up this workspace, at least some of it. And then the boychild disconnected all the cable TV boxes to return tomorrow; that’s been on my to-do list for months, so I appreciate his help. I packed up a box for the girlchild, who hopefully flew home tonight. I have a long to-do list for this week, catching up a lot of loose ends, but also a lot of school stuff. And tracing that new quilt. Tomorrow, hopefully I will be writing a blogpost about the Supreme Court quilt and how it came to be and what all the things mean (well, most of them anyway). Then it will ship off to its new owner. The purple quilt is at the photographer. I only made 5 quilts this year, which is down from previous years. I’m not happy about that. Usually I make a little photo thing for them all, but I’m not in the mood tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I’m sad that I didn’t have time to make more. So that would be something I’d like to change in 2024, but also something that will take a lot more than my just saying it in order to happen. I just updated the whiteboard calendar on my fridge, and January is hellish for school. I’m not happy about that. I also can’t do much about it. My teacher morale is low at the moment.
For now, though, I’m going to start tracing this new piece and consider grading the easy assignment tonight, or part of it at least. Tomorrow, I’ll get some errands done and trace some more. Plus read some more. Plus clean some more. I can’t really hit rest and relaxation with so many things that need doing, but tracing is meditative and that will help. May 2024 be better or as good as or whatever you need it to be. I’m going to focus on surviving the next 6 months and then doing it better after that.
Hey. Camping and hiking was good. Definitely helped my mindset. I got to draw for fun. I was still worried about some of the family stuff, but that’s better since yesterday. Unfortunately, the work stuff was full on in my face when I got home. Grades are due in a week, and now I have more stuff I have to do in the same time frame. I was hoping I’d have more time. Nah. Why give y’all time, you teachers? You don’t need time. I’ll get my head around it (maybe). I’m just irritated at everything piling up in the same week again. You can take time off from work, but you will pay for it later…and before, to be honest. I worked my butt off last week to make sure I was ready for this coming week without having the weekend. Ah well. I only have 7 things to grade and a pre-evaluation reflection to do. I love being told what to reflect about…like I didn’t spend all summer beating myself up about last year. I made goals for this year, all of them kinda shut down for now as we just get through it. None of MY goals are on the district list of what I should care about. And now you want me to make some other goal…ok, I can do that, but I don’t know how to implement it. I don’t have a fucking clue at the moment. I don’t have the time or the mental space. At all. One of my goals is work/life balance. Ironically, that never shows up on the evaluation list. I don’t know how to do that goal either.
Maybe I should go camping again this weekend. Ha! Sigh.
So camping started with hellacious traffic…apparently Interstate 8 is down to one lane for a while, so there was about an hour of this…
Except imagine all those cars and trucks merging into one lane and you’ll have it. We were hoping to get up there before dark. Mostly it was dusk and then dark as we were setting up the campground. We were smart enough to have easy dinner plans. The fire was good until it wasn’t. I think the Man restarted it 17 times. I was drawing the whole time, but my brain was still stuck in work and drive mode, so it turned into a lot of weird balloon heads.
Can’t really explain it. It rained a bit in the night, which is the best time for it to rain while camping. The next morning, we moved slowly, which is also OK. It wasn’t supposed to be super hot this weekend, so getting an early hiking start wasn’t required. Good thing, because I don’t think either of us had an early start in us.
We booked late, so we didn’t have a lot of campsite choices…this one was OK…lots of cars going past, needs some bushes or trees along the road (it used to have them…we could see the stumps)…
But we wandered the campground a few times and found some sites that would be better. Honestly, this was away from all the chaos of the center of the campground. That’s a plus.
We set out hiking late…
The Man hiked south of here when he did the PCT, but hadn’t done the northern section because he came off trail to resupply here. So he missed a bit of the trail. We hiked south to where he had camped last year when he was training to hike the second try.
Lots of trees…
Lots of flowers, which was nice…
Lots of bike tracks (not so nice)…no bikes allowed on the PCT, but this is what the assholes do…
If we cross it off, it doesn’t exist? For the number of people in the campground, I was surprised there weren’t more people on the trails. We didn’t see very many people at all. We did about 4.5 miles, came back to camp and rested/ate, then did another 2.5 miles north…
Just to see the desert view…
Always impressive.
It was National Get the Fuck Outside Day (actually National Public Lands Day or something nice like that…we were on public lands though!).
At that point, it was pretty warm, so I decided to wait 45 minutes for a shower.
Stared at the clouds a lot while waiting. Some people are totally inconsiderate in campgrounds. Like a 30-minute shower when 4 people are waiting. Annoying.
We went out to dinner. We really were trying to take care of ourselves this weekend. Make it good. Setting stuff up and taking it down is hard enough. We didn’t need to haul a second dinner with us. Then a successful fire night! I sat there for probably an hour before I could draw.
I was tired, and the pre-evaluation meeting shit had popped up on my calendar while we were hiking and I was irritated by it. But then I got it out of my head (well, I shoved it into a drawer) and I drew.
In case you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when I draw in campgrounds…
That’s pretty much it. At some point, I put gloves on, because I was cold, and that made it harder to draw. But I did it anyway.
Up the next morning, no rush, here’s the morning wake-up woodpecker.
We made it home, put everything away, bought groceries, and I got back into the weekly grind. Send weekly email, make sure everything is set up for the week, I need sub plans for Thursday and next Monday (literacy meeting and knee doctor, finally). Full on cried a little while grading, after I made the to-do list and tried to figure out how I’d get it all done this week.
Then back to this…
Finally I can see the bottom of the to-cut box! I might finish tonight. Maybe. I have book club on Zoom. I’m supposed to be meeting some curator to pick a piece of art, but I haven’t heard from him, so who knows if it’s tonight or some other night. I have to grade stuff too. Not sure when that slots in. As usual.
Yeah. This is too real right now.
Sigh. It’s fine. Work is not ideal. I’m almost ready to iron this quilt together. That’s cool. I enjoyed most of the weekend. Also cool. Yes, I could take work notifications off my phone, but then I’d never remember to do any of it. Yeah. That might be a plan. Problematic plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Mmmm. No class today. Well. I say that and I signed up for a different kind of pilates class, just because I wanted to try it out and that shit’s harder to do during the school year. But I like pilates and it’s actually an exercise class, which is good for me. No more literacy class this week…I did learn some things, but more remembered that we need to do more to boost reading, and that takes time, and time is something we may not have a lot of, so there’s that. But with two+ teams doing it all together, hopefully we can make some progress with the kids. Here was my setup on the last day, with everything back in the purple bag, which will go to school, plus the stitching I did to help me focus.
I put away all the highlighters and pens and post-its. Now I officially don’t have to think about school until…the next crazy email comes from that one teacher who apparently has nothing to do over break, no books to read, no relaxing beaches to lie on (I don’t really do that anyway), no giant-ass drawings to finish. Oh wait, that one’s me. I’m hoping to finish the drawing today. In between pilates, laundry, cleaning, moving gravel (got a whole ‘nother pile of it that needs moving), keeping the pup from licking his shaved foot (he had a dental cleaning on Friday and is notoriously bad about licking a sore into shaved areas)…all the things. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so that will be (not) fun. Not sure what my plan is for that. The boychild is home but going to training all day and then leaves again on Friday for his regular shift. Exhausting. I guess I work all week, but not like that. Gotta take days off…he had yesterday off. At least he has the pup in bed at night, so I have some chance of a decent night’s sleep.
No one seems inclined to dust or vacuum or mop…even me, it seems. Oh! I also need to copyedit. I put my editing service back into vacation mode, declined all the other offers I’d gotten, so I’m down to the one. That’s the one I can handle. I have two weeks to do it, and it’s not very big, but I should actually start. Yeah. This afternoon. I will.
So the drawing. The drawing has progressed. My Art Brain has been engaged, now that it doesn’t have to think about Latin roots and spelling rules. And pretend teaching those. So Friday night, I drew the swamp. It was in my notes…and I’m realizing, I need to write a post that just documents all the stuff I took notes about and was thinking while I was drawing, because it may not be so so obvious from just looking at it. But here’s the swamp…
I hid a Swamp Thing in it.
Then what did I do next? Oh yeah, started working on the pedestals under the swamp justices.
Finished those last night…
So Gorsuch is all corporation instead of individual, so he is standing on individual people, who are sort of compressed by him. Alito has had some issues with a fishing trip and possibly some other money-related things, so he has the fish and the money. Roberts is a mess, with money clouding any decision he makes. He also seems to make decisions completely against his own race…he seems race-blind to me, or maybe if he does that, that’s how he gets the money. So I added a few chained slaves to his pedestal, because I’m not sure he remembers…I would like the Court to have more people of color, all colors, to make the decisions more diverse, more pro those groups who need support. I don’t think he does that. Kavanaugh likes beer. He also has some sexual issues of harassment in the past that popped up (ha!) before his confirmation, but it’s OK, because boys will be boys, right? Sigh. Let’s not use that as an excuse for bad behavior. Please. Amy. Oh Amy. Coney Barrett has People of Praise behind her. She claims she speaks for all people, that her religion doesn’t shape her decisions, but like the other swamp judges, I don’t find her trustworthy. Religion is fine unless it’s making decisions for a bunch of people who don’t subscribe to that religion…and reproductive freedom is something all five of these judges have voted against. Four of them have penises, so they have no right dealing with a uterus…and the other one thinks LGTBQ marriages are a sin. So should she be in the Court? Nah. I don’t think so…not representing the people and not interpreting the law appropriately for ALL the people.
So why is Roberts on the other side? Well, it was getting crowded on that side and occasionally he votes like a sane person. OCCASIONALLY. He’s also skating on a slippery slope. He has the key to the Court (being the Big Guy, the one in charge). I still think he’s pretty swampy, but…so I’m probably going to have to copy some of this into a Court post. I’ll do that. And go back and explain some of the other decisions I made. You may not agree. I’m OK with that. Unless you think we shouldn’t have rights, like all of us, then I’m not OK with it. Feel free to limit your own rights. Then get out of my face.
I’m still working on the left side. Literally and figuratively. But I need to go to class, so I’ll be back. You won’t even notice.
So the other thing we did on Saturday, which was a little nuts, was drive up to Los Angeles. I had an opening in Torrance (which wouldn’t have been as bad), but there was a show in LA that I wanted to see that closes in a couple of weeks, Faith Ringgold: A Survey, at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in LA.
I know I have Faith’s Tar Beach book somewhere in the house. I loved her people flying in the sky at night. In looking at her website, I might need to buy more books.
I also love her mix of paintings with quilts. Although here is one of her prints, also very cool.
The handwritten words on this one…
Very powerful seeing her work in person.
Strangely, the same gallery had some work by one of my university painting instructors, Judy Baca. She has created some fairly awesome murals in Los Angeles over the years.
Honestly, although her art and achievements are impressive, she was (for me) not the most present professor. The rumor was that she was working on a mural in Los Angeles the semester I had her, so the teacher’s aide ran (ha! he did nothing) the class, and then she would show up maybe once a month and berate many of us. I have some serious painting PTSD from her class. Maybe not all artists should teach art? I don’t know…your mileage may vary. Maybe it was a bad year for her. I just didn’t really paint after that class. I still don’t think I CAN paint. That said, a lot of the art classes at UCIrvine were just show up, get an assignment, and go make something that meets it. There was very little technical instruction. We were often just left to our own devices…so there’s pros and cons to that. I do appreciate the time to mess around and fuck with stuff, but sometimes, a little more technical know-how might have been useful (exploded my ceramics final in the kiln, which I don’t actually think was MY fault, but I made do…glued all the parts to a plywood board…most were whole and the ones that weren’t, I glued the pieces and then the shards and quickly rewrote my statement). Sometimes I think I’d really like to go back to art school now just with a stronger, more confident state of mind, but then my adult brain slaps my face and says NO NO NO, we are NOT getting another degree. But maybe more art classes would be fun.
Also in the Deitch gallery was Karon Davis: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, which was very powerful. I didn’t photograph the whole thing, because I couldn’t figure out an angle that showed how large and dominating the judge and flag were in the face of this figure of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial.
I had been scrolling through Instagram the day before we left (like you do when you are supposed to be listening to someone talk about teaching vocabulary) and saw an artist whose work I love post that her stuff was in a show in LA…hey, I’m going to LA…I could stop by if it’s close. It was close to the other gallery, and on the way back to the museum in Torrance, so we headed for a small gallery, the Seis Gallery. The show was called The Horror…
I took a tufting class from her before COVID, and it was fun, but crazy lots of work. I say that knowing full well my stuff is also a crazy lot of work…it’s just what do we want to do more of. Anyway, it was cool to have a chance to see more of her stuff in person.
Straight up, traffic going to LA was horrible. It was a long day. We saw good art, but were exhausted by the end of it.
I have another LA opening coming up in September. Makes you think about driving to these things. We spent over 10 hours going up, going to three shows, eating dinner, and coming back. And we were exhausted the next day too.
So the Torrance Art Museum had two shows, one of which I was in (hence the original reason for all this). Art and Med, curated by Ted Meyer…
Here’s a video of the whole thing…
I did take a few photos, but was mostly (as always) overwhelmed. Plus I forgot how to smile, so a lot of the photos of me look psychotic. A good look for the summer. But here’s my piece, Here Comes Life…
And here’s Bhavna Mehta’s beautiful piece, I Found a River in My Body #3…
With a detail of her embroidery…
The other show in the museum is Body Politics…
Which also had some beautiful work…Liz Young’s Skinning Spilling Soiling Swelling Stuffing Balls.
I did Google this one because I wanted to know more about the thoughts behind the piece. I really liked that the Art and Med show had explanations with the art, and I can see the point of having the art stand alone, but…I don’t know. There must be a fine line there.
Sherwood makes a lot of work highlighting disabilities, having had a cerebral hemorrhage and having to relearn the process of making art with her other hand. Her work was wonderful, incorporating brain scans into the paintings.
I’ll try to post more art from these two shows later this week. I know this post is already LOOOONG…all in all, though, a good art day. Though tiring. Says Nova.
Also here is my brain at the moment.
Or always. Not sure.
Friday night, we also found this in the yard.
It has flashing red lights, presumably so it can be found easily, but it made me think it might be a drone, so I left it there. Like I’m not bringing that crazy shit in the house. The Man stomped out there and then left it on the deck after talking to it, also thinking it might be a drone. But it doesn’t seem to have a motor. Just flashing lights, which can be turned off. You might think, just throw it back into the yard it came from. Well, we have kids on all three sides, so it could be any of those houses. So IDK what to do with it. I might text the houses above and below me, and if they don’t claim it, toss it over the back fence. Seems like a lot of work.
Oh yeah, forgot this psycho. Annie. Sweet pup. Has scratched the hell out of my arms. Still love her.
OK. Laundry is going (fixed dryer yay!). I need to eat lunch. I need to fold all the laundry I didn’t fold. I need a long-term solution to my clothing during the school year…not sure what that looks like, but the piles I currently have are not working. I need to finish that drawing and do some copyediting. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so honestly, the drawing part of the house is hot as hell for a goodly chunk of the day, although better after noon. The office part is cooler in the morning, as long as there’s a breeze. And honestly, I’m still on break. So there should be some reading and maybe a nap. I took a timed nap yesterday and Friday and I am pro. It’s still July. I’m still on summer time.
Sitting in an airport again. Listening to boarding assignments and the high-pitched squeals of an obviously tortured child. Got food and caffeine in me (never enough of the latter). We had a good trip…wish it would have cooled down more so we could’ve hiked at least one more day, but so be it. We never made it to either of the National Parks, so we’ll have to come back anyway. We were constrained by how long the dogs’ bladders would last…speaking of the two dogs, Gracie and Betty are bed hogs.
These two drawings are still only preliminaries for some idea developing in my head. This smaller one was done in two different breweries we walked to…
The bigger one was done in the evenings…
The basement was cold; hence the Christmas socks.
A view from the second walk…warm but mostly shady.
We also did some wandering in the Fremont area…
Can’t miss the troll…and Lenin…
His left hand appears to be dripping blood.
We also went to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which did engage the Man, but I enjoyed it.
I remember Richard Serra’s Wake from the last time I was here.
And Alexander Calder’s Eagle, which I think looks like a dog.
Love & Loss by Roy McMakin…or at least the ‘&’ part.
The Man looking reflective.
Probably wondering when we can stop looking at sculpture.
Part of Mark di Suvero’s Schubert Sonata…
Part of Seattle Cloud Cover by Teresita Fernandez.
And Echo by Jaume Plensa. It’s ok, I rewarded the Man with a brewery visit.
So we’re glad to be going home…I’ve been gone 11 days, so I will have a very needy cat and probably some dead plants, based on the boychild’s texts of doom. Hopefully the bee swarm is gone. Next week looks busy, but I’m definitely finishing that quilt that’s been waiting for me. That gets priority. That and the dryer. Thanks Seattle for the break. May the next trip be sooner than 8 years from now (that’s how long it’s been since I was here last). May it also be cooler.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been gone this many days. It feels weird. Am I more productive? Making more drawings? Stitching more? Nah. I’m reading a lot, zoning out some. The drawings are unfocused. I’m tired, but that might be because its light at 4:30 in the morning. I’d sleep better if the room were dark, I think. Reality check: I never really sleep well.
But it is nice to hang out with the dogs. It was nice to see the niece. She has continually improved with age.
Yesterday was the 4th, Independence Day, problematic across the board, both as a nation (god DAMN we’ve fucked up a lot of things in the last year) and personally (we flailed on fireworks watching, and ended up standing on the trampoline, the deck, and in my brother’s upstairs bedroom to see bits and pieces. It’s OK.). We cooked some food, played a game, I drew some…working through something I started a few days ago but much bigger now.
Obviously not done. I did some embroidery yesterday too, not a lot. Sitting outside…it’s hot and humid, but OK in the shade.
Today was our tourist day…we went to MoPOP, which was cool. Jimi Hendrix drawing…
Also by his girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham…in 1967…the year I was born. The year Kurt Cobain was born (Nirvana exhibit).
Good holiday photo there.
Creepy scene in The Walking Dead with all these zombie heads in tanks.
Lots of cool exhibits in MoPOP. From there, we went to the Chihuly Museum.
Glass is fascinating. The reflections in the glass, the reflections of the glass, light bouncing off the glass. Amazing.
I have a friend who works in glass and sometimes does one-on-one classes. I’ve thought about it, but the heat and sharp glass stuff freaks me out. Maybe someday.
Dorky selfies all over Washington.
We’re back at the house, the dogs are peed, and we’re relaxing. We have dinner plans tonight with a friend of mine from San Diego who moved to Portland and whose son lives here in Seattle. Talk about reaching out! Tomorrow, we may walk the dogs on a longer walk (although it’s still gonna be hot), who knows? And then Friday, we come home. I need to do a copyediting bid. I turned one down that was a little out of my wheelhouse…but this one would work. I’m always thinking about money; it never feels like there’s enough. And summer has no paycheck, so that’s part of it. I’ll get paid for my week of professional development, but probably won’t see that until August or September. The mortgage still needs to be paid in August. With magic money.
But for now, I can just write a bid, stop thinking about the bee swarm in the composter at home, don’t worry about getting that quilt done or what the next quilt will be, don’t think about how the dryer needs fixing or the computer that isn’t behaving and probably needs to be replaced (desktop or laptop?). Too much. Stare at the greenery and read some more… Take dogs for a walk. Draw.
Yo. Still in Seattle. I have not moved here. Winter weather scares me. But the trees and green and flowers are nice. I will never get those in San Diego, it’s true.
I didn’t write this morning because it was day 2 of get the fuck up early and get out of here to beat the crowds hiking. We were pretty successful at that. I haven’t done much else: read a lot, stitched a little, drawn a little. Too many distractions. Too easy to zone out. Plus lots of driving. And hiking.
Did you know Seattle has a sugar tax? Weird but intriguing. Not sure it would stop my students from buying soda. They’re pretty hooked.
So what have I been doing? Damn good question. Graduation party for the kid of a friend (really proud of him for getting through). Hanging out with the niece (a bit) as she gets ready to go back to a dig. We set up two tents and determined that (1) her new cot would not fit in the smaller tent and (2) my bro has a way nicer tent than I have. All good.
I drew a little more on the second drawing, not much.
There was a dog in the way. I turned around and turned back and then there was no more drawing.
I also drew before dinner last night…didn’t finish, but this is a rough start to the next quilt.
Needs to be bigger. And more complicated.
Sunday morning, we were up early and headed out to Little Si for our first hike. It was good we got there relatively early, because both parking lots were full when we got back.
This wasn’t a hugely long trail, but there was some up. We are out of shape…two people in physical therapy at the same time for a variety of ailments…
Hiking in Southern California is so much hotter and browner and drier. We appreciate the green, the ferns, and the moss.
Wait. Look. It’s us. We think that’s Mt. Si behind us. We didn’t hike that one. It was too high.
Lots of green. And a bench.
5.12 miles. Lots of up and down. Lots of people. It was nice though for most of it.
Then today we got up early again to hike to two alpine lakes, Talapus and Olallie. This was a longer hike, 6.25 miles.
Lots more trees…not as hefty a climb.
Cool bridge.
Cool lakes…
Olallie…
And Talapus…
That is not the same log jam.
Also, a toilet with a view.
So tomorrow we are taking a break from the hiking, I think. Maybe spend the day drawing and stitching, with a walk down to the water for fireworks. Maybe a longer walk with the dogs.
We are trying to relax. And get more sleep. We suck at the latter.
I feel like we need a down day. A book day. A drawing day. Also, though, I need more milk.
Still in Seattle. Trying to be relaxed and all. Apparently I suck at that. If you know me, you know that already. I have been drawing…at first, just a little bit every day, just because there wasn’t time. But after everyone left, there was more time. And normally I would have written yesterday, but I’m off. No clue what day it is.
Wednesday was graduation chaos.
Wednesday night (?) I managed some more on that drawing…might have been in the afternoon, now that I think about it. I stitched a little on the Sue Spargo Homegrown block at graduation. I finished one the day before, and then started this one.
I worked on it yesterday too…I feel weird sitting in the house when the cleaner is here, so I sat outside and stitched.
I finished the bottom part of the house…still need to do the roof and the tree, plus I missed a flower. Whoops. Not sure how much of this will be happening over the next week. I don’t usually draw when there’s an audience…I can handle the Man, but not a lot of other people. So once they all left, I could draw. So here was what I added Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday, everyone left except me, so I planted myself on the couch and realized that’s where the dogs like to be too, and I drew some more.
I also went for a walk…
It’s so light here, late at night, at 4 in the morning. I’ve been sleeping with a pillow over my head.
This drawing isn’t done. There’s a blank space in the top right. But another one popped into my head, so I started drawing it yesterday.
Also not done. Summer break has had some issues so far that make me feel like I’m somewhat out of whack, maybe even incompetent or out of of it, so working through that? In drawing?
Saw some friends last night…and this place…
Dumplings of Fury. Perfect.
So today is my friend’s son’s graduation party (she’ll tell you it’s her party), so we’re going to that. My niece will be showing up at some point to pick stuff up. We’re planning hikes for the next two days before it gets super hot here. Not sure what happens after that. Hikes? Touristy stuff? We’ll see.
Well today is already crazy and that will continue for a few days…I leave in a few hours for Seattle to hang with family and then the Man. My nephew is graduating high school, which is the ostensible reason for going, but it’s also nice to have a change of scenery in summer. This house needs so much work. I’ve filled so many green trashcans with weeds and trimming and there is so much more to do. Things keep breaking and needing a small tiny part and more hand strength than I have to fix them. That said, I have been making art and reading books for my sanity…plus making wontons, because I never have time during the school year and I like them. Actually, I think I like the sauce more and the wontons are just a delivery system.
I’m not fully packed yet, because some of my pants are in the sun drying right now. Although the Man fixed the dryer, the part has already failed, so yesterday’s laundry got put (late, unfortunately) out on the line…which used to fit by the garage but someone (me) needs to trim the bougainvillea for it to fit now.
Doordash was probably amused. Not me, the boychild. I’ve never doordashed.
So I’ll be packed in an hour, whether my jeans are dry or not. I’m also trying to finish a book, an actual physical thing, so I don’t have to take it with me. I have a 900-page book on the iPad for my airline perusing. I dropped the parentals at the airport earlier, stopped to get my labs done so my doc will stop bugging me, then picked up Katie (the parental dog) and all her crap and delivered it here, put a bunch of stuff away, dealt with the greenery trashcan, watered some (still need to do more). Yeah. It’s been a little chaotic. It’ll be fine. Although I have to wear my hiking boots through TSA and on the plane because they won’t fit in my luggage. The Man can’t fit his hiking poles; mine fold up into thirds and his only half. It’s OK…my brother has that shit in Seattle.
Change! It’s weird. Good and hard all at the same time.
I did get the quilt to where I wanted it…Friday afternoon, I finished up Venus and started on Earth.
Who is up here and upside down.
I haven’t honestly decided which way is up, although now that I’ve said that, y’all will chime in. Just know whatever decision I make will be because I see it, not because you’ve voiced it. I’m not one of those who does the whole art critique stuff or group decisions about my stuff. I have a vision in my head and when it slots in correctly, my brain tells me. Art Brain doesn’t care about the rest of it.
That’s a Mars Rover on her hand…
Saturday was an art meeting and then we wandered up to the Phes Gallery to see this show…
That is Dinah’s Green-Eyed Dog piece…
And this is Nancy Lemke’s piece…forgot to write names down. Wait, the internet is my friend…this is The New American Crucifix…
Yeah. Disturbing. It’s a good show in a nice space. I didn’t take many photos, oh well, you should go see it anyway. It’s open until July 9, I think. Check the website.
Then we came back and I ironed Mars…
Which left putting it all together on a background last night…
Yup. I like it. I’ll finish it the week I get back.
I’m taking my sketchbook and some stitching with me. Hoping to solidify a plan for the next piece, hopefully a big one. If not, I have some smaller drawings that are already numbered and could step in to be made until the big one materializes in my head. So many things to consider for the next one. Maybe it will be another conglomerate of topics.
I’ve been mindlessly appliqueing pieces from Sue Spargo…can’t remember the name of this block of the month…Forest or Tree something obviously.
It soothes me to do this.
This poppy pod was fascinating.
I may add it to a drawing.
Still waiting for the caterpillars to move in to the milkweed meadow we made.
Most grown from seed. I have more in the fridge to be planted in early August. They won’t self seed here…doesn’t get cold enough for long enough.
OK. I have 84 pages of this book to finish, lunch to eat, packing to finish, watering to finish, and then I’m out of here, leaving the cats and dogs and plants to the whims and vagaries of the men. I’m looking forward to seeing most of the fam (niece is at a dig somewhere in Oregon?) and getting some stitching, reading, and drawing time in without the pressures of being at home with a dryer that needs fixing and weeds that need pulling and neighbors yelling all the time. I will miss the dogs and cats and probably my bed, but also looking forward to hikes in all new places.
Kathy Nida 